Can Providers Help Prevent Deaths of Children Left in Cars?

We'll all heard heartbreaking stories of children who have died after parents unknowing left them locked in their car.

What could family child care providers do to reduce such incidents?

When a child does not show up on a day you were expecting her, what do you do? Do you always call the parent to find out why? Do you sometimes do this?

I think it's a good idea to always call the parent to reduce the chance that they might have forgotten to drop off their child and left the child in their car.

Should you put in your policies or contract that you will always call the parent if the child doesn't show up?

No!

Putting in your contract/policies that you will call the parent creates an additional responsibility for you that will also increase your risk of a lawsuit. If the parent expects you to remind them about dropping off their child, they may start to rely on you and not pay close attention to their own responsibility. Let's say you forget to call the parent and the child dies in the car. The parent may claim that you did not follow your own policies by not calling them and therefore you are partly to blame for the child's death!

So, you can have your own internal non-written policy that you will call parents who don't drop off children when they are supposed to. Just don't promise the parent, either verbally or in writing, that you will do so.

How do you handle situations where a parent doesn't show up with their child when they are supposed to?

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mujitra/3900472300