Wisconsin's Site Evaluation Program: Choose Safe Places Program
The Choose Safe Places program is a free program available to existing group and family child care centers and centers looking for initial licensure or certification through the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF). Our program offers free environmental assessments and provides resources to address environmental health hazards to help child care providers keep kids and staff safe.
The Choose Safe Places program is managed by Wisconsin’s Site Evaluation Program (SEP) and funded by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s (ATSDR) Partnership to Promote Local Effort to Reduce Environmental Exposure (APPLETREE). Wisconsin’s SEP analyzes chemical information and identifies risks to human health, which includes determining the health impact of past and current industrial waste sites and other chemical releases to the environment. SEP focuses on chemical hazards related to indoor air, water, and soil. SEP also supports community-based organizations and local health departments by offering mini-grants focused on increasing environmental health literacy for Wisconsin homeowners and tenants.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) offers the Choose Safe Places program in partnership with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF).
Click here to participate in the program!
Why should I participate in the Choose Safe Places program?
Children are more likely than adults to get sick from environmental hazards because their bodies are still developing and they eat more food, drink more water, and breathe in more air relative to their body size than adults. They also engage in behaviors that make them more likely to contact harmful substances, such as putting their hands in their mouths and crawling and playing on the ground.
The Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) requires every licensed or certified child care program to meet safety regulations. Some of these regulations protect against chemical exposures, like safe handling and storage of hazardous materials and required testing of private well water.
The Choose Safe Places program builds on these protections. Our program helps participating providers keep kids and staff safe from environmental hazards that could be impacting the air, soil, or water at the child care center by:
- Checking for chemical contamination from nearby past chemical spills or previous uses of the center's location
- Providing resources on environmental hazards like drinking water contaminants, lead, and radon
We work with child care providers to Choose Safe Places for their group and family centers to ensure children are playing and learning in environmentally safe locations.
What can I expect from participation?
Once you complete and submit a Property Checklist, the Choose Safe Places program will assess the location of your child care center to determine if there are any potential environmental hazards. This evaluation is completed virtually —an on-site visit is not required. The program will then send you a report with its findings and recommendations. You can use the report to make healthier spaces for children and staff.
The Choose Safe Places program determines if you or the children you care for could be impacted by harmful chemicals from previous uses of the child care center location, nearby chemical spills, or harmful substances like lead in paint and water, drinking water contaminants, and naturally occurring contamination such as radon.
If we determine there are potential environmental hazards in the child care center due to previous uses of the building or nearby chemical spills, we offer free indoor air sampling or soil sampling to the child care provider. Our program also provides referrals to possible sources of funding that can be used to address the environmental hazard within the child care center.
Chemicals can stay in the environment for a long time, even after the cause of the contamination has stopped. We can identify potential chemicals that could still be around and impacting your child care center children and staff by learning how the property was used in the past.
Industrial practices weren’t as regulated in the past as they are today and resulted in chemicals being improperly disposed of or spilled. Chemicals from those spills can stay in the environment for many years and can move through the air, water, and soil to nearby buildings, which can cause contamination.
- Some of these spilled chemicals can turn into vapor and move through the soil and along or through underground utility lines such as electricity, water, and sewer pipes to nearby buildings. Vapor intrusion happens when these chemical vapors enter your child care center through cracks in the foundation or other openings and impact the air you breathe.
- Our program has also provided guidance to child care providers opening a center in a location that was previously a tavern to address third-hand smoke concerns and centers opening in previous dental offices to address mercury concerns.
Identifying whether the property had a previous use that could present a problem for a child care center or if the location is near an old chemical spill are important ways to protect children. The Choose Safe Places program uses the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) database of contaminated properties in Wisconsin to research child care centers to see if any environmental contamination has been reported at that address that could be impacting the center's air, water, or soil.
Lead is a common environmental hazard in older buildings because it was used in paint until 1978. Every year, thousands of Wisconsin children are poisoned by lead.
The Choose Safe Places program will help you determine how likely it is that you have lead paint in the building and give you resources to help keep children safe from exposure.
Radon is one of the most common, naturally occurring, harmful substances found in Wisconsin. Radon is radioactive and can cause lung cancer.
Even though you can’t see or smell radon, it can leak into your home or building, similar to vapor intrusion. The Choose Safe Places program will give you local resources on how to obtain a radon test kit and what to do if your levels are too high.
Drinking water that is piped into your home or building comes from either a public water supply or a private well. Lead, nitrate, and bacteria are all common water contaminants that can affect your health.
Public water systems are regulated by state and federal laws, but protecting the quality of water from private wells is the responsibility of the well owner. Depending on where you get your water, the Choose Safe Places program can recommend ways to keep you and the children you serve safe from drinking water contaminants.
How do I participate?
Follow these steps to participate in the Choose Safe Places program!
Step 1: Get a checklist!
If you are a new child care provider, you can get a Choose Safe Places property checklist by:
- Reading through or ordering a printed version of the child care licensing inquiry packet from the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.
- Requesting one from the child care pre-licensing or pre-certification staff you are working with. Pre-licensing technical assistance for prospective child care providers is available through the Wisconsin Early Childhood Association (WECA), 4C for Children, and local Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.
New and existing child care providers can also access the property checklist in the next step.
Step 2: Complete the Choose Safe Places property checklist
Fill out the Choose Safe Places Property Checklist, F-02410. The checklist is available as a PDF in English, Spanish, and Hmong, as well as in an online submission format.
Complete the property checklist online
Step 3: Send completed checklist to Choose Safe Places program
Email the completed checklist to dhscsp@dhs.wisconsin.gov or complete the checklist online.
Step 4: Receive your Choose Safe Places report!
Receive a free, emailed report* from the Choose Safe Places program in 10 to 15 business days.
Click the photo for the property checklist in English. The Choose Safe Places Property Checklist, F-02410 is also available in Spanish and Hmong.
Tips for completing the property checklist
Answer the questions on the property checklist the best you can. If you don’t know one of the answers, we recommend you talk to:
- The property owner if you’re renting the space for your facility.
- Your town engineer or building department.
- Your town planner or zoning office.
*Legal disclaimer
Responses to the property checklist are provided as general guidance only and to increase overall safety awareness. This information is not intended to constitute legal or medical advice and you should use it at your own risk. DHS accepts no responsibility or liability for damages arising from use of this information. If a more thorough investigation of the property is warranted, the user should seek the advice of appropriate professionals.
DHS does not make any warranty, express or implied; assume any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information herein; represent that its use would not infringe privately owned rights; nor assume any liability with respect to the use of, or for damages resulting from the use of any information, method, or process disclosed in this publication.
Questions? Can't find what you're looking for?
Contact us at dhscsp@dhs.wisconsin.gov