In this episode, we talk with Andrew Roszak, an international expert in disaster preparedness and emergency management, specializing in early childhood settings. Andrew shares insights from his journey, starting as a firefighter and paramedic to becoming an attorney and advocate for safety in schools and childcare centers. He provides practical advice for early childhood education professionals on how to prepare for various emergencies, from natural disasters to cybersecurity threats, and sheds light on how to conduct drills without traumatizing young children.
What You’ll Learn:
- The Importance of Preparedness: Why creating safe spaces in early childhood settings is essential and how gaps in preparedness can impact the well-being of children.
- Types of Emergencies and Threats: From natural disasters like tornadoes and wildfires to modern-day challenges such as cybersecurity threats, Andrew discusses the wide range of emergencies childcare centers need to prepare for.
- Age-Appropriate Emergency Drills: How to implement emergency preparedness drills that are age-appropriate, non-traumatizing, and effective, with specific strategies to reduce fear while teaching crucial safety skills.
- Cybersecurity in Childcare Settings: Understanding the rise of cyber threats against childcare facilities and why centers need to safeguard their digital infrastructure.
- Tips for Educators and Administrators: Practical, low-cost steps that childcare professionals and administrators can take today to improve safety, including the use of familiar games to practice drill skills and the importance of clear communication.
- Books by Andrew Roszak:
- Institute for Childhood Preparedness: Website
- Free Online Training Resources: Courses covering emergency preparedness, cybersecurity, and more, available on the Institute’s website.
About Our Guest:
Andrew Roszak, JD, MPA, EMT-P, is the Executive Director of the Institute for Childhood Preparedness. With a background as a paramedic, firefighter, attorney, and emergency preparedness advisor, Andrew’s expertise lies in helping schools and childcare centers plan and train for various emergencies. His dedication to creating safe learning environments has made him a leader in the field of early childhood safety.
Interview Transcript
Emily Garman: Welcome to Early Childhood Chapters, a podcast from Gryphon House books. I'm happy to welcome Andrew Roszak from the Institute for Childhood Preparedness. Andy is an international consultant and speaker on all things disaster preparedness, with a focus on early childhood education. So schools, childcare centers, family childcare. He's written three books for Gryphon House so far: Preschool Preparedness for an Active Shooter, Preschool Preparedness for an Emergency, and Preschool Preparedness After a Disaster.
Andy, thank you for being with us here on Early Childhood Chapters. I'm so curious about your career. You have a lot of letters after your name and how this all brought you to where you are today. So you're an attorney. You also worked as an EMT, and all those other letters, I'm not sure what they stand for. So all of these experiences, how did they bring you to where you are today with the Institute of Childhood Preparedness?
Andrew Roszak: Well. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Of course. Big fan of the podcast and all things that Gryphon House is doing publishing wise. Luckily, I happen to be sitting here with the three books, which is amazing, right? Just happened to be sitting next to me.
I'm coming to you from a conference today and in South Padre, Texas. So just finished up a session and that's what we're doing. But, yeah, certainly an interesting career path. Not something I had planned at all. I started off as a firefighter, a firefighter paramedic in the Chicagoland area, and did that for almost a decade.
And, after I left the fire department, I thought it would be interesting to go to law school. So I’m one of the few firefighter paramedics turned attorney out there, and just had a really interesting career path. Again, nothing planned. I've been very fortunate to know a lot of really creative and inspirational folks across the spectrum over the years. I worked for the United States Senate for a few years.
I worked for the Illinois Department of Public Health. I was the Senior Preparedness Advisor supporting the Super Bowl in Indianapolis. I worked in the administration for President Obama at, at HHS for a while. Just kind of on and on and honestly about, gosh, it's been almost a decade now. In 2015. You know, I've always had a kind of a special place in my heart for children and pediatric issues.
And quite honestly, Emily, it's one of the areas that doesn't get as much attention as you might think, and certainly is necessary and it's warranted. And I started working in early childhood education, and I was just fascinated by the drive and the compassion and just how much this this really makes a difference in the lives of our kids.
And then, of course, they eventually grow up to be and what I, I kind of had already, you know, already known was a gap, but just didn't understand kind of the breadth of it was that we aren't as prepared as we need to be. And that's no reflection on anybody. Look, I don't expect an early childhood professional to know all the ins and out of firefighting and emergency management and law enforcement and all that.
