For parents throughout New York, the beginning of September means the beginning of the school year, and few things are more important to a parent than keeping their children safe. However, there are a number of hazards they can encounter, both at home and at school, that can potentially result in injuries. Here are just a few steps you can take to ensure your child stays safe while going out to get their education:
- Be careful around school zones
- School zones are incredibly busy in the time immediately before school begins, and immediately after school ends. Children are boarding buses or trying to walk home, while parents may be trying to pick up their children. All of this hectic activity creates ample opportunity for children to get hurt, either being accidentally hit by one of the vehicles, or hurting themselves trying to get on or off a bus or car. That is why parents and children alike should be extra careful when in the road or parking lot immediately outside of a school.
- Make sure the playground is properly supervised
- One of the most common times that children are injured at school is, unsurprisingly, when they are playing at recess. Ensuring children are properly supervised when they are playing is important to keeping them safe, as well as ensuring they receive appropriate medical attention if they get hurt. In addition, you should make sure any play equipment at their school is safe, and make sure to report any issues with the equipment that you notice.
- Teach your children to stay safe when heading to school
- Obviously, you cannot follow your child to school to ensure they stay safe the whole time, which means teaching them ways to stay safe while they’re away. This includes teaching them to remain seated while on the school bus, as well as teaching them to obey the rules of the road if they are walking to and from school. The better acquainted your children are with these basic safety measures, the less likely they are to get hurt.
- Make sure your child’s backpack is appropriately packed
- A surprisingly common source of injury comes from backpacks, which are often overstuffed or improperly packed. When backpacks are overfilled or imbalanced, they can cause muscle strain that can result in chronic pain and other medical issues. That is why you should make sure to take advantage of all parts of a backpack, including side pockets, to keep it balanced and minimize the strain it causes for your children.
- Watch out for unsafe school supplies
- Ideally, school supplies should be safe for children to use (items that are specifically meant to be non-toxic for children are marked “CONFORMS TO ASTM D-4236” on their packaging). However, not all school supplies you can find are necessarily child safe, and even ones that are marked as such can turn out to have defects. Make sure you only buy child safe school supplies for young children, and be aware of any product recalls that impact supplies you have bought.
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