National Playground Compliance Group

Criteria set and met

In the winter of 2008, the College Community School District, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, formed a playground advisory committee to formulate criteria for new pre-K and elementary playgrounds across the growing district. They began playground planning with a third-party assessment of existing play structures to determine what equipment and areas could be retained moving forward and what areas they should remove for compliance and safety purposes.

They determined they were going to build three new areas:

  • Pre-K  (ages 2-5) play area for their early childhood program
  • Open space sport and recreation area and
  • Elementary playground (Ages 5-12) for the new elementary that was being built

A board member for College community was aware of National Playground Compliance Group’s (NPCG) playground compliance program through the Iowa Association School Boards quarterly mailing and had called NPCG’s program manager, Karen Sherman, for assistance as they moved through their goals for the project.

Criteria and Scope
The playground committee consisted of two elementary principals, two students, a special education instructor, a parent of two special needs children and the architectural firm that had designed the school buildings. The final playground criteria determined by the committee included:

  • Educational opportunities on play area
  • Safety is core design goal throughout area
  • Outdoor Classroom area
  • Areas for social events
  • Challenging and age-appropriate physical fitness events
  • ADA-, CPSC- and ASTM-compliant equipment and installation
  • Integrated recreational free space along with new and existing structures
  • Use of green building materials and design


NPCG was awarded the contract to retrofit surfacing throughout the existing play area and additional new ADA swings; build a new 2 to 5 early childhood area; install a new hard surface recreation area with soccer, street hockey and basketball events; and install a new 5 to 12 playground for the new elementary. NPCG was the only company that met all of the core criteria and overall scope of the playground project.

Being able to work closely with the district from the planning and design stages all the way through installation, NPCG was able to deliver on all of the district’s criteria, on time and on budget.

The scope and size of this project was ambitious. In the end, however, the project was successful because of the district and NPCG’s commitment to work together in all aspects of the design and delivery. Clear expectations were established by the committee and, ultimately, all goals were attained through this partnership.

NPCG and College community partnered again to install new, large play area at another one its updated elementary schools in the summer of 2009.