That's not fair. Right? But what I kind of have found throughout the years is that the resources that are out there, the templates that are out there, the guidance that is given, is oftentimes just not comprehensive enough. And I get worried as a first responder when programs aren't prepared, I get certainly worried as an attorney when we're not legally prepared.
And quite honestly, I get worried as a parent. I've got a three year old and a nine month old, and I want to make sure that they're safe and all their friends are safe, too. So kind of those three things really drove my my passion and my interest in early childhood education. And it's just been a fascinating field.
So, so humbled and so happy to be working in it. I met so many outstanding people over the years. And I honestly, I wouldn't trade it for the world. It's some really great people that are doing some phenomenal work, and I just wish that we would collectively get the credit and the funding to go along with really realizing the importance and how much of a difference this does make in a child's life.
And then, you know, of course, getting a good quality start really sets us on a trajectory to do great later in life. So, yeah, I don't know, not really, an easy answer on how my path led me here, but, I've always had a great time. I worked with the 3100 local health departments through the National Association of County and City Health officials doing emergency preparedness and disaster and pandemic planning for many years.
And oftentimes at the health department, we would always have a conversation about kind of the bookends of society. And by the bookends, I mean, the very old and the very young. And just looking at some of the disparities that happened in some of the times that we forget about those bookends of society because the needs are just so, so, so different, compared to, say, a high school student or a college student, or an adult.
So I'm just really happy to be able to be in this field and make a difference and try to carry that passion with me, as much as I could, to reflect all the wonderful providers I've met throughout the years.
Emily Garman: Talk to me a little bit about the kind of disasters and emergencies we're talking about. I think about the things that when I was in school, we prepared for fires. We did the duck and cover under our desks. I live in Oklahoma, so it was tornadoes. Lots of tornado drills. But there are a lot of different things today, aren't there, that our kids are dealing with and that our teachers and and childcare centers are dealing with. So what are some of these disasters that you help people prepare for?
Andrew Roszak: Yeah, I mean, sadly, I kind of think about the good old days and just how simple things were. Obviously all those things that you mentioned haven't gone away, right? We still have fires, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, all those kind of events that do continue to happen. You know, it is interesting, and I don't want to get into politics, but we know when the oceans get warmer and things change that can lead to even greater disasters.
And I think we've certainly seen an uptick in wildfires over the recent years. We've certainly seen the strength and the frequency of hurricanes becoming stronger and more frequent due to the rising temperatures we have in the seas. And if we kind of look to the future, those are going to become more and more common. So still kind of got those basic, you know, fires, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes that are happening.
And then unfortunately, we're seeing a bunch of new threats, new and emerging things that I know as a child, I didn't have to deal with, like active shooters. And you've seen the numbers of active shooters and mass shootings in the United States just, gosh, go up, up, up. I mean, we had roughly around 420 in 2019. And then, you know, once Covid hit, we saw those numbers, along with a lot of other crime numbers, dramatically increase to where we're having 600, 700 mass shootings of events every year and mass shootings, I mean, you know, four or more people shot. If you look at 2022 or 2023, I mean, every week that went by, we had, you know, at least four mass shootings in the United States. So that was something that certainly was never on my radar as a child. And I'm very sad, especially being a parent, that that's on the minds of parents nowadays. And of course, some of the children as well.
So that's a new an emerging threat that sadly, is kind of a USA specific problem. But what we're also seeing is as the digital footprint increases, so do the criminals, right? They're always looking for opportunities of convenience and opportunities to make an easy, quick buck. And one of the new courses that we've been developing is a cybersecurity course. We've piloted it with child care in Virginia with Louisiana, Louisiana Department of Education, out in California and all over the place. And it's been very well received. An interesting study happened, and it kind of caught my eye that last year in the United Kingdom, one out of every four child care programs or nurseries were actually the victim of cyber crime. And, you know, you think about, wow, what in the world are they coming after us for?
But it's because, again, they're looking for victims that are easy. And they recognize that Andy's Daycare is not going to have the same kind of security and IT and infrastructure, as, you know, Bank of America or something like that. So these criminals are seeking to exploit those vulnerabilities, to gain access to our infrastructure, our computing networks, and use our computing powers for malicious things. And that's another emerging trend that we are seeing as well.
Emily Garman: In terms of the disasters and the things that we do prepare kids for in school, you've got a three year old. I have a nine year old. How do we as teachers and also then as parents have our kids participating in these drills for these really horrible things that could happen, without just really terrifying and traumatizing them when we need them to be prepared?
