Injury & Incident Response: the full procedure

Define how staff assess an injury, give first aid only within current certification, call 911 for emergencies, notify parents promptly, document on an incident report, and report serious incidents to licensing.

• Applies to: All staff (first-aid/CPR-certified staff lead care).
• Frequency: Every injury or incident.
• Scope: Covers the operational response to injuries and incidents. All medical care defers to 911, EMS, medical professionals, and first-aid/CPR-certified staff acting only within their training.

What you need

• First-aid kit
• Emergency contact list
• Incident / accident report form
• Phone for 911
• Gloves & body-fluid cleanup supplies

The procedure, step by step

1. Ensure scene safety & assess — Quickly make the area safe, check the child, and gauge severity — minor, needs-attention, or life-threatening.
2. Call 911 first for emergencies — For severe or life-threatening injuries, call 911 immediately before contacting anyone else.
3. Give first aid within certification only — Provide only the first aid you are currently certified to give; certified staff lead, and care continues until EMS arrives.
4. Supervise the rest of the group — A second staff member keeps all other children safely supervised throughout the response.
5. Notify the parent promptly — Contact the parent/guardian as soon as the child is stable (after 911 for emergencies), describing what happened and the child’s status.
6. Document on an incident report — Record date, time, what happened, the injury, first aid given, and witnesses on the incident report; have the parent sign it.
7. Report serious incidents to licensing — Notify your state licensing agency of serious injuries or incidents within the required timeframe and method (a voicemail alone may not count).
8. Review & prevent — After the incident, review the cause, fix any hazard, and restock the first-aid kit.

Quality check before you finish

• At least one first-aid/CPR-certified staff on-site at all times.
• 911 called first for any severe or life-threatening injury.
• Care kept within each staff member’s current certification.
• Parent notified promptly and incident report signed.
• Serious incidents reported to licensing within the required window.
• Incident report fully completed with witnesses.
• First-aid kit restocked after each use.

This is a free, source-anchored standard operating procedure (SOP) you can print and hand to staff. It documents the work sequence for a Daycare Center business — not safety or regulatory rulings, which defer to the cited authorities, the applicable code, and your own health-and-safety plan. Open the tool above to print it, toggle ink-saver, or (with a free ToolFluency Business account) edit it to match your own workflow.

Sources

• American Red Cross / AHA — Pediatric First Aid & CPR (redcross.org)
• NY OCFS — Serious Incident Policy (20-01) (ocfs.ny.gov)
• Caring for Our Children / Virtual Lab School — When in Doubt, Dial 911 (virtuallabschool.org)