ADA Compliance with Fire Drills

[Anonymous]

OP, I work in child care and have to say this is total BS on behalf of the center. A reasonable accommodation would be for the child to be picked up carried down the stairs during a fire drill. We have plenty of kids that need to picked up and carried - new walkers, slow toddlers, kids who are crying and freaking out about the noise of the fire drill. If it's too much for the teachers, then an administrator/receptionist/non-teacher should be assigned to come to the room to assist. Their other option is to move the classroom to the ground floor.
Also, despite what a PP proposed, your child does not need more PT to get better at walking, she needs time to develop and more practice walking.

Here's a link to some info on the ADA for child care providers.
https://www.ada.gov/childqanda.htm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I work in child care and have to say this is total BS on behalf of the center. A reasonable accommodation would be for the child to be picked up carried down the stairs during a fire drill. We have plenty of kids that need to picked up and carried - new walkers, slow toddlers, kids who are crying and freaking out about the noise of the fire drill. If it's too much for the teachers, then an administrator/receptionist/non-teacher should be assigned to come to the room to assist. Their other option is to move the classroom to the ground floor.
Also, despite what a PP proposed, your child does not need more PT to get better at walking, she needs time to develop and more practice walking.

Here's a link to some info on the ADA for child care providers.
https://www.ada.gov/childqanda.htm

OP here, thank you so much for your response. The DC has been reasonable and we set up a plan to get her upstairs. We will see how it goes with their fire drills, hopefully they'll do one shortly after she moves there.

[Anonymous]

Just an update, they moved her upstairs and she is doing great. They carry her downstairs and spend a majority of the outside time walking around with her. The other kids in her class are really independent so she gets a lot of 1on1 time. She even took her first independent steps a few days ago (at 2 years and 1 day).

[Anonymous]

Great news, OP! Thanks for the update!

[Anonymous]

I know that this was resolved, but +1 for having some sort of backpack or other carrier to aid in evacuation.