Securing Cribs in Your Church's Nursery

Does your church have cribs in your nursery? Do you operate a child care center that has cribs? If you answered "yes" to either question, there are new federal regulations that apply to you—and unfamiliarity with them could lead to substantial penalties and civil lawsuits that may implicate not only your church, but your church board as well. This article will explain the new regulations and their impact on church practices.

Background

Baby cribs have contributed to numerous deaths and injuries due to faulty design and construction. This prompted the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to issue regulations addressing crib safety in 1973. But the regulations did not eliminate the problem. Consider the following:

CPSC has recalled more than 11 million dangerous cribs since 2007.

Between November 1, 2007, and April 11, 2010, 3,520 incident reports involving full-sized cribs were ...