Information about recalls for providers & parents

From: Dee Burlingame
Early Childhood Professional Development
St. Lawrence Child Care Council (in Ogdensburg, NY) 315-393-6474
A website for the SLCCC is currently in production and should be available in early 2008. When it is up, a recall section is a good idea or at least a link to the Consumer Product Safety Council that providers and parents can turn to. What we have been doing in regards to recalls, is e-mailing any recall information to all of our providers that have given us their e-mail address. I subscribe to the Consumer Product Safety Commission recall listserve. (To join a CPSC email subscription list, please go to www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx. Consumers can obtain this release and recall information at CPSC's Web site at www.cpsc.gov.)
All New York child care providers/programs will soon be receiving a letter from NYS-OCFS that includes checklists for inventorying their toys and equipment that will make it easier to check for recalled items. It is also being recommended that providers keep recall information on file and check their toy inventories whenever a new recall alert is sent.
We offer Intensive Technical Assistance to individual providers/programs as well as the email alerts. Because the listing of recalled toys/equipment seems to change daily a one-time training may not be accurate the very next day.
Registrars from our office and licensors from Syracuse also pass on recall information during inspections as does the NYS Infant Toddler Network. I have had several providers contact me after our recall alerts, that they have the item and have removed it!
Providers and parents can always call our office with questions and we will assist them in any way we can.