Andrew Roszak: It's a really terrifying situation. And I will say if, if not done correctly, it can be a very traumatizing situation too. And I spend a lot of time, of course, on this in the Preschool Preparedness for an Active Shooter book. And certainly when I'm at venues such as the conference here today, talking with programs, working directly at programs to make sure that when we're doing our drills, that we're doing so in an age appropriate way.
I mean, I have done this for a living for a decade or so and, you know, look, my three year old does not know the words active shooter and I am 100% okay with that. So, there's a lot of things that we can do in emergency preparedness to get ourselves ready to teach children the proper techniques, to practice as staff without needlessly scaring anybody.
And, I appreciate the programs that do take the time and the care to do that. The nice thing that we have going for us, Emily, is that, you know, we all work with children, we have a lot of imagination, and a lot of folks are way more creative and imaginative than I am. And we encourage programs to think about ways that we can get the goals of our drills accomplished, with the way that a child can relate to.
So something real simple, you know, a game of hide and seek, right? Can help you accomplish some of those those things that we would need to do in the event of an armed intruder or an active shooter. So it's kind of looking at those opportunities where we can we can practice what we need to practice. But again, we have to be really cautious on our word choice, making sure we're never doing unannounced drills, making sure everybody knows that a drill is coming and what we're going to do when we talk about that as adults beforehand, to make sure that our drills are, you know, carefully crafted not to inflict any damage.
My tagline is don't be scared, be prepared. And I don't think that adults and certainly not children, I don't think that's a good learning environment when you're scared to death. So we've got to be very cautious about doing this. Again, relating that the things that kids already know, and then really making sure that we are doing so in an age appropriate way, or that we're not causing any kind of, you know, adverse childhood experience or psychological harm or anything of that nature.
Emily Garman: You've been doing this for a long time and working with schools and childcare centers. What are some of the common mistakes that you see? So people listening might think, well, I don't even know if I'm prepared in my childcare center or my school. What are common mistakes that you see really frequently that our listeners could think about addressing?
Andy Roszak: Well, let's be honest, we've had a massive challenge in many sectors, have had a massive challenge, but we have had an even more massive challenge with our staffing, right. And our retention, our recruitment. It's very, very hard in early childhood across the spectrum.
Right now, as I travel coast to coast, it's not just Illinois or Michigan or an Idaho problem. It truly is nationwide, where folks are having a very difficult time recruiting and then retaining staff. The latest numbers I saw, and they've been dated now for a few years, but it was about 40% annual turnover. That was before the pandemic.
You know, now some of the conversations I've had and some of the the raw data, I mean, we're talking about 60, 65% annual turnover. So we're always in this training mode. And I know it's a difficult time when we're just trying to get down and make ratio every day and try to keep our classrooms open, and that's the reality.
Sadly, for many of our programs, many of our leaders, many of our directors, what we find is that, look, if I'm just struggling to get my classroom open every single day, then I'm not having that time in that space. And I need to be the leader and to think about things and manage my organization and lead my organization and do all those important things.
So kind of with that is, the backdrop, sadly, that we're working against, I will say a couple real simple things that you can do. First off, make sure you have those discussions with your new staff. If you've got a new employee, a substitute, a new bus driver or a janitor or facilities member or a maintenance person, anybody that's in your program make sure that they have a plan and they know what to do, because unlike other areas, we really need all adults we can during an emergency, right?
So making sure that we include everybody in the building is very important. The other thing I would think about is going really, really back to basics. You know, most 911 calls now in this country are made via cell phone. The limitations we have with a cell phone 911 call is that we don't always get your exact address like we do if you would call from a landline phone. So something that sounds really simple, but I promise you, if you go around and ask the employees at your childcare program, about 40% to 50% of them are not going to know the address of your building. And that's a real issue. In case you do have to call 911, because the first thing we're going to need to know is who are you and where you're at to send help.
So know your address. That's something you can do. Cost effective. All the stuff I'm talking about doesn't cost anything. The other thing to think about is we do fire drills every single month. 85% of Americans have never taken the fire extinguisher off the wall. So you think about all these fire drills we do. That's great. But if there's a small fire and we have the opportunity to put it out with an extinguisher, and you've never practiced getting the fire extinguisher off the wall, and if you can't even get it off the wall, you probably don't know how to pull the pin and aim and the nozzle and squeeze and sweep and all this stuff that we also have to do. That's really low hanging fruit that we can look at too.
