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Should a daycare be considered an I-4 or an Education use

N

Nicole Brooks

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Joined
Sep 21, 2018
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113
Location
Baltimore
I have a daycare, they serve children 3 month to kindergarten as well as school age children for before and after care. I classified the space as I4 due to the age of the younger children. I was issued the permit with no comments. The space is in the first floor of a three story office building. The electrician has recently filed for a fire alarm permit and the fire protection engineer at the county is telling me I need to revise the drawings an classify it as an education use and upgrade the fire alarm system to the whole building to include voice annunciation. I have provided code sections from both NFPA 101 and IBC pretty clearly defining the space as an I4.

NFPA: 14.1.22 Educational occupancies shall include preschools, kindergartens, and other schools meeting both of the following criteria:
1) The purpose is primarily education, even though the children who attend such schools are of preschool age
2) the children are all 30 months or older.

All of the children here are not 30 months or older

IBC Commentary: for 305.2

Group E day care occupancies include facilities intended to be used for the care and supervision of more than five children older than 2.5 years of age where individuals care is for the period of less than 24 hours per day. Day Car center are a special concern since they are generally occupied by preschool children who are less capable or responding to an emergency. The hazards found in a day care center are far greater than in normal educational facilities. , not so much because of the occupant or fuel load, but because of the inability of the occupants to respond. Children 2.5 years of age or less usually are not able to recognize an emergency situation, may not respond appropriately or simply may not be able to egress without assistance. Thus, facilities that have more than five children 2.5 years of age or less are classified as child care facilities and and considered to be group I-4 (see section 308.36) unless the provisions of Section 308.1 through 308.6.4 allow for a different classification.

We have 2 dozen kids under the age of 2.5 years and do not have a second direct access to the exterior to allow for it to be classified as an education use.

I talked to the county plans reviewer who reviewed the plans and was told that while he agrees with me, we've been overruled.

What is everyone's thoughts on this matter?
 
steveray said:
The county is dumb...The building plans call it an I4 and that permit is approved?
Click to expand...
Yes, it was approved and then the electrician went to pull the fire alarm permit and the County Fire Protection Engineer stepped in and told us it needed to be changed to education so they could force us to add voice communication to the system for the whole building, a 100K upgrade.
 
Let's not lose sight of the Fact that those Children under 30 months are not capable of self-preservation!

Here in Philly there are other Day Care rules beyond the Building Code concerning staffing levels etc
Perhaps your jurisdiction has those other agencies to help ensure the safety of those placed in your care.

Seems like you need to do a real Risk Assessment with those AHJs and come to an agreement.

In case of an Incident, how long would it take to get those Kids OUT OF THE BUILDING?
 
I live in Colorado, which i believe is irrelevant, I am looking to purchase a commercial building to open a childcare center and I cannot get any answers from the local Fire Authority. They said they do not do any preinspections or consults, which seems ridiculous since they are the ones doing the final inspection. They said I need to hire an architect, which is thousands of dollars just for them to tell me what I need for code. I have read the IFC on childcare code, but I cannot decipher what I am needing. The building entrance is on ground level, then you either go up 6 steps to the top level, or down 6 steps to the basement level, which has full size windows in all the classrooms. I am trying to figure out if I have exit doors in each classroom on the upper level and sprinklers on the lower level, do I still need sprinklers on the upper level? I am trying to decide whether it would be safer, and more cost efficient to just put sprinklers throughout both levels, or do exit doors on the upper level and sprinklers on the lower, and if putting exit doors on the upper level would be sufficient for fire code...
 
@ ~ @

Welcome ** jenstimenow ** to the Building Codes Forum !

Is there a Building Official; in the jurisdiction of the planned Day Care,
that you can go and discuss this matter with ?

@ ~ @
 
Sucks that the jurisdiction is not helpful, but I would refer you to a designer as well as we generally do not have enough time to do a code analysis on the fly...But we would come out and try to look for big issues and give you some ideas...
 
Age and number of children is first consideration. are they capable of self preservation?
Then, if your state is anything like PA, your State will have additional requirements for the Building as well as the staff ratio, credentials etc.

So, you need to know more than just Used as Day Care......
 
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