AN ACT for child care facilities to have the option of conducting courtesy 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.  Optional courtesy morning safety call.

(a)        To ensure child safety, as well as reduce the number of child vehicular heat stroke deaths, it is recommended that a child care facility, as defined in G.S. 110‑86, have the option to conduct a courtesy 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 may place the optional courtesy morning safety call no later than 30 minutes after the anticipated time the child should have arrived at the child care facility. If the optional courtesy morning safety call is made, 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 optional courtesy 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 if the optional courtesy morning safety call is made.

(b)        No child care facility shall be held criminally or civilly liable for failure to conduct the optional courtesy morning safety call as set forth in subsection (a) of this section.

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.