Playground design for schools used to involve looking through a catalog and selecting whatever one could for the funds available. However, in today’s society, the process has significantly changed. School administrators, parents, PTA and PTO groups, as well as personnel involved with school facilities, are all part of the decision-making process. In addition, playground planning has evolved into a more complex procedure, requiring research and investigation as to how the equipment will fit into the overall curriculum and environment of the school.

Outdoor environments are much more than just play environments. They are areas where children can develop their physical, emotional, social and intellectual ability levels. Because playgrounds are one of the major educational and recreational environments in which all children are exposed to during their elementary years, it is incumbent that schools design SAFE playgrounds.

During 2003, The National Program for Playground Safety conducted a nationwide survey of school, childcare and park playgrounds in the United States. A total of 1,004 school playgrounds in all 50 states were surveyed. This article will address the four SAFE elements that were examined in the United States schools. Further, the article will suggest ways that playground planners and designers can plan for a SAFE environment. The four elements of SAFE include: Supervision, Appropriate Developmental Design, Fall Surfacing and Equipment Maintenance.

Of the playgrounds surveyed, 50 percent were relatively new, having been installed between 1998 and the present. Only 17 percent were installed prior to 1980. Table 1 shows the breakdown by year of installation.

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) first published federal guidelines regarding playgrounds in 1981. They have been revised three times since, with the latest revision published in 1997. Thus, it would appear that the majority of playgrounds in the nation should be in conformance with at least the original CPSC guidelines.

The play areas, given the space and equipment that is present, can either enhance or limit the children’s play behavior. The play site should be divided into zones of different activity types (active, passive, etc.) to prevent user conflicts and accidents. Examples of different play zones include: playground equipment zone, gross motor activity zone, black top area, sand area and social/quiet zone. Moving equipment, such as swings and merry-go-rounds, should be located away from other structures. More than half of the playgrounds (57 percent) had moving equipment on the playground. Eighty-five percent of those playgrounds had their moving pieces on the edges of the playground. How did the playgrounds in the study conform to the elements of SAFE? Each of these areas will now be discussed separately. S=Supervision

One of the first questions that should be asked during the development of a playground site is,“How can we design for supervision?” Supervision is crucial when children are playing on the playground. However, supervision is more than an adult being present on the playground. Supervision includes the layout the environment. As a designer, it is essential that one pay particular attention to adjacent streets, parking lots, sidewalks, open field areas, streams, utility lines and other areas that could be hazardous. For example, if the playground has a road running next to it, designers need to plan to prevent the children from running into the street. Many elements in the playground environment can be attractive nuisances and present hazardous situations. It appears that 97 percent of the playgrounds in the study were protected by distance or fencing. In addition, it is important that equipment pieces be arranged in such a manner that children will not run into each other when they get on and off equipment. School playground designers have done a good job with arranging pieces of equipment. Thus, 95 percent of the playgrounds had equipment pieces arranged so that children will not run into each other. Schools received a grade of C+ for this section of the report card.

The playground needs to be suitable for the school’s enrollment. The second element of SAFE is appropriate developmental design. For example, if you are designing for a school that serves a range of children from preschool through upper elementary, the playground must accommodate these different ages and ability levels. Fifty percent of the schools surveyed had only one playground. It can be concluded from this observation that not all playground equipment at the elementary schools may be appropriate for all the children in the school. Designers and planners need to be aware that the playground environment needs to be appropriate for the children using the equipment. The one-size-fits-all approach to playground equipment can contribute to serious injury on playgrounds. For example, an overhead ladder may be appropriate for a fourth grader but may be too challenging for a child in lower grades. It is recommended that designers and planners create play environments that can meet the specific developmental needs of each age group. This means that, in a school setting, separate play areas should be developed for grades K to 2, 3 to 4, and 5 to 6.

In addition to the selection of equipment, designers need to pay close attention to the use of the area during nonschool hours. School playgrounds become places where adults bring their children at nights or on the weekends. It is very common to see adults place their very young children on equipment that is not designed for their developmental abilities. It is the schools’ responsibility to make adults aware of the age appropriateness of the equipment. Signage can educate adults about the safety issues involved with the use of the playground. Although the signage may be ignored by the adults, it at least shows intent on the part of the school in trying to educate adults about the safety issues involved with the playground. In this study, only 15 percent of the school playgrounds had signage that indicated the age appropriateness of equipment. It is recommended that designers and installers consider installing age-appropriate signs.

Other design features that should get attention are the size of platforms. Platforms should be designed to allow children to change directions for getting off of the structure. For instance, during a noon recess, we observed eight kindergarteners in line to go down a 10-ft.-high slide. The child whose turn it was next decided that he didn’t want to go down the slide. Unfortunately, there was not enough room for the child to turn around and go down the steps. After some pushing and name-calling, the child lost his grip and fell. In this situation, it was not the child’s fault that he fell. The playground equipment was designed poorly and did not give the child enough room to turn around to exit the slide area. Overall, schools received a grade of C+ for this part of the report card. This was an improvement from the 2000 report card. In the 2000 study, age appropriate design received a grade of a C.

The third element in a SAFE playground is the fall surfacing. As designers and planners, it would be worth your investment to build your playground from the ground up. Falls to the surface are cited as a contributing factor in 70 percent of playground injury data (Tinsworth, 2001). Thus, start your planning process at the surface and work your way up to the selection of the equipment.

In order to help explain how to start designing a safe surface, NPPS developed the Safe Surfacing Model (Table 2). Proper surfacing under and around playground equipment is determined by four factors: (1) suitable surfacing materials, (2) height of the equipment, (3) depth of loose-fill surfacing materials and (4) placement of suitable materials at the adequate depth in the playground use zone. Applying this model to the school playground surfaces in the United States will provide a better understanding in terms of safe surfaces.

