Question 3
Overview
A safety concern due to size and location of the playground includes being located near busy streets where a student can get hit by a car or play spaces that are located too close together where students will run into each other’s games and potentially cause injury. Other safety concerns include strangers walking into the play area or students congregating around the exit.
A safety concern can be mitigated with a supervising adult prevent balls/students from entering the street, high fencing, or other barriers to prevent students from being harmed or pedestrians/outsiders entering the play space.
A score of 1 occurs when a play space is not large enough for the amount of students present at recess. It may also be located near busy roads or near a street where a student can easily access the road for pedestrians may enter the play space. This play space causes immediate concerns and it is likely that a student will be unsafe.
A score of 2 occurs when a play space has some safety concerns such as too small of a space for the amount of students, or the playground is located near a busy intersection, but there are a few areas that are not of concern.
This play space is located near a busy intersection but has high fencing to prevent children from immediate access to the road. The play structure present does not allow enough surrounding space to accommodate the amount of students.
A score of 3 occurs when a play space has a few immediate safety concerns such as an area that is too small of a space for the amount of students or there is a small area of the playground that is located near busy roads.
This playground allows enough space on the blacktop that will accommodate the amount of children, but it is located near a road with no fence to enclose the play space.
A score of 4 occurs when a play space is large enough to accommodate the number of students present and there are no immediate safety concerns such as being located near a busy intersection.
Other examples of how play spaces may be marked:
