How to Become a Certified Playground Safety Inspector

The National Recreation and Parks Association has led the way toward safer playgrounds for the last two decades. In 1993, the association established the National Playground Safety Institute and soon thereafter began offering certification programs for parks and recreation professionals.

The "CPSI Candidate Handbook" establishes a code of professional conduct for inspectors and lists the course's main objectives:

• Identify hazards on public playground equipment and the playground.

• Rank the hazards according to injury potential.

• Apply the knowledge to remove the hazards and establish a system of inspections.

The organization has "a long-term goal of training and certifying at least one person from every community in the United States to be a CPSI," according to the NRPA website. "These inspectors will share their knowledge on the public-use playground standard of care with other people involved in playground operations within their agencies and throughout their community."

Training involves an optional two-day prep-course on information covered in the certification exam, which takes place on the third day and final day of the course schedule. Computer-based exams are also available.

Training centers are located in every region of the United States and offer sessions periodically throughout the year. There are no prerequisites to attending the course and taking the exam, and the examination fee is $200. Certification must be renewed every three years.

Test questions come from the following sources:

• The Consumer Product Safety Commission Handbook for Public Playground Safety

• The Standard Consumer Safety Performance Specification for Playground Equipment for Public Use (ASTM F1487-07)

• Standard Guide for ASTM Standards on Playground Surfacing (ASTM 2333-04)

• Playground Safety Is No Accident, 4th Edition

The first step toward CPSI status is to visit the NRPA's website and fill out the application.

Indoor Mall Playground Safety - Are Your Kids Safe?

Indoor Playgrounds - Are They Safe? Well, it's that time of year again with school starting, summer is over, the weather is changing, and many of your children's activities are beginning to move indoors again. It's time for concerned parents to decide where your kids are going to be able to play safely. As it does every year, the number of children playing at the local indoor playground increases dramatically. With this increase in activity, comes an increase in our awareness of the safety of these indoor playgrounds; are they really the safest place for our children to be playing? There is no traffic to worry about, score one for the indoor playground. But are there other areas of concern that we may be overlooking? Here are a few areas of indoor playground safety you want to look at before you allow your child to participate. Indoor Playgrounds - Breeding Grounds for Bacteria? One huge issue of indoor mall playground safety is the enclosed environment itself. Within any e

Special Needs Playgrounds Gaining Ground

As playgrounds grow and evolve with increasing attention paid to safety and equipment durability, it's important to note that kids with physical limitations need adequate places to play just as much, if not more, than kids without disabilities. Children who must contend with limited mobility and dexterity need much more carefully designed equipment and facilities. In recent years, awareness of making parts of everyday life more "handicapped accessible" is now commonplace in many areas of everyday life. And in the wake of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, through which Congress made accessible public facilities the law of the land, focus on accessible playgrounds has naturally followed suit. Creating recreational facilities accessible to all, however still remains an uphill battle in many instances. Parents of children with disabilities often have to go out of their way to make local accessible playgrounds a reality. The St. Tammany Kids Konnection Boundless Pl

Tips for Safe Play Indoors

Outdoor playgrounds are of course a key area of focus when it comes to safety as well as educational and entertainment value, however indoor play areas also deserve a similar level of attention. Sometimes what appears to be the most obvious of common sense solutions -- keeping the floor clear so people won't trip -- often gets overlooked in the fray of everyday school or family life. A recent article by Daniel Akinson points out the fact that a leading cause of injuries that happen inside the house or classroom result from toys not being picked up. "One specific danger and one that is usually ignored are all the kids’ toys that have not been picked up," the article states. "This can definitely be a hazard if the living area is doubling as a play area." The magazine provides the following advice on how to prevent accidents that can lead to minor or at times serious injuries: • "Designate a particular area of the room in which the kids should play&quo

Wyatt Underwood on "The Safe Child Campaign"

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