Prepare Your Workplace
Childcare Provider
Is your child care program ready for a disaster?
Seattle Office of Emergency Management is currently conducting a multi-stage research project to determine best practices for child care provider outreach. You can read about our project below.
If you work for or volunteer at a child care center and want to learn more about preparedness for your program, you can find older resources and training curriculum below. We anticipate that our new resources and curriculum will be available in Summer of 2017.
In 2016, Seattle Office of Emergency Management set a goal of ensuring that licensed child care providers within the city limits were better prepared for disasters and emergencies. Based on Washington State Administrative Code (WAC) compliance reports, spanning from 2012-2016 provided by the Department of Education and Early Learning, Seattle OEM has created an emergency 
preparedness rating system for licensed child care providers. The system is comprised of ten standards of emergency preparedness out of a total of nineteen standards that all providers must meet under Safety & Environment licensing requirements. Points are awarded for each standard based on compliance.
The point-based scoring system provided a clear numerical picture of the current state of readiness of child care providers within the city. In total, 190 licensed providers were assigned preparedness scores. Using a sample of eighteen providers, 6 of whom scored the highest, 6 whom have a median score of 5, and six whom scored the lowest) a survey will be conducted. The survey will seek to uncover the challenges impeding child care providers from meeting emergency preparednes standards. Phase II will convene stakeholders from across government, the community, and the child care industry to create an equitable, comprehensive, and succinct survey to uncover the possible causes of providers' failure to prepare across the city.
To read the full 2016 Child Care Provider Readiness Report, click here.
Additional Project Resources:
You can download the beta version of our updated provider training by clicking the photo below.
Child Care Provider Disaster Planning Presentation
*Please note that this is not a finalized version of materials and we do not recommend that your center utilize this draft training to prepare your center.
Businesses are an important part of our community. If our businesses are prepared with a current business continuity plan, the impacts of a disaster on the local economy will be lessened. Statistics show that businesses not open within a few days following a disaster have a much higher chance of going out of business permanently compared to those who have planned and prepared. Staying in business after a disaster will be key to making a full recovery. Community based organizations also provide vital services that residents rely on. Keeping these services available is critical to successful community recovery. It is also important that workplaces have the appropriate plans and procedures in place to keep employees and customers safe during an emergency.
OEM's Workplace Preparedness Guide provides important tips on developing life safety procedures and business continuity strategies. The guide includes easy to follow tip sheets, links to videos and planning tools, and fillable forms for documenting important contact information and continuity strategies.
Download Workplace Preparedness Guide PDF with Fillable Forms
The Seattle Office of Emergency Management provides free training on Workplace Preparedness. You can request a training for your workplace by filling out our online request form.
Other Resources
The Insurance Institute for Business Safety has a great web site with a free toolkit and training videos to help small businesses develop business disaster and recovery plans. http://www.disastersafety.org/open-for-business/
FEMA's Ready Business program provides a series of useful resources: www.ready.gov/business.