So know your address. Know the fire extinguisher locations in the building know how to get them off the wall, know how to work them. Buying stuff doesn't equal being prepared. So just because you go out and buy walkie talkies and lock them up in the director's office doesn't mean that you're more prepared. We have to get those out. We have to practice them. We have to use them every single day and integrate them into our operations.
Because the big key with all this is during an emergency or disaster, our brain goes haywire. Right? All that epinephrine that's pumping through and all this stuff you kind of get. I mean, science has proven you get a little bit dumb when you're in a stressful situation.
So we're scared. We're nervous. We're a little bit dumber than we normally are. We fall back on what's familiar to us. Right? So if you have a walkie talkie and your plan is to use that in an emergency, then you need to practice that every day, because the time to learn how to use the fire extinguisher, the time to learn how to use the walkie talkie, you don't have time during an emergency to do that.
So I would say that's another big thing that you can do. And then probably the last one I would say is too often I see the drills being done the same way every single month. So switch them up, right? I love to have a game where we pretend that the manager, the owner, the director, whoever is normally in charge. Guess what? We pretend that they're out shopping that day, or they're on vacation that day, or they're sick that day. And let's see how the number two person or the number three person that's in charge of the program does in a real situation. It's a really good way to provide some staff development, to provide some upward mobility here and put somebody actually in the shoes of the director or owner.
But it's also a really good way to evaluate your emergency plan, because it gives you a set of fresh eyes and, you know, if you're the owner and you always do the drills, well, you have somebody else step in and do the drills, maybe they'll notice things that you never noticed or you never thought about or you overlooked.
So those are all really simple ways to kind of, you know, just enhance your emergency preparedness. Again, none of them cost you a dime. But it's little things like that that we can do that can make our programs more prepared and help identify some of those gaps or some of those, vulnerabilities that we may have that we, again, may not know or may just kind of glance over.
Emily Garman: What would you recommend for an individual teacher or a person who's got a small room in a daycare center or childcare center if they feel that they want to do a little bit more than than their administration is doing in terms of preparedness, you've named a couple of great things. You know, knowing the address, having the understanding of how to use the fire extinguisher.
But as a as a teacher in a classroom, what are some things that I could do to make sure that I'm extra prepared to help my students in the event of any one of a number of these emergencies that can happen?
Andrew Roszak: That's a great question, and something we often talk about in our classes. We call it owning the risk. So who owns the risk? And you know, I think the problem to some degree is sometimes it really depends on that program's leadership. I mean, as you've seen and heard through other, you know, podcasts and other channels, like if you have somebody at that center at that program that's a leader and is involved and is passionate and makes this a priority, that's going to flow down and that's going to be an organizational type of culture.
We talk a lot about creating a culture of safety, a culture of preparedness, these types of in fact, I just gave a whole session on that here. So, you know, one of the things we talk about is who owns the risk. So recognizing that you as a teacher may not have the decision authority. You don't have the budget.
You don't have the decision authority to say, I want new locks on every door in this building, or I want to buy, cameras for my facility, or I want to put fingerprint readers at the doors or whatever your idea is to help secure your facility. You probably don't have the authority or the ability to weigh in on those decisions.
That's okay. You got to realize the risk that you do own. So in that classroom, you are the expert. So I want you to look at everything from arranging your furniture in a way that makes it easier for you to barricade your doors in the event of an active shooter to something simple as knowing your exit routes, you know we should always have one, two, hopefully three different ways.
And the amount of times I go into programs--I mean, it literally was just in one a few weeks ago where teachers have worked in classrooms for, you know, five, ten, 15 years and have never tried a secondary or a tertiary exit is kind of astonishing. You know, I just had one that they had this beautiful fire escape window and it was, you know, meant to be used as an escape.
But unfortunately, this this program had undergone some renovation, and they had painted the place and it looked absolutely beautiful. But when I was there, I said, you know what? We're going to try this escape window. And quickly we realized they had painted the windows shut during the renovations. So it's something silly like that. But I'd rather you identify that issue, you know, ahead of time than heaven forbid, your life depend on it.
