What Should I Do if My Child is Injured at Daycare?
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If you do a google search about daycare injuries, you will find that a lot of law firms are falling over themselves to sue daycare facilities.
Are there really that many injuries in daycare? Is suing the right course of action? The answer to both of those questions is maybe.
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What to Do if a Child is Injured at Daycare
If your child is injured at daycare, what you do depends on the injury itself. If the daycare was negligent and/or the injury was severe, it needs to be reported. You should also take the child to a doctor or ER even if the injury doesn’t seem that serious. Calling a lawyer is also a possibility.
The sad fact is that the statistics for injuries at daycare facilities are outdated and inconsistent. Not all states require daycares to report injuries.
Likewise, unless parents intervene, many facilities avoid reporting injuries even if it’s required. Because of this, it’s hard to say how prevalent daycare injuries actually are. The only thing a parent can honestly do is be prepared.
Minor Injuries
Children, especially toddlers, are accidents waiting to happen. They are still learning coordination, which means there are a lot of falls.
In addition, young children are naturally curious. Electrical outlet covers wouldn’t exist if so many kids didn’t wonder what happens when you stick pennies, paper clips, tongues, or their sister’s fingers inside.
Parents should expect that minor injuries can happen wherever a young child goes.
Your child is bound to come home with bandages on their knees and a great story to tell about their epic playground disaster. Take these small injuries in stride.
Incident Reports
For injuries, it’s not uncommon for a daycare facility to have you sign an incident report after your child’s injury.
Make sure you actually read the report and confirm that what’s written matches up with the story they’re telling you.
I always request a copy of the incident report to keep for my records.
The reason I request a copy is that if for whatever reason, I ever need to hire a personal injury attorney or get family and protective services involved, I have my own documents I can present.
This way, I don’t have to rely on just the daycare to produce those documents.
Is that a bit extreme?
Probably!
But it does make me feel better knowing I have it.
Unexplained Bruising
As stated before, scrapes and bumps are not really something I worry too much about.
However, bruises that aren’t easily and eagerly explained by your child should cause you to question your daycare.
Sadly, daycare abuse is very real. If you suspect abuse or negligence is happening at your daycare, investigate immediately. Get local authorities involved if needed.
By all means, if you worry about your child being harmed at their daycare, do not keep them enrolled.
Sometimes this unexplained bruising doesn’t come from the daycare teachers but from older children.
It’s still the daycare provider’s responsibility to ensure your child’s safety, even if the injuries are at the hands of another child. Any harm due to malfeasance or negligence should be investigated and possibly prosecuted.
Major Injuries
A major injury, like a severe cut, burn, or broken bone, needs to be dealt with immediately.
Take your child to the emergency room and follow up with the daycare about the exact details of the injury.
Ask your child what happened when they are not in the same room as the provider to make sure the stories are the same.
Unfortunately, young children may not be able to share any of this information. You may need to consult any cameras in the facility (this is one of the reasons why I’m a fan of picking daycares with cameras).
A major injury should be reported, but how to report that varies from state to state. You can find out how to report the injury by visiting your state’s child abuse and neglect hotline.
If the injury is very severe, you should also consider talking with an attorney.
Key Takeaways
If your child is seriously injured, if they’re injured more often than is reasonable or if they cannot explain the injuries, you should take daycare injuries seriously. You might even need to get authorities involved.
What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Have You Read These Yet?
- How Do I Afford Daycare For a 2nd Child?
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- Differences Between Daycare and Kindergarten
