Abstract
Recently in most homes, children are mostly cared in early childhood education facilities. However, the increased number of safety accidents on children cared in such facilities has become a social issue. For that, the purpose of this study is to suggest interior environmental planning elements to improve safety level of early childhood education facilities. This study was carried out by performing literature review analysis and survey. First, in total of 42 environmental planning elements that can be applied domestically were derived from analyzing safety related guidelines for children facilities located both domestically and internationally then a survey was carried out targeted for teachers and staffs in the facilities on importance of the factors. The results of this study are as followings. First, it is required to intensify the level of safety related training for teachers and staffs in the facilities including better treatment for them. Second, the necessity of safety environment by each space in such facilities is required to be approached upon the level of child activities. Third, facilities planning and finalizing planning are important for improving safety of early childhood education facilities. Forth, from factor analysis on the extracted environmental planning elements that are considered as important by the teachers from both day care centers and kindergartens, they were categorized in 5 groups including 'collision and fall prevention plan', 'physical characteristic consideration plan', 'evacuation safety plan', 'lock security plan' and 'outer control plan'. It is fair to say that constructing a better safety environment for children can be achieved by the environmental planning factors by this study.
