Closing one window or moving one chair is not a complete assessment of the windows throughout a home.
List each window and the access around it
Give each window a room name and description. Record how it opens, nearby furniture, accessible cords and whether it is part of an escape route. Include windows in rooms used less often. Look at the arrangement without opening a window near a child or inviting the child to test it.
In its 2026 window-safety advice, the CPSC recommends guards or stops, openings no greater than four inches when using stops, and moving furniture away from windows. Screens do not prevent a child's fall. The agency also addresses guards that adults and older children can open for fire escape on the sixth floor and below. Consult the appropriate installer and local requirements for your actual home.
Keep the escape question attached to the fitting question
Before adding a guard, stop or other device, check the window construction and the product's instructions. Ask how the device affects required escape access and who will operate it. Renters should discuss the installation with their landlord. Do not substitute an improvised sheet, wedge, removed handle or general-purpose adhesive for an appropriate, instructed solution.
Record the window-covering arrangement separately. Cords and loops introduce a different access question from the opening itself. The CPSC window-cord information explains that hazard. Do not assume a covering is outside reach simply because its usual hanging position is high.
Recheck after moving the room
A chair, chest or toy storage unit can change access to a previously distant window. Include window access when moving furniture, preparing a visitor room or staying elsewhere. Share the operating arrangement with caregivers, including what remains unresolved. Do not rely on telling a young child to avoid the sill as the protective measure.
An invented bedroom change
The new reading chair creates a new route
A family adds a chair below a bedroom window for bedtime reading. During the layout check they notice the chair changes what the child can reach. They move the proposed seating location and send the landlord photographs and the window description to discuss an appropriate fitting. Their record includes the room's escape route and the covering's cord arrangement. Those questions remain open until answered; the family does not mark the window complete because a screen is already present.
Make it your own
Keep opening protection and escape access on one record
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Use the door guide to coordinate window and door escape access, and assign owners to unresolved household hazards.
The basis for this guide
Sources & editorial notes
Primary sources support the health, safety, and technical statements linked above. Worked examples and household worksheets are practical illustrations prepared for this guide; they are not product tests.
Revised October 31, 2026. No independent medical or specialist review is credited to this edition. Read our editorial standards.
Illustrative imagery accompanies our guides; it does not document testing, a reader’s home, or a clinical assessment.
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