Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/playground-safety-and-standards-of-care/5021936/
There is much more to playground safety than meets the eye . . . and ears! In my career in playground safety I’ve continuously heard some upsetting comments like:• “We were told our playground was safe because it passed inspection!”
• “Our playground is new, so it’s safe, right?”
Well, we all want the children to be safe on the playground. But getting to that point is another story.
State inspectors tell me they only check for items on their checklist and those are minimum requirements set by the state; you can exceed those rules if you’d like. And you had best like to do that, because oftentimes dozens of hazards go undetected. Unidentified hazards are injuries waiting to happen. More on this in a moment.
Safety Standards
The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) publishes national playground safety standards for public use playgrounds (which does not mean publicly ‘owned’; it’s the ‘use’ by the public’s children that is key). The standards that apply to child care centers are the F1487, F2373, F1292, F2049 to name just a few. These are available for purchase at www.astm.org.
The Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) publishes national playground safety guidelines for public use playgrounds called “Public ...