Tennessee Daycare Emergency Plan Requirements: Multi-Hazard Plans and Drills

What Tennessee Requires

Every licensed home daycare in Tennessee must have written emergency procedures posted clearly near the primary exit. This isn't a suggestion — licensing consultants check for it during both pre-licensing walk-throughs and every unannounced visit afterward.

The plan must be specific to your home. A generic template downloaded from the internet won't pass inspection if it doesn't reflect your actual layout, exit routes, and meeting points.

What Your Multi-Hazard Plan Must Cover

Fire evacuation: Map two exit routes from every room children use. Designate an outdoor meeting point far enough from the home that children are safe from smoke or structural failure — your mailbox, a neighbor's driveway, or a specific tree in the front yard. Every person in your home during operating hours needs to know both routes and the meeting point.

Severe weather shelter-in-place: Identify the safest interior room — typically a first-floor bathroom, closet, or interior hallway away from windows. Stock it with a flashlight, a battery-powered weather radio, and a first-aid kit. Plan how you'll move infants quickly (a rolling crib or a multi-child evacuation crib helps).

Medical emergency response: Document your procedure for calling 911, administering first aid, and notifying parents. Include the home's street address prominently — in an emergency, you need to give the dispatcher your location without hesitation. List the nearest hospital and urgent care facility with addresses.

Missing child protocol: The steps you take if a child cannot be located — immediate headcount, search of all rooms and outdoor areas, a clear 911 escalation step, and parent notification. This is a high-anxiety scenario and having written steps prevents panic-driven mistakes.

Power outage procedures: How you'll maintain safe conditions without electricity — lighting, heating or cooling depending on season, food safety, and communication with parents about early pickup if the outage is extended.

Intruder/lockdown procedures: How you'll secure the home if there's a threat outside. Lock all doors, move children to an interior room, call 911.

Posting and Accessibility

Post the emergency plan near your primary exit — the door you'd use for a fire evacuation. It should be visible to any adult in the home, including substitutes and parents. Most providers laminate theirs and mount it at adult eye height next to the front door.

In addition to the posted plan, keep a copy in your operations binder. Licensing consultants may ask to review the full document during inspections.

Practice and Documentation

Conduct monthly fire drills with the children present, and conduct at least one non-fire drill every six months. Document each drill with the date, time, number of children and adults participating, the exit route used, and the total evacuation time.

Include your severe weather procedure in a non-fire drill at least once every six months. If you care for infants, practice moving them quickly to the shelter-in-place location — this is the most physically demanding part of any emergency scenario and you need to know your limits.

Review and update your emergency plan whenever something changes: a new exit is added or blocked, you rearrange furniture that affects egress, you change your outdoor meeting point, or you add new staff who need orientation to the procedures.

The Tennessee Home Daycare Licensing Guide includes an emergency plan template tailored to Tennessee home daycare licensing requirements, with fill-in sections for your specific layout, exit routes, and contact information.

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