Washington State Child Passenger Safety
RECAP OF FISCAL YEAR 2021
A huge thank you to everyone involved in child passenger safety in Washington State. This industry was seriously affected by the Covid pandemic like all other areas of traffic safety. Services were still provided due to your commitment and flexibility to adapt to a new way of car seat checks and trainings. Here are some important achievements made during Fiscal Year 2021:
- 11 CPST courses held – 9 funded by the WA CPS Program mini-grants.
- 78 newly trained technicians added to the network.
- 105 car seat check services listed on website; 17 offering virtual services.
- 2,535 seats were checked; 2,325 seats were provided to families in need.
- $77,222 of the mini-grants funds were reimbursed in support of local car seat activities; $23,000 approximately used to purchase new child restraints for distribution.
- Many emergency service personnel utilized the training reimbursement available for CPST training.
- Safe Travel for All Children (STAC) enrichment course added 12 technicians to our special needs service providers and a STAC Instructor.
WORK IN FISCAL YEAR 2022
I am excited to continue to support your efforts in the coming year. I will be focusing on providing the tools needed to improve our data collection by purchasing and distributing tablets for using the National Digital Check Form (NDCF). Stay tuned for more updates! In the meantime, please become familiar with using the NDCF. There are many resources available here. Watch the webinar NDCF Field Training Walkthrough: Download and share this PowerPoint file and register for the workshop discussion below.
National Digital Check Form
Hold My Clipboard: NDCF Discussion Series. You’ve heard about it. You may have signed up for an account. You may be hesitant to change. You may be ALL in and love it. Let’s gather and talk, no matter where you are on the NDCF journey. Register NOW for a spot in one of our free online learning sessions during January (click on one of the links below):
QUARTERLY REPORTS
It is that time again. Be sure to complete your quarterly activity report and send to your local communications lead for your region. Use the tracking report attached and destroy prior versions. The report due dates are:
| MONTHS | DUE DATE |
| October, November, December | 1/10/22 |
| January, February, March | 4/10/22 |
| April, May, June | 7/10/22 |
| July, August, September | 10/10/22 |
WE’VE GOT DATA!
Very excited to share the ability to look at crash data through the WTSC Crash Data Dashboards. This site provides the ability to look at state, county and city level information. You can now view crash detail involving child passengers. Check it out!
https://wtsc.wa.gov/research-data/child-passenger-vehicle-occupants/
LATCH MANUAL
A must to have in your toolkit for conducting car seat checks (in-person or virtual) is a current Latch Manual. If you are conducting checks and do not have a current manual; let me know so I can ensure you have this important item.
There are additional opportunities provided to you through the Latch Manual.
LATCH Manual Quiz: By passing the LATCH Manual Quiz, you will earn one CEU toward CPST recertification. Taking the quiz is a great way to learn about LATCH, the LATCH Manual, and all the ways it can help you educate caregivers.
LATCH Gallery: Because a picture is worth a thousand words, the LATCH Gallery provides photos of interesting examples of lower and tether anchors in vehicles. It is intended to assist the Child Passenger Safety community by clarifying challenging vehicle LATCH situations that are more creative, complex or confusing than most. If a vehicle model has an entry in the LATCH Gallery, this is mentioned in the Notes section of the model’s Appendix B entry in your new LATCH Manual.
LATCH Manual Updates: Things change, so whenever an update to the current LATCH Manual is needed, SRN adds it to the LATCH Manual Updates page on our website. Go to the website to check on updates, or, better yet, sign up for the SRN Mailing List, and SRN will send you an email to let you know anytime a new update has been posted.
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS
Be sure to check out the educational tools placed on www.wacarseats.com! In addition to English; they are all available in Spanish as well. These are intended to be shared by anyone. Here is an example of what is available.
CAR SEAT AWARENESS CLASS
Just a reminder…the Car Seat Awareness Class has moved to a virtual (online) format via Zoom.
The class is hosted by South County Fire and taught by Nationally Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians. The curriculum is sponsored by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission and is taught throughout the state of Washington. Over 1,000 have obtained the training through the online setting.
Cost: Free
Class Dates: First Wednesday of each month at 6pm and the second Wednesday of each month at 1pm
Register at www.southsnofire.org/classes
About the class:
- Pre and post tests prove learning
- Each student will receive a packet by email that is used to follow along with the class
- Poll questions during the training ensure participants are engaged
- Transporters will receive a letter of completion after completing the survey
Option: This class can still be taught in-person by a nationally certified car seat technician. The standardized curriculum must be used. Contact me if interested.
Another shout out of appreciation for everyone that helped to update the Network of CPS leads in Washington. There was also work done to help me determine the quantity of tablets needed by region. You all are amazing!!!! Remember…you are making a difference. Stay safe, healthy and happy.
