Playground Safety
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) every year in the United States, emergency departments treat more than 200,000 children, 14-years of age and younger for injuries at playgrounds. This is equivalent to 22 children injured every hour for injuries that are 100% preventable. Most injuries on playgrounds among children are falls. While most happen at public and school playgrounds, the more severe injuries occur at home. Injuries include scrapes and cuts, but more sever are concussion and broken bones. Falls are most common from swings and slides, usually from the lack of proper adult supervision, improper playground surface and lack of maintenance. To help prevent such injuries home playgrounds must have appropriate landing surfaces under and up to 6-feet around the playground, recommended at least 12-inches thick (sand, engineered wood fiber, or gravel). In addition, when shopping for surfacing, be aware of the types of surfaces, what they are made of and are free of environmental hazards. The Health Schools Network, Inc. provides recommendations that include playgrounds and toxic threats for playground surfaces.
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Playground Age Groups
Playgrounds are designed for specific age groups. Including, 6-months to 23-months, 2 to 5-years and 6 to 12 years. These are designed to accommodate age-appropriate size and developmental ability of the child. Not using the playground equipment as intended can cause severe harm to the child as well as affect the structural integrity of the playground equipment for other children. So always follow age recommendations.
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Supervision and Child's Clothing
Before using any playground, it is important that an adult who will supervise the children check the playground area and equipment for safety. In addition, children must not wear loose clothing, clothing with drawstrings and especially clothing with hoods. In addition, no jewelry, scarves, opened-toed shoes, long or loose shoelaces, or bike helmets. These items can easily catch on equipment causing strangulation.
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S.A.F.E. Playground Rating Scale: An assessment tool for parents and caregivers
For newly installed playground equipment, it is recommended to check with your local city or county building department to make sure it is installed properly to meet state and local building safety requirements. Assessing playground equipment is ongoing. A new playground set will deteriorate overtime with use and being exposed to hot and cold weather conditions. A homeowner must check regularly for rust, broken or loose parts, splinters in wood, cracks, holes, protruding bolts, etc. Further, the surface condition, especially under slides, swings, stairs and climbers, can change with regular use as children jumping and pushing the surface material around. This needs to be checked and often smoothed out for safety. The National Program for Playground Safety (NPPS) recommends using S.A.F.E. to assess the safety of playgrounds. Answer each question below by totaling the number of "Yes" answers and apply to the scoring report card at the end. You can also see Report Cards based on how the NPPS has ranked school and community playgrounds in your state by using the S.A.F.E. evaluation you can use on your playground below.
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Supervision1. Are adults actively watching children on equipment?
2. Can children be seen easily on equipment? 3. Can children be seen in crawl spaces? 4. Are playground rules and expected behavior posted? |
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Age-Appropriate5. Does the playground have separate areas for ages 2-5 and 6-12?
6. Are there signs indicating age-appropriate for use of equipment? 7. Do platforms have appropriate guardrails? 8. Do platforms allow a change of direction to get on/off structure? 9. Is there signage or labels on equipment for use of age group? 10. Is playground access designed to prevent climbing outside the structure? |
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Fall Surface11. Is there soft surface material on the ground under playground?
12. Is there at least 6-feet of soft surface materials surrounding equipment? 13. Is height of all playground equipment 8-feet or lower? 14. Are concrete footings covered with soft cushion? 15. Is there at least 12-inches in depth of loose fill under equipment? 16. Is playground free of any foreign objects (i.e. glass or litter)? |
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Equipment Maintenance17. Is equipment free of rust?
18. Is equipment free of protruding bolts? 19. Is equipment free of any gaps? 20. Is equipment free of missing parts? 21. Is equipment free of head entrapment? 22. Is equipment free of broken parts? 23. Is equipment free of any splinters in wood? 24. Is equipment free of cracks or holes? |
Playground Report Card Scoring
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To score, add the number of "Yes" answers and apply total grade according to the Playground Safety Report Card. Make appropriate modifications to the playground to fix "No" answers. Download and print the Playground Safety Report Card to assess the safety of your home, school or community playground.
Questions, call 323-491-6197
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