A safe surface must include suitable materials underneath the playground equipment. Suitable materials consist of hard wood products, shredded rubber products, sand or pea gravel. In addition, unitary synthetic materials, such as poured-in-place rubber or rubber tiles, are also appropriate if they have been certified as a playground surface material. Earth surfaces, such as dirt, grass, concrete and asphalt are not acceptable. Overall, most schools (89 percent) surveyed had appropriate surfaces. Clearly, providing suitable materials is the first step in having a safe surface.

Outdoor areas in schools are high-use areas that require proper drainage to eliminate water quickly after rain. Thus, when selecting the type of surface material, it is necessary to consider how water will settle in the area. If the site does not drain well, consider installing an underground drainage system. If a drainage system is not possible, then one should install the playground equipment in another area.

The surfacing materials used under and around playground equipment must follow the CPSC Handbook for Public Playground Safety. The surfacing materials must also meet ASTM Standard F1292. The vendor must provide results of testing done by an independent laboratory.

The second element in the safe surfacing model is the height of the equipment. Equipment height affects the shock absorbent surfacing material. For instance, pea gravel only provides shock absorbency protection for equipment up to six ft. What is the height of equipment on school playgrounds? It appears that schools are providing playground equipment that is eight ft. high or less (93 percent). NPPS recommends that the height of playground equipment should not exceed eight ft. for school age children and six ft. for preschool children. In addition, research studies have been reported that equipment more than six ft. in height has doubled the injury rate of equipment less than six ft. We would encourage administrators to note that height recommendation.

Playground designers need to be aware that through a period of time, the loose-fill surfacing materials will become displaced or shifted. When that happens, the depth of the material is reduced. As a result, the surface materials will not provide adequate shock absorption should a fall occur. Thus, the depth of the material is the key to keeping the children safe when they fall. NPPS recommends 12 in. of loose-fill material be placed underneath the equipment. In this study, only 30 percent of playgrounds had the proper depth of loose-fill material. It is suggested that designers consult the school officials with this problem. The ability to keep the material at the proper depth should be a concern when the selection of the material is being decided.

The final element that helps decide if the appropriate surface is present is the determination of the placement under and around equipment, which are called use zones. The basic use zone is six ft. Eighty-two percent of the playgrounds surveyed had surfacing materials in the six-ft. use zone. However, only 61 percent of swings had surfacing materials in the appropriate use zone. The swing use zone is twice the height of the swing beam in front and back of the swing. The use zone area also needs to be discussed during the overall planning process. The amount of space that is designated to the play environment could possibly hinder the type of equipment that is selected.

Overall, the surfacing section of the report card increased from a C+ to a B-. However, more concentrated effort needs to go into the surfacing component. Once again, it is crucial that surfacing materials be maintained at the proper depth.

The final element in the SAFE model is Equipment maintenance. Maintenance should be a major consideration when selecting equipment, safety surfacing materials or other unique elements for the play/learning environment. That is why it is important for a representative from maintenance serve on the planning team. If the designing team does not work with the maintenance department on developing a maintenance plan, the playground area will eventually turn into a maintenance nightmare. It is necessary to plan ahead for maintenance. If problems arise, they need to be fixed immediately or else the problem will continue to get worse. Thus, the hazards could potentially cause an injury and a financial burden to the district.

In the United States, it appears that the maintenance of wood and metal equipment is insufficient. Forty-five percent of all wooden equipment posed hazards with splinters and rotting; 26 percent of metal equipment had rust on it. Plastic equipment has been maintained with 96 percent free of cracks and holes. Equipment installed prior to 1998 appeared to have the most maintenance problems. These problems include splinters on wood (59 percent), rust (43 percent), noticeable gaps (36 percent), broken parts (24 percent) and head entrapments (22 percent). Table 3 shows the equipment maintenance by year. It should be noted that gaps in equipment (24 percent) may be the result of inappropriate installation or aging equipment were joints may have separated. Head entrapments are a problem with 15 percent of the school’s playgrounds. Spacing between and under guardrails or barriers need to be less than 3 1/2 in. or greater than nine in. Both gaps and head entrapments can lead to life-threatening situations involving strangulation and suffocation. As a designer, it is important to work with the maintenance department for ongoing maintenance and installation.

Overall, the schools received a grade of B- for the equipment maintenance section. It is crucial that school maintenance departments be involved with the planning and designing of the outdoor playground environments so that they can help develop a plan for the maintenance policy.

The planning process for a successful outdoor environment is similar to the planning process for a new or renovated school building. The essential first step is to understand, define and describe the needs and determine what amenities are needed to support the program and enhance learning. Remember that each element of the outdoor environment should be designed to support the educational program and the SAFE elements. Supervision: Supervision is more than just watching. Supervision includes designing a playground without visual barriers, roads, water ponds and other nuisance barriers. Appropriate Developmental Design: On all public use playgrounds, signage should include the intended age of user and supervision requirement. Falls Surfacing: The mere presence of the surfacing material does not mean that it will provide proper cushion when a child falls. Schools need to increase efforts to maintain loose fill surfacing materials at the appropriate depth. Equipment Maintenance: If your school does not maintain the playground, hazards will become worse and create extra safety and financial problems. All newly installed equipment should be inspected for its conformance to CPSC guidelines prior to allowing children to play on it. To download a copy of the United States’ school report card or your state’s school report card, visit the National Program for Playground Safety Website at .