Daycare Injury Lawyers

Was Your Child Harmed in Daycare?

Legal steps to take when negligence leads to harm.

For most families, keeping an eye on the children twenty-four hours a day simply isn’t an option. Daycare is a crucial service. It encourages early childhood socialization, while enabling parents to earn a living and lead balanced lives.

Of course, trusting someone else with your child’s safety is no small matter. Millions of parents wrestle with anxiety over enrolling their children in daycare each year. Some search far and wide for the perfect facility. Others must make do with limited local options. Ultimately, it’s a tremendous act of faith to drop off your child at daycare and shut the door behind you.

Get a Consultation

Contact us or Call us today

Some Daycare Accidents are Preventable

While there are many daycare centers run by caring and careful people, needless accidents can and do happen. In fact, accidental injuries are the leading cause of death among children, as recorded by the CDC. A child is treated for an injury in the emergency room about once every four seconds in the U.S, and one dies every hour. Creating a child-safe space is a difficult and complicated proposition, and daycare is an industry like any other; financial priorities sometimes eclipse safety.

Common Daycare Injuries

Daycare introduces some specific dangers into a child’s life, particularly injuries caused by other children, like bites and bruises from thrown objects. For the most part, however, the risks that follow children everywhere are the same risks that rise during daycare hours. The National Institute of Health (NIH) lists the most common types of childhood injury as:

• Traffic Accidents. This includes cases where children are struck by vehicles, as well as crashes with children on board. Poor fence maintenance, an unlatched gate, or a momentary lapse in supervision can easily lead to a small child wandering out onto the road, especially in group situations at daycare facilities.
• Small children are most likely to suffocate at night, but a surprising number of suffocations and strangulations occur on playgrounds. In a by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, fatal playground strangulations were more than four times as common as fatal falls from the equipment. These incidents were generally caused by items like jump ropes or drawstrings becoming tangled or snagged.
• Drowning is a serious danger whenever any kind of pool facilities are present, particularly at home daycares. It doesn’t take much water for a drowning to occur. In August of 2017, a toddler fatally drowned in no more than an inflatable backyard pool at a home daycare.
• Household chemicals and medicines are the most frequently talked-about poisoning hazards for small children. Some of these, like drain and toilet bowl cleaners, will need to be kept on hand by any daycare facility and secured accordingly. Others, like diabetes medication or paint thinner, may incidentally be present in daycare centers that are also homes. Poison control also warns that batteries — like those found in many remotes and toys — can burn a hole through the esophagus in less than two hours, causing potentially life-threatening or irreparable damage.
• Bottle warmers are one of the leading causes of burns for small children, both at home and at daycare. These small heating devices are tempting for children waiting to be fed, easy to knock over, and capable of causing instant second degree burns. Some daycare centers have switched to using warm tap water or serving formula cold from the fridge, but bottle warmers are still in use in many locations.
• There are hidden dangers everywhere, but the obvious danger of falling on the playground at a daycare should not be dismissed. Over 200,000 children a year are treated for playground injuries in U.S emergency rooms, with one in ten of these children suffering a traumatic brain injury. Traumatic brain injuries can cause death, loss of senses, and a plethora of developmental problems.

Daycares Have a Responsibility to Protect Children

Parents take the trust they place in daycare centers very seriously, and thankfully, so does the law. Regulations for daycare centers in the state of Georgia are extensive and very specific. Any furniture heavy enough to cause injury by falling must be safely secured. Playgrounds must be kept clean, with equipment properly anchored. Fences and gates are mandatory, and certain teacher to child ratios are mandated by law such that overcrowding is strictly prohibited.

Daycare centers are required to keep records and notify parents immediately of all injuries that may require professional medical care. All caregivers must be trained in many aspects of childcare, including hazard identification. Ideally, this training prevents accidents from occurring through honest ignorance or lack of foresight.

Of course, as in all things, the existence of regulations does not always mean that these regulations are followed.

What to Do If Your Child Has Been Injured at Daycare

If your child has been injured at daycare, seek medical attention right away, both for the child’s well-being and to establish a record of the incident. Afterward, you’ll need to talk to an expert in premises liability cases, like those at the Stoddard Firm, about your next steps.

Your child’s injury may have been the result of one caregiver’s negligence, or a lack of support from the center itself. Either way, it’s a violation of the faith you’ve placed in your daycare center and an indication that something is wrong.

By seeking the compensation you deserve, you ensure that you’ll be able to pay for your child’s medical expenses, take the time you need to help him or her recover, and still make ends meet. You’ll also be helping to encourage safer daycare practices, protecting other children from accidents in the future. Give us a call at 678-RESULT or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.

Client Reviews

What our clients are saying about us

Robert P.

(Georgia)

Matthew Stoddard and his staff are wonderful people. This law firm is a no complication type of place. They always answer the phone without the hassle of going through 30 different people and always return emails just as quick as they are received. Thank you gentlemen for everything y’all do.

View More Reviews on Google Maps and Yelp