A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to require child care facilities to conduct morning safety calls for absent children to ensure child safety.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  Article 7 of Chapter 110 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 110‑102.1B.  Require morning safety call.
To ensure child safety, as well as reduce the number of child vehicular heat stroke deaths, the Department shall require a child care facility, as defined in G.S. 110‑86, to conduct a morning safety call to the parent or guardian of a child who is 5 years of age or younger and enrolled in the child care facility upon determining the child's absence when the parent or guardian has not provided prior notice of the child's absence to the facility. The child care facility shall place the safety call no later than 30 minutes after the anticipated time the child should have arrived at the child care facility. The child care facility shall notify the parent or guardian of the child by any method of communication feasible for the facility to implement, including, but not limited to, a phone call, automated message by phone, text message, or email. In accordance with this section, each child care facility shall do the following:
(1)	Ensure the parents or guardians of children enrolled in the facility are informed of the morning safety call process and the method by which the notifications shall be delivered if their child is absent.
(2)	Maintain a log with the method by which the facility communicated the child's absence to the parent or guardian and the date and time of the communication."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.