Daycare Fire Drill Requirements by State (2026 Guide)

The common baseline

Most states license child care centers to conduct fire (evacuation) drills on a set schedule — usually monthly — and to keep a written record of each one: date, time, evacuation route, headcount, and how long the evacuation took. Requirements vary by state, and a few states set a different interval than monthly. Below are eight states' actual rules, each checked against the state's own regulation.

State-by-state drill frequency and record-keeping

State	Drill frequency	Citation	Record-keeping rule
California	Every 6 months	Cal. Code Regs. tit. 22, §101174 (centers); §102417 (family child care homes)	Documentation kept on-site at least 1 year
Texas	Monthly	40 Tex. Admin. Code §746.5205	Documented on file: date, time, evacuation length
Florida	At least 10 times per licensure year, no less than 30 days apart	Fla. Admin. Code r. 65C-22	Written record of date, headcount, route, evacuation time; available at inspection
New York	Monthly (each shift of care)	18 NYCRR Part 418	Record of each drill kept on file on OCFS forms or approved equivalent
Pennsylvania	Every 60 days	55 Pa. Code §3270.94	Drills at varying times/locations, documented on-site
Illinois	Monthly (centers)	89 Ill. Admin. Code Part 407	Fire prevention inspection monthly by a trained staff member; drills recorded
Ohio	Monthly	Ohio Admin. Code 5180:2-12-16	Written documentation on-site: date, time, headcount, route, evacuation time
Georgia	Monthly	Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. (Bright from the Start rules)	Each drill documented; children accounted for and plan followed

A few things stand out in the table. California and Pennsylvania are outliers on frequency — every 6 months and every 60 days, respectively — while the rest default to monthly. Florida's rule is written as a per-year minimum with a spacing rule rather than a flat "once a month," which trips up centers that assume monthly automatically satisfies it (10 drills spread across 12 months, at least 30 days apart, still needs deliberate scheduling).

What inspectors look for in the log

Date and time of each drill, spread across different times of day (and different shifts, if the center runs more than one).
Evacuation route used, with proof that alternate routes get practiced, not the same exit every time.
Headcount — number of children and staff present and accounted for after evacuation.
Total evacuation time, especially in states like Texas that set a maximum (three minutes).
Consistency with the required interval. A gap longer than the state's required frequency is a citable finding even if every individual drill was logged correctly.
Availability at inspection. Several states (Florida, Ohio, Illinois) specify the log must be produced on request during a site visit, not reconstructed afterward.

How long to keep records

Retention rules are the least standardized part of this. California requires records on-site for at least one year. Other states specify the log must be "on file" or "available for inspection" without stating an exact retention period in the sections reviewed here — in practice, licensing agencies expect records covering at least the current and prior licensing year. Where a state doesn't publish an explicit retention duration, the safer default is to keep at least 12 months of drill logs on hand and never discard a log before the next licensing renewal or inspection cycle.

Fire drill logs are one of the simplest things a licensing inspector checks and one of the easiest things to get flagged for — usually not because the drill didn't happen, but because the paperwork wasn't kept up to date or wasn't on hand when asked for. A dated log filled in the same day as each drill is the fix for both problems.

Get the log this guide describes

The free monthly fire drill log covers the fields inspectors check across every state above — plus a 5-document compliance pack if you want the rest of the paperwork ready too.