Every day, millions of working and single parents place their children in some form of daycare. These services can be run in professional facilities or people’s private homes. Regardless of the circumstances, childcare providers are expected to be trustworthy and educated professionals. When they fail to meet the standard of care owed to clients and their children, the results can be disastrous.
Childcare-injury attorney Jeffrey Killino believes that anyone who works with children should be required to take the utmost care for the safety of every child within their care. If your child has been injured by a negligent childcare provider, contact nationally-renowned child-injury lawyer Jeffrey Killino at 877-875-2927 for expert and experienced assistance in seeking the compensation to which you and your child are entitled.
Cases We Handle
Our daycare-injury lawyers can be of service if your child has been injured by:
- Failure to Supervise
- Safety Code Violations
- Caretaker Negligence
- Physical Abuse
- Emotional/Psychological Abuse
- Sexual Abuse
State Childcare Licenses
Every state has licensing requirements for childcare centers. These licenses are meant to ensure the competency of all daycare workers and minimize the kinds of tragedies listed above. If you are seeking a daycare center for your child, make sure that every facility you consider is licensed with your state.
This licensing system is not fail-proof, however. Some licensed daycare worker make serious mistakes, while others become intentionally abusive. Still others lie about their licenses or fake documentation.
The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies (NACCRRA), a network of more than 850 child-care resource and referral centers, can aid you in choosing a safe and reputable daycare facility for your child. If your child has become the victim of childcare fraud or negligence, daycare-injury attorney Jeffrey Killino will help you attain the compensation you deserve.
The Law As It Pertains to Daycare Centers
Federal law requires each state to maintain policies for the protection of children’s health and safety in daycare environments. Though these policies vary from state to state, every daycare center, regardless of location, has a duty of care to provide a reasonably safe environment for children under the center’s care. State Administrative Codes generally regulate with regard to acceptable ratios of children to staff, the number of children allowed in a center at one time, and safety procedures for emergencies and playground time.
The American Association of Pediatrics (AAP), however, has found that many states’ policies are below the recommendations of health and safety experts. As a result, the AAP and similar national organizations have adopted voluntary standards of their own regarding physical space requirements, child to staff ratios, and other staff-related matters.
Negligence actions for daycare injuries
If your child has been injured in a daycare center as a result of the negligence of center staff, you may be able to bring an action in negligence to recover damages for the injuries your child has suffered. If the center environment is negligently designed or arranged in a manner dangerous to children, the owner of the center and/or anyone the owner hired to set up the center may be found liable in a negligence action for the injuries a child has sustained as a result.
Duty of care
The standard of care required of daycare staff and daycare-center owners and designers is a standard of reasonable care, or the care that a person of reasonable prudence would exercise under the same or similar circumstances. This duty extends to every aspect of the center, including common areas, restrooms, playgrounds and playground equipment, classrooms and classroom equipment, food and drink that may be brought in or provided, and transportation, if such is made available to children using the center’s services.
Breach of duty
The standard of care can be breached, or violated, in many ways. Staff may be inattentive during any of a number of indoor and outdoor activities. Centers themselves (or the owners and operators of centers) may breach their duty of care by failing to properly maintain classroom equipment, restroom facilities, or playground equipment, by failing to provide a reasonably clean and sanitary environment, or by allowing children access to objects that pose risks of choking injuries.
Daycare centers that provide transportation may be negligent in hiring inadequate drivers, failing to monitor drivers, failing to ensure that children are properly seated and strapped in, or failing to properly inspect and maintain vehicles.
Causation
If a breach of the duty of care owed to children in daycare centers is a cause of a child’s injury, the responsible individuals and/or entities may be held liable for the injuries their negligence has caused.
Damages
If someone breaches a duty of care owed to another, but the person to whom the duty is owed does not suffer any physical or other injury as a result, the law does not allow for the recovery of damages from the negligent individual. Thus, proving that actual harm was caused to your child by a negligent caregiver is a necessary step in an action in negligence.
Contact Us
Daycare-injury lawyer Jeffrey Killino has extensive experience in daycare-injury cases. For expert and compassionate assistance in pursuing your legal options, contact our offices at 877-875-2927.
