Although there are many projects around the world to make schools safe places, there is still need to specify requirements of schools to help them to provide safe school environments. For that reason the aim of the current study is to investigate the physical, psychological and sanitary characteristics of preschools. Quantitative method with descriptive statistics was employed for the research model. 30 private and state preschools in Istanbul/Turkey made up the sample of the study. The data was collected in 2015-2016 by using “Safety Checklist for Preschool Environment”, which was developed by the researchers. The checklist, which has 36 items rated on a 3-point likert scale, is divided into physical, psychological and sanitary safety. The checklist was filled out based on the school and classroom observations as well as the interviews with the teachers, principals and other staff. Inter-rater reliability was high (.85). The participating schools met %49, %53 and %45 of the physical, psychological and sanitary criteria, respectively, suggesting that they are moderately safe. Safety in preschools should be evaluated based on the standards and requirements of the Ministry of Education, their needs should be identified and met to support children’s development and learning
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