Child Care Emergency Preparedness

In Missouri, emergencies are associated with weather events such as ice storms, snow storms, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes. Other types of emergencies that may impact child care providers include fires, electrical outages, and car/van accidents. On May 22, 2011, the community of Joplin was struck by one of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in American history. Among the devastation, 19 child care centers were destroyed and eight others were badly damaged leaving families in child care crisis. Missouri child care licensing rules require providers to have an emergency preparedness plan. Child care programs that have emergency/disaster plans are better able to react, protect, and respond to the needs of those involved. 

Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Online Training

The Office of Childhood offers a training on emergency preparedness in early childhood programs through the Missouri Professional Development (MOPD) system. The training is available for a small fee and is approved to meet the department's annual clock hour training requirement. Use the "Search Training Events" feature in MOPD with the trainer name "DESE" to find this and other approved clock hour courses. 

The emergency preparedness training is designed to increase awareness of disasters and emergencies should they occur in your area and to assist you in developing a written plan specifically for your facility on how you would respond to these events to meet the department's licensing rules.

Additional Information

The below information may be of use to early childhood and school age providers in preparing for an emergency or responding to a disaster.