NFPA 101: Life Safety Code Module 1: Educational and Daycare

Education

Defines as being used for education purposes through the twelfth grade, by 6+ persons for >=4 hour per
day or >12 per week. Examples include academic, kindergartens, and schools. Detailed in Chapters 14
and 15 of the code.

Also includes preschools, kindergartens, and other schools, assuming the purpose is primarily education
regardless of being preschool age and that the children are >=24 months in age.

Egress:

Rooms normally occupied by preschool, kindergarten, or first-grade students must be located on an LED

Rooms normally occupied by second-grade students shall not be located more than one story above an
LED unless otherwise permitted

Floors others than those specified are permitted to be used when there is an independent means of
egress for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, or second grade students.

Rescue windows are required for every

classroom >250sqft. Rescue windows accessible
to fire department and opening to an area with
access to a public way must be openable from
the inside without the use of tools. They must
have a clear opening of >=20 inch wide, >=24 in
high, and >=5.7 sqft in area. The bottom of the
opening shall be <=44 inches above the ground.
The latching device must not be >54 inches
above the finished floor. Clear openings shall
allow a rectangular solid with the 5.7 sqft cross
section to pass through fully to a depth of 20
inches.

Windows for rescue are not required in buildings protected throughout by an approved automatic
supervised sprinkler system, where the room/space has a door leading directly to an exit or directly
outside, or in rooms located 4+ stories above the finished ground level.

Alcohol Based Hand Rub ABHR dispensers in education occupancies must comply with 8.7.3.3 unless
they meet the six provisions in 14/15.4.4. The ABHR dispensers cannot be in the corridor in educational
occupancies, stricter than healthcare occupancy regulation.
In response to active shooter threats, schools have implemented classroom doorlocking to prevent
unwanted entry, reducing life safety to fire. Performance based requirements disqualify barricading
devices or door jammers which limit entry to emergency responders. The locking means must be
capable of being engaged without opening the door. The unlocking from the classroom side must be
doable without a key or tool or special knowledge and be located 34 to 48 inches above the floor. The
locking means must not modify the automatic door closer, panic hardware or fire exit hardware.

Fire alarms are required for all educational occupancies other than single classrooms limited in size.

Emergency voice communication system is required in new educational occupancy building with >100
persons. Manual fire alarm boxes may be eliminated to prevent nuisance alarms if there is an automatic
sprinkler system and there is a manually activated evacuation or partial evacuation signal at a central
location.

Approved supervised automatic sprinkler systems must be provided for new education occupancies, as
well as existing educational occupancies where student occupancy is below the level of exit discharge.

Corridors in new buildings must be separated from other parts of the story by walls with a 1 hour fire
resistance rating, unless otherwise permitted. For existing buildings, the walls must have a 0.5 hour fire
resistance rating. Corridors are not required to have a fire resistance rating in buildings with an
approved automatic sprinkler system with valve supervision per 9.7.

Smoke partitions are required at maximum intervals of 300 ft with the area of any smoke compartment
not exceeding 30000 sqft. The intent is to reduce risk of exit access loss from smoke clogging. Smoke
partitions are not required in buildings with an approved automatic sprinkler system with valve
supervision per 9.7, or if all classrooms are provided with exterior exit access.

Emergency plan must be provided per Section 4.8. Emergency egress and relocation drills are addressed
in Section 4.7.

14/15.7.3.1 requires daily inspection of the egress system. Staff and principals/teachers are allowed to
make inspections of egress system, but they are better performed by maintenance personnel.

Surfaces that would allow flames to spread more quickly, like coat hangers on walls, should not be
created. Clothing may be stored in metal lockers while maintaining proper egress width, or in corridors
protected by automatic sprinklers or smoke detection. Art should be limited and not placed near a
room’s exit access doors.
 Daycare

Defined as occupancies in which >=4 clients (adults or children) receive care/maintenance/supervision

by someone other than relative/legal guardian for <24 hours per day. For daycares for preschool aged
children, occupants may need to be carried out during evacuation.

Two subclassifications and an addition two subsubclassifications under day care home.

