A safe home environment is important for the well-being of the child or youth in your care.

This page describes general safety requirements for your home and property. You must meet these requirements to complete the home study process. If you get a kinship caregiver license, you must keep following these rules the entire time you have a license.

These requirements are flexible. They'll depend on the child or youth's specific needs, and your current situation. 

If you need help ensuring the safety of your home, we can help. We'll work with you to figure out any home adjustments you need to make or physical items you need.

Basic home safety

Make reasonable efforts to make sure your home has the following:

• Heating and cooling that meets the child or youth’s needs based on your location (for example, if you have cool or mild summers, you may not need air conditioning. If you have hot summers, you may need a way to cool your home. This can include opening doors and windows to create a cross breeze, having a fan, or something else.)
• Access to a power source or lighting that meets the child or youth’s needs (you do not necessarily need electricity)
• Access to safe drinking water (you do not necessarily need indoor plumbing)
• Access to toilet and bathing facilities

If there are pets in your home or on your property, they must be safe for the child or youth to be around. They should not pose a health or safety threat.

Address safety hazards that may be accessible to the child or youth in your care. We can work with you to figure out any home adjustments you need to make, or get you the physical items you need. Hazards may include:

• Pest infestation
• Fire hazards (exposed wires or flammable materials cannot be within three feet of a fire source)
• Overflowing garbage
• Uncontained pet waste
• Excessive debris

Outdoor spaces

Check that outdoor spaces are safe for the child or youth.

Work with your licensing worker to create a supervision plan for outdoor hazards. The plan may include having safeguards (like locks, baby gates, or door alarms) to protect the child or youth from these potential outdoor hazards:

• Trampolines
• Bodies of water (like ponds, lakes, and rivers)
• Pools
• Hot tubs
• Fire pits

If you have questions about other potential hazards, or specific safety measures to put into place, talk to your licensing worker. We can work with you to figure out any home adjustments you need to make, or get you the physical items to protect the child or youth from outdoor hazards.

Sleeping spaces

The child or youth needs to have their own sleeping space (like a bed, not necessarily their own room). Having their own sleeping space supports the child or youth's sense of belonging.

For babies under 12 months old

If the child is a baby under 12 months old, provide them with a sleeping space that meets infant sleep safety requirements.

The child does not need to have their own room.

Examples of sleeping spaces include:

• Bassinets
• Native American cradle boards and moss bags
• Cribs
• Portable cribs (including pack and plays)

The sleeping space must:

• Have a firm, flat sleep surface (not at an angle or inclined, unless a doctor says it's medically necessary)
• Be empty except for a fitted sheet
• Not include soft bedding (like blankets, pillows, bumper pads, mesh bumpers, or stuffed toys)

All cribs must comply with Washington state laws and federal consumer safety standards for full-size cribs and non-full-size cribs.

For children and youth over 12 months old

If the child or youth is over 12 months old, provide them with their own safe sleeping space (like a bed, a bunk bed, a sofa bed, or a futon) with bedding. The caseworker must approve any exceptions. The child or youth does not have to have their own room. If they’re sleeping in a common space of the home, make sure that they have privacy.

Toxic substances

If there’s a risk that the child or youth may mishandle toxic substances around the home, keep them stored away where they cannot access them. Examples include:

• Cleaning products
• Mechanical fluids, like motor oil or antifreeze

The way you should store toxic substances depends on the individual child or youth. For example, if you care for a toddler, you may need to lock cleaning products away. If you care for a teenager who can use cleaning products safely, you may not have to lock them up.

Talk to your licensing worker or caseworker if you are not sure what to do.

You must follow other guidelines for storing medicine, and drugs and alcohol at home.

Emergency preparedness

Work with your licensing worker to get your home ready in case of emergencies, and to create an emergency plan.

Your home must have the following:

• Working smoke detectors inside and outside of all sleeping areas, on each story, in all play areas, and in the basement of the home
• A working carbon monoxide detector on each level of the home
• Access to a working fire extinguisher. We recommend a 2A10BC-rated fire extinguisher that is five pounds or bigger.
• An unblocked exit to the outside from each child's or youth's sleeping space that is big enough for emergency personnel wearing rescue gear to access, unless the Licensing Division’s administrator approves a supervision plan.

DCYF can help you get these items, or make safety adjustments to your home.

You’ll also need to make sure that:

• There’s a reliable way to contact emergency services when the child or youth is home (like a cell phone, landline, wifi calling, or shortwave radio).
• The child or youth can escape from every floor in the home. We may ask you to install, or help you get, fire ladders.
• You create an evacuation plan with the child or youth in case of fires, climate events, natural disasters, or other emergencies.