🍑 How Often Does DECAL Require Emergency Plans to Be Updated in Georgia Childcare Centers? 📘

Bright from the Start: The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) requires that a licensed childcare facility's comprehensive Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) Plan be reviewed and updated at least annually. This mandatory annual review ensures that the plan remains accurate, feasible, and compliant with all current state regulations (GA Code Chapter 20, Section A) and federal requirements (CCDF).

Beyond the annual administrative review, DECAL also requires that all staff be trained on the plan during their orientation and annually thereafter. This dual requirement—annual plan review and annual staff training—ensures that the procedures for evacuation, relocation, shelter-in-place, and reunification are current and practiced by every person in the facility.

🔑 The Mandate: Annual Review and Updating

The written EPR Plan is the most crucial document for protecting children during a disaster. In Georgia, licensing rules require the plan to cover a wide range of scenarios, including but not limited to severe weather, loss of utilities, medical emergencies, and external threats.

DECAL's Annual Requirement

While Georgia does not require providers to submit a new, entirely rewritten plan every year, the licensing rules necessitate a documented annual review:

Plan Review: The designated staff member (often the Director or a specific Emergency Coordinator) must formally review the entire EPR Plan annually to check for accuracy, completeness, and feasibility.
Documentation: The facility must maintain documentation showing that this review and update process took place, including the date of the review and any changes made.
Update as Needed: The plan must be updated immediately whenever a significant change occurs, such as:

A change in the facility's address or layout (which affects evacuation routes).
A change in the staff leadership or key emergency contact personnel.
A change in the off-site relocation site or reunification location.
Any regulatory update issued by DECAL or the state government (e.g., changes to required drill types).

The annual plan review is often monitored by a Child Care Services (CCS) Consultant during the facility's annual Licensing Study to ensure compliance.

🛠️ Components of the Comprehensive EPR Plan

To maintain compliance in Georgia, the plan must be specific to the facility and address all necessary components of emergency operations. Simply having a fire escape route is not sufficient.

Required Elements of the Plan

DECAL specifies that the written plan must contain detailed procedures for:

Evacuation: Step-by-step procedures for moving children and staff out of the building due to hazards like fire or gas leaks, identifying primary and secondary routes, and an assembly area.
Relocation: Protocols for moving children to a primary and secondary off-site location that is identified in advance and pre-arranged with the partner site.
Shelter-in-Place: Procedures for keeping children inside the facility during events like severe weather (tornado, lightning) or chemical spills, identifying the safest interior room.
Lock-Down: Procedures for securing the facility perimeter in response to an external threat (e.g., a dangerous person nearby).
Communication: A mechanism for notifying parents and guardians during and after an emergency, utilizing multiple channels (phone, email, text).
Reunification: Detailed plans for safely reuniting children with their authorized parents/guardians at the designated meeting point.
Continuity of Operations (COOP): Strategies for sustaining operations, including essential record-keeping (digital backups) and staffing needs during an extended closure.

The plan must also include specific accommodations for vulnerable populations, including infants and toddlers, children with disabilities, and children with chronic medical conditions.

🗓️ Annual Staff Training and Drill Requirements

A written plan is useless if staff don't know it. Therefore, Georgia mandates ongoing training and regular practice drills to ensure the plan can be executed immediately and effectively under stress.

Training Requirements

Staff training on the EPR Plan must occur:

Initial Employment: All new employees, substitutes, and volunteers must receive training on the plan at the time of initial employment (part of the Initial Program Orientation).
Annual Review: All facility persons must receive annual training on the entire emergency plan, documenting the date and the staff member's signature. This training should incorporate the specific updates made during the annual plan review.

Mandatory Drills

Regular practice is the only way to ensure safety. Georgia mandates specific drill frequencies that must be documented and kept on file for CCS consultant review:

Fire Evacuation Drills: Must be conducted and documented monthly.
Tornado Drills: Must be conducted and documented monthly from April through October (tornado season).
Lockdown Drills: Must be conducted and documented quarterly (at least every three months).

During drills, staff should practice methods for evacuating sleeping children and assisting children with special needs. This continuous practice is the most direct way a provider demonstrates compliance with the spirit and letter of the licensing law. Utilizing specialized training ensures staff are prepared for all aspects of emergency management: Emergency and Disaster Preparedness Training.

📝 Administrative Best Practices for Compliance

Compliance goes beyond checking boxes; it requires systematic administrative rigor. A facility that can instantly produce its complete, dated EPR plan and drill logs demonstrates professionalism and readiness.

Keys to Acing the Review

Centralize Documentation: Keep the complete, current EPR plan, along with all drill logs, training sign-in sheets, and parent communication records (showing the plan was shared), in a single, accessible binder or digital file.
Date Everything: Every page of the EPR Plan, every drill log, and every staff training sign-in sheet should be dated and signed. The date on the plan itself must reflect the last formal annual review.
Consult Local Officials: While not required, sharing your plan with your local fire department or county Emergency Management Agency (EMA) can ensure the plan's feasibility and demonstrate proactive best practice.
Use Templates for Completeness: Use a detailed checklist to ensure all required components are addressed in the plan, including the often-missed sections on reunification and continuity of operations: Emergency Preparedness Plan for Child Care Providers and Child Care Centers.

By prioritizing this systematic approach to documentation and training, providers can ensure compliance and, more importantly, guarantee that staff are prepared to protect children during a crisis. Understanding what every provider should know about readiness is key to this commitment: Emergency Preparedness in Child Care: What Every Provider Should Know.