Day care centers: clients>12

Day care home: 4<=clients<=12, located within a dwelling unit, regulated by Chapter 16/17.6 & 16/17.7

Family day care home: 4<=clients<=6

Group day care home: 7<=clients<=12

16/17.7 apply to all day care occupancies unless specified.

Per Section 4.8, an emergency plan must be provided. At least one emergency egress and relocation
drills are required every month in all kinds of daycares. All occupants must participate in each drill. If not
open year-round, two drills must be conducted in the first month of operation.

Fire prevention inspections must be conducted monthly by a trained senior member of the staff. A copy
of the latest inspection report must be visible places in the facility. Exit facilities must be inspected daily.

Clothing should not be hung on hooks along corridor walls, instead in lockers that maintain require
corridor egress width. Art/teaching materials must be <=20% of wall area if building lacks automatic
sprinklers or <=50% if building that has automatic sprinklers.

Day care occupancies located in an apartment building lack control over safety procedures and
precautions. 16/17.1.3 require additional protections.

Day care occupancies, other than day care homes, with clients <=24 months in age or incapable of self-
preservation, located >=2 stories above level of exit discharge, must have smoke partitions without a fire
rating to divide stories into at least two compartments, per Section 8.4.
If two exit accesses from a day care occupancy enter the same corridor as an apartment occupancy, the
exit accesses must be separated in the corridor by a smoke partition.

Day care requirements are often relative to LED,

since day care homes are often based in residential
structures. For common split level floor
arrangements, a level is permitted to be considered
part of the LED if it is within 8 risers

Table 16.1.6.1 relates construction type and sprinklering to highest story occupiable by day cares which
are not day care homes.
 If the occupant load of a area/floor is =>100, any latch or lock
on a required means of egress from this area/floor must be
fire exit or panic hardware. Even if the individual exits from an
area/floor have less than 100 load each, if the total load of the
area/floor is >=100, this rule applies.

Panic hardware and fire exit hardware enables the door latch
to release when occupants push up against an actuating
mechanism, like a push pad or bar, that extends across at least
half of door width. It reduces thr sik of crowding of shoving
preventing a door from opening.

Every room or space subject to occcupancy, besides bathrooms, must have at least one outside window
for emergency rescue. This is not required where an automatic sprinkler system is in place or where the
room/space has a door leading directly to an exit.
New day care centers other than those consisting of a single room with a door opening directly to
outside ground level or to an exterior exit access balcony are required to have a fire alarm system.
Existing day cares centers other than those consisting of a single room are requred to have a fire alarm
system. Fire alarms must notify occupants and fire department. Existing daycares are exempt from fire
department notification requirement if there are <=100 occupants. Positive alarm seqeuence and
private operating mode are allowed.

Smoke detectors are required in front of doors to stairsways, in corridors of all floors used for day care,
and in lounges/recreation/sleeping areas.

Corridors must be separated from other parts of the story by walls with a 1-hour fire resistance rating in
new buldings, and with a 1/2 hour fire resistance rating in existing buildings, per Section 8.3. Corridors
are not required to have a fire resistance rating in building with automatic sprinklers with valve
supervision, per Section 9.7

16/17.6 address requirements family and group day care homes, typically located in residential settings
but requirements apply in whatever setting day care is located.

Staff to client ratios, modifiable by AHJ:

Family day care homes: 1 staff for up to 6, <=2 clients incapable of self preservation

Group day care homes: 2 staff for up to 12 clients, <=3 clients incapable of self preservation

Means of Escape are described in Chapter 24 for 1 and 2 family dwellings. 16/17.2.4 require one of the
means of escape to (1) discharge directly to the outside or to (2) provide protected interior family, if day
care home clients occupy second story or basement

When a group day care home is lcoated in a basement, a means of escape is required to open directly to
the outside. If a stairway is provided to the above story, it must be separatted from LED by minimum 1/2
hour fire resistance rated barriers.

Travel distance to an exit is limited to 150 ft in general, and to 50 ft within a sleeping room. If automatic
sprinklers are provided, travel distance to an exit is limited 200 ft.
Smoke alarms are required in all day care homes, in the corridors of multiple occupancy buidlings
connecting to the day care home, and in all rooms used for sleeping. Carbon monoxide alarms are
required for new day care homes containing fuel fired equipment or attached parking structures.