Thursday, October 20, 2005
If you are not already aware, the last legislative session in Minnesota has made changes to the rule concerning care passenger restraint systems training. You can read the requirement in original language, but the summary is that family providers and center staff that are licensed by the Dept. of Human Services are required to complete training on the proper use and installation of child restraint systems in motor vehicles prior to transporting a child under the age of nine. This needs to be a one hour training by a trainer who is certified by the Dept of Public Safety and be repeated at least once every five years. This rule goes into effect January 1st, 2006.
This change brings several questions to mind concerning liabilty and insurance issues, but I will leave those to people more knowledgable and better informed than I. My concern is that I have been hearing from providers that this is not an issue that concerns them because they do not transport children. In my child care program, I do not normally transport children myself. However, the potential exists (especially in rural Minnesota) that in case of emergency, without a helper or sub care, I may have to transfort children. An emergency situation such as this is not addressed in the rule and without the mandatory training, this transportation would make you out of compliance with your license requirements. For this reason, I strongly recommend that all family child care providers complete this training when offered before January 1st.
Though all the issues concerning implementation of this training has not yet been worked out, I would expect that we will start seeing this training offered in upcoming training schedules from the CCR&R in your area.
This change brings several questions to mind concerning liabilty and insurance issues, but I will leave those to people more knowledgable and better informed than I. My concern is that I have been hearing from providers that this is not an issue that concerns them because they do not transport children. In my child care program, I do not normally transport children myself. However, the potential exists (especially in rural Minnesota) that in case of emergency, without a helper or sub care, I may have to transfort children. An emergency situation such as this is not addressed in the rule and without the mandatory training, this transportation would make you out of compliance with your license requirements. For this reason, I strongly recommend that all family child care providers complete this training when offered before January 1st.
Though all the issues concerning implementation of this training has not yet been worked out, I would expect that we will start seeing this training offered in upcoming training schedules from the CCR&R in your area.
// posted by Tammy Wachter @ 8:48 PM 
