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A common concern, and legal obligation, daycare directors have is ensuring the staff is providing adequate supervision of children at all times. The outside play time presents some especially interesting challenges both physically and mentally. The alert director will expect to make random visits to the play area to see how supervision is routinely handled. The director should expect, from time to time, to spend an entire play session with a class to see how the staff members respond to the physical environment and to see how the staff is interacting with the children and each other.

Quality supervision can quickly disappear during outside time for the following 7 reasons.

1. Teachers sometimes get involved in chatting with other staff members or parents. They, like the children, can be lulled into feeling that outside of the classroom is free-play time. They can absently mindedly be so engrossed in catching up on the latest gossip, or conducting an impromptu parent conference that they actually turn their bodies away from the play area they are to be supervising. They may even think this is satisfactory if they are talking about school issues or counseling parents.

2. Sometimes teachers view outside playtime as a mini-break from the confinement of the classroom. It's an ideal time to make a quick cell phone call or send a quick text message. They may even feel it's satisfactory to excuse themselves from the playground to go to the office to phone a parent, thus ignoring mandated teacher and child supervision ratios. When an accident happens, or when a child goes missing, teachers often report that they thought their co-worker was watching. In the meantime, who is responsible for supervising the children? The answer is: we all are.

3. Teachers may be unaware of potential dangers on a playground. For example, broken glass to get cut on, unlatched gates to slip through, broken playground equipment, or strangers too interested in children at play. Before children are released into the playground, it is essential that the staff have a routine in place to check out the equipment and all the surroundings.

4. Teachers may avoid telling a director about security concerns for fear of losing the outside space even temporarily, or having to change their usage schedule. Or, worse yet, perhaps having to share time and space with another class. This can mean security issues, such as broken equipment, are not addressed in a timely manner.

5. Teachers may not feel comfortable implementing the school's safety policy. Outside play for climbing and running require appropriate clothing. Not wanting conflict with parents or children, a teacher may allow children to use flip-flops instead of rubber soled shoes for outside play or go barefoot. A teacher may ignore a child with clothing that encumbers movement. It may mean a teacher bends to a parent's request to overlook a safety issue. Whatever the reason for discomfort, a teacher needs to find a way to meet these challenges.

6. Teachers may fail to provide important information to the director for fear of facing disciplinary action. Examples of this could be strangers repeatedly approaching the group in an unnatural manner, or reporting a child who has been "taught" at home to play hide and seek as a fun game to play with the teachers. However insignificant it may seem at the time, directors need to have this information on record; and teachers need to feel comfortable sharing this information with the director without fear of reprisal.

7. Teachers may not have received routine training on handling emergencies on the playground. When an emergency comes up, the emergency may not be handled efficiently and/or the remaining children may not receive proper supervision. The best defense against this is training regarding how to handle physical injuries, and how to handle a missing child. Who does what and when?

The director should share with staff members any concerns parents and community members have noted regarding the supervision of children. If done in an educational tone rather than a disciplinary tone, the staff will come to understand that all daycare workers, licensed and unlicensed, have a legal responsibility to continually work on proper supervision.