Keeping Kids Safe on the Farm

This practice note is to assist practitioners in providing information to the families they work with, to share with colleagues and other community professionals and to support the work they do to keep children and families safe. The document includes a list of farming safety suggestions, as well as a detailed Farming and Rural Area Safety Checklist. This document includes both English and French.

This piece outlines ways that children can be kept safe on farms during COVID-19, and provides links and resources about injury prevention and mental health.

60% of household youth were not working when they were injured in agriculture. This fact sheet outlines the prevalence of child and youth injury and death in rural and agricultural settings.

Farms and ranches also have the most dangerous and deadly worksites in the U.S. By implementing the safety strategies and using the resources on this website, farmers and ranchers, their families and employees can reap the benefits of farm and ranch life, while minimizing the risks. The National Farm Medicine Center and National Children’s Center for Rural and Agricultural Health and Safety designed the Cultivate Safety website to provide easy access to agricultural safety information and resources for farmers, ranchers, supervisors and media.

Each year, more than 100 children are killed and nearly 12,000 are seriously injured on U.S. farms. The highest rate of injuries involves children younger than 10 years old who were playing in the worksite. Use the resources on this website to prevent these injuries and create, use, and maintain a safe play area on your farm.

This PDF outlines what a safe play space should include, as well as a Child Development by Age and Supervision Challenges table that outlines the supervisory requirements of children up until the age of ten.

The Progressive Agriculture Safety Day® program typically consists of one-day, age-appropriate safety events that help children learn how to be safe on the farm. Events feature mix-and-match stations covering everything from sun safety, recognizing and avoiding chemical exposure, to safe animal handling. Participants rotate among different safety stations, allowing each child the opportunity to participate in interactive and engaging activities. Communities select activities based on their own local rural safety needs. While the basic program is geared toward the education of children between the ages of eight to 13, safety days are for everyone, and may be customized for a family audience as well.

Make Safe Happen has created resources specifically for keeping children safe on farms. It includes articles on protecting kids from commons hazards, farm animal safety, playtime safety, household poisons, and water safety.

CASA has put together an online portal of farm safety information for children including printable colouring sheets, a customizable toolbox for talking to children about farm safety, and a template Farm Safety Contract for Kids. There is also an interactive computer game called BeGrainSafe, which can be played as an adult or child.

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs has put together some resources about farm safety geared towards parents and families.

The Childhood Agricultural Safety Network (CASN) is a coalition of organizations that work together to help keep children safe on the farm.