Playgrounds are great places to nurture children's physical and social development. However, they are also the most common location for injuries in early childhood programs. Use these resources to learn about safety guidelines and best practices for maintaining safe playgrounds.

Playground Safety Tips for Early Childhood Programs
This webinar focuses on how to prevent injuries by taking steps to make your playground a safer place. Learn how to create outdoor play areas that minimize risk and maximize opportunities for learning and play. 

Playground Safety Poster
Use the tips on this poster to keep children safe on the playground.

Keep Children Safe Using Active Supervision
Explore these resources to learn more about using active supervision in early childhood settings, including playgrounds.

Preventing Injuries in Early Childhood Programs
Take this free course that will help you make your early childhood program a safe place for children to grow, learn, and explore.

Supporting Outdoor Play and Exploration for Infants and Toddlers
This paper explores the benefits of outdoor time in early childhood settings. It also has suggestions for creating safe play spaces and policies.

Nature-based Learning and Development
Watch this video series to plan successful nature-based activities.

Explore resources from other organizations that focus on playground safety:

Public Playground Safety Handbook
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Handbook for Public Playground Safety is a detailed blueprint for building safe playgrounds. This handbook includes technical safety guidelines for designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining public playgrounds. There is also a Public Playground Safety Checklist that highlights some of the most important safety issues for parents and community groups.

Providing a Safe Outdoor Environment
This lesson from the Virtual Lab School describes how to keep infants and toddlers safe in outdoor environments. Explore Providing a Safe Environment Indoors and Outdoors to learn about safe environments and how to enforce safety rules for preschool-age children. You can use the Sample Playground Checklist to identify outdoor safety hazards.

National Program for Playground Safety
Explore this website to find resources on playground safety topics. Use the Find a Playground Inspector tool to locate someone who can inspect for proper zoning, durability of equipment, proper surfacing materials, compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, developmental appropriateness, and safe environmental conditions.

National Program for Play Area Safety
Visit this website to find research on safe playgrounds. Learn more about becoming certified to inspect outdoor play areas in early childhood settings for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Play area inspectors inspect the playground’s physical layout for safety and supervision concerns, age appropriateness, hazards, equipment specifications, surfacing requirements, accessibility, maintenance concerns, safety of individual parts (including loose parts), and other concerns.

Safety Checklists
This webpage includes links to several playground safety checklists, including the Active Play Safety Checklist & Planning Tool and Daily & Monthly Playground Maintenance Form.

Health and Safety Checklist
Use this tool to assess key health and safety standards and identify ways to improve health and safety in early childhood programs. The checklist is user friendly and easy to understand. It also has links to the Caring for Our Children standards and other related resources.

Playground Information to Use with the Environment Rating Scales
These guidelines provide a basic overview of how to score playground and safety items in the Environment Rating Scales. This resource includes helpful information about age-appropriate equipment.

Child Care Weather Watch
Use this chart to identify safe weather conditions for outdoor play.

LET’S GET OUTSIDE! Providers
This resource has suggestions for enhancing outdoor spaces in early childhood settings through low-cost improvements and programming.

Playground Safety
Review publications, infographics, webinar recordings, and other resources from the Children’s Safety Network.

Playground Safety Toolkit
Prevent Child Injury has fact sheets, infographics, social media messages, and newsletter articles to share with families.

Caring for Our Children Chapter 6: Play Areas/Playgrounds and Transportation
These national standards represent best practices for quality health and safety policies and practices. You can use this checklist to evaluate the safety of your playground.

ASTM F355 – 10a Standard Test Method for Impact Attenuation of Playing Surface Systems and Materials
ASTM International develops standards for materials, products, and more. Designers, program directors, and members of an agency’s facilities planning team can use this method to test the properties of playing surface systems and materials.

Bike Helmets and Multi-sport Helmets: Quick-Fit Check
Use this easy three-point check to test for a proper helmet fit.

Last Updated: March 27, 2025