You can't open that escape window because it was painted shut six weeks ago. So really taking that ownership of, this is my classroom. I'm going to know what to do. I'm going to practice it with my kids. I'm going to lay out my furniture in a way that makes the most sense for escaping and barricading.
And then, you know, I think we also kind of get lost in this conception that we can only do emergency preparedness that one time a month when we do the drill. No. Absolutely not. Preparedness can take you just a couple of minutes. Practice before the kids come in for the day. Do that lock down drill. Make sure you know how to secure your doors. Make sure you know how to barricade your doors. Make sure you know how to cover your windows. Make sure you review where your hiding spots are. Make sure you look at your exit routes. These are all things that you can personally own the risk on. And that way you have a plan and you know what to do.
And you don't have to wait on the owner or the director, whoever, to do all these things with you. So I trying to get kind of out of that mindset where everything's reliant on the owner or leader or manager or whatever you want to call them, and having some of that personal responsibility or accountability is good. You know, we often talk about even just evacuation, right?
So if we have to evacuate in the event of an emergency, heaven forbid, a gas leak, active shooter or whatever it is, you know, do you know how to get out of the building? Do you know how to get out of your playground if the gates are locked? Do you have the keys that you need? If you get to your car, do you have your car keys with you, or are they sitting on your desk in your purse somewhere?
So those are all kind of different scenarios that you can think through as a teacher, to make sure that you are better prepared, and I'll tell you they are life skills. So don't keep this to yourself. Tell your friends, tell your family, your kids, your loved ones. Practice this because we never really, truly know when an emergency is going to happen.
And as you've seen, Emily, these things are happening everywhere. Movie theaters, shopping malls, grocery stores, sporting events, parades on and on and on. So, you know, having that kind of acuity of, I have a plan. I know where my exits are. I have a framework of what I can do, really can make the difference between life and death in some of these situations.
Emily Garman: Some of the stories that have been in the news lately where children have had to hide or go into lockdown, a couple of the stories parents are sharing are about glow in the dark clothing or light up shoes. So they're saying, “oh, I'll never send light up shoes on my kid to school anymore, because a shooter might be able to find them, or it would betray the hiding place,” and if you're three year old is anything like mine was, they love light up shoes. And it's hard to talk to your kid about why they can't wear those to school.
So how can parents help the schools and the teachers be more prepared for just whatever might come down the road?
Andy Roszak: Excellent question. I mean, parents have a very vital, important part to play here. And it starts, I think, with asking some questions. You know, asking the program, do you have an emergency plan? What is your plan? If you did have to evacuate, where would you go? I mean, I often think about the 5000 children that were separated from their parents after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. And, you know, it took almost nine months to reunite that last child with their parents.
I mean, talk about an adverse childhood event or experience. I mean, is there any bigger one than that? Like, that's insane, right? So, you know, there's been studies that have come out that said, you know, 40% of adults don't know the evacuation location if their facility was evacuated. That's probably an important discussion point.
And it's hard. Look, I know parents are running a million miles a minute and you sign up for a program and you just get hit with this onslaught of information and handbooks and stuff that we oftentimes don't look at as well as we should. But having that conversation is important.
The other thing that you can do as a parent that's really important is be that second set of eyes and ears, right? So if you see something out of place, if you see something suspicious, you know, report that, make sure people know about it. Please respect the policies and procedures, those programs that are doing a good job doing access control. Your access is your access. Don't be giving that code out to everybody. Don't be holding doors open for people that you don't know.
If your program has a front door that's controlled and locked, which is the leading practice, you should. Make sure parents are letting that door shut fully and locking after they leave. Don't prop doors open. And those types of things. So, you know, there's a lot of different things that parents can do.
Just, to be kind of the second set of ears and eyes, keeping that situational awareness up, being aware of what's going on around us and trying to really enhance or refocus that security effort because parents are a vital part of the program, and we want to make sure that they know what to do in an emergency and want to make sure that they know what we're going to do during an emergency.
That way, they have the confidence and the trust. I mean it's one of the hardest things that you do, is you let your kid walk away in the beginning of the day, and you just pray and you hope and you trust that the program that they're sending them to is going to have the knowledge, the skills and the abilities to keep them safe throughout the day.
So as a parent, you know, asking those hard questions and finding out what the policies and procedures are; that’s definitely something that can put you a little bit more at ease knowing that they have a plan and they do know what to do.
Emily Garman: I've been thinking about what you said about cell phones earlier, and how most of us don't have landlines anymore. Most schools maybe don't. So walkie talkies are a good kind of secondary back up, but one thing I remember reading in your books is that schools and and childcare centers need to be prepared to house and care for students for, you know, maybe 24, 48 hours if there's an emergency and they can't reach the parents for whatever reason.
I know when there are big disasters, sometimes the cell towers stop working, things get jammed and disconnected, and they can't reach parents. What is the school doing to get ready for that?
Andy Roszak: Yeah, we found this a lot, especially, you think back a few years ago to the ice storm that hit Atlanta. Or even just look recently at the bridge collapse in Baltimore, or go back, you know, many years to 9/11 and think about all the parents that were stuck because of the transportation woes. So, unfortunately, these things can happen, and it can delay or even prevent parents from getting to the program.
So thinking about this ahead of time is certainly something we want to do, trying to provide those creature comforts for the kids. And I will say, you know, traditionally family childcare providers have a lot easier time at this because you're already kind of in a home environment. So you have a lot of supplies and equipment that lend itself easily to this.
But for the centers, you know, really thinking about, do I have extra blankets, extra diapers, extra snacks. Heaven forbid the power goes out. How are we going to keep kids, you know, warm or keep them cool? If it's in the summer? Those are very important things to think about as well. And, of course, having some distractions never hurts, right?
So I know a lot of programs will ask for a picture of the family at the beginning of the year. That way if the child is having a hard time or does feel some of that separation anxiety, there's always that picture that can remind them of their family. Or I've even seen programs ask parents to write a letter that they can use in the event of something like this that they can pull out and say, hey, I've got a letter here from Mom or Dad. And they just wanted to let you know that they're thinking of you, and they'll see you soon. And, making sure that, you know, they're safe and you're safe and whatnot. And that can help calm some nerves, too. So, getting creative with this is always a good idea, but, you know, also making sure you have those supplies on hand in the event that parents simply can't get to your location, is another important consideration as well.
Emily Garman: You mentioned when we were talking earlier that you've been on the road. You're just coming in from another conference. You're on a break right now at a conference. You also go work with childcare centers, work with schools to develop preparedness plans. You do conferences, you do workshops. Tell me a little bit about what's coming up next for you.
Oh goodness. Oh well, we're always on the road. We're always very busy, which is a blessing. And we love all the work we do. We do a lot of on site work. Let's come out, do site assessments at the facility. Kind of think of that. Almost like a home inspection report, but for your business. So kind of a security audit, seeing what you have in place, where your gaps may be, where your vulnerabilities may be, and then pairing that up with the leading practices to keep you as safe and as secure as possible.
So we have a tremendous amount of that coming up. We have the real blessing to to work with the Region Two Head Start Association, the New York State Head Start Association, and the new Jersey Head Start Association. So we're constantly running special events for those groups. We have a lot of great educational offerings coming up through those channels as well.
And we also have the Early Childhood Chats podcast. We're always putting out new content, looking at leaders in early childhood education. So a lot of fun stuff on the horizon. And, maybe even a fourth book, I don't know, we'll see.
Emily Garman: I just hope you get your luggage back. Tell me a little bit about where folks can find you. Your books can be purchased on the GryphonHouse.com website. You've got your books, you've got the podcast, Early Childhood Chats. Where else can people find you?
Andy Roszak: Oh, gosh. We try to be everywhere. So we're on Instagram or on Facebook or on YouTube. We've actually got a new website, icp.us, that us that'll take us right there.
We found people had a hard time spelling preparedness. So ICP.US will take you right to our website and get a hold of everything there. All the free content We’ve got so many free, on demand courses that are out there. Everything from preventing deaths in hot cars to gun safety to child care seats. We just did a great course with the Children's Burn Academy on preventing pediatric deaths and injury. So we're always putting out a lot of great content. Hit us up on our website. We also send out a newsletter, to keep people up to date as well. And like I said, we're on the road every week, so we may be coming soon to a city near you.
Emily Garman: Well, you sure have made the case that this is something that does take time to become prepared. Whether you're a parent, a teacher, child care facility administrator or principal. It does take time, but the resources are out there, and it's worth that investment of time on the other end in case something were to happen at your facility. Because anymore, in today's world, it seems like it's almost not an if, but a when something happens, and we have to be prepared.
I'm Emily Garman for Early Childhood Chapters from Gryphon House books. Thanks for listening.
