Face-to-Name Checks: A Simple Step to Protect Children at Texas Daycare Centers

Our Texas daycare injury lawyers have experienced a spike in the number of parents reaching out about their children being “forgotten” or lost in the shuffle at local daycare centers. Recent cases include a toddler at a daycare center in Allen exiting the facility unnoticed, a 2-year-old girl left outside on a daycare’s playground in Irving, and, in Nacogdoches, a 3-year-old girl wandering from a center and ending up in the middle of a busy highway.

If these scary stories make you nervous about having your child in daycare, know this: These incidents are easily preventable as long as a daycare center acts responsibly. Unfortunately, there are negligent daycare centers out there that either ignore or fail to follow state-mandated minimum standards that are meant to protect little ones at childcare facilities across Texas. One standard that’s a simple preventative step is conducting face-to-name checks. Our daycare injury lawyers are educating parents of little ones about this important protocol at daycare centers, especially those with toddler classrooms.

What Is a Face-to-Name Check and When Is It Conducted?

Face-to-name checking is a process used by daycare workers and teachers to keep track of children at a childcare facility. It involves the worker or teacher reviewing the classroom roster by calling out the children’s names and matching their faces when their names are called. The state requires daycare centers to perform these checks throughout the day, especially when the following actions occur:

• Changing classrooms. When teachers hand off children to another teacher, face-to-name checks ensure the new teachers know exactly which children are now in their room.
• Moving a group of children throughout the daycare center. Instances include when exiting a classroom to go to the playground, leaving the playground to go back to the classroom, and returning to a classroom from another area at the daycare center.
• Taking field trips. The process ensures all children are safe and accounted for throughout the trip.
• Transporting children to and from the daycare center by van or bus. Face-to-name checks should be conducted as the children enter and exit the vehicle.

Conducting these checks is essential for keeping little ones safe, happy, and healthy while under the watch of a daycare center.

How Can Children Be Harmed When Texas Daycare Centers Fail to Complete Face-to-Name Checks?

Our experienced daycare injury lawyers have found that curious toddlers younger than 5 years old are at the greatest risk of being harmed when daycare centers do not conduct face-to-name checks. Children can be:

• Forgotten and locked inside a daycare bus or van. Their small bodies can easily overheat on a hot day, causing them to suffer from heatstroke and dehydration.
• Subjected to overexposure of the elements on an extremely hot or cold day on a daycare’s playground. This can cause a child to experience hypothermia and an increased heart rate, or it could trigger an asthma attack.
• Unsupervised, making it easier for them to wander away from the daycare center unnoticed. This dangerous scenario can endanger children’s lives because it could lead to drowning in a nearby body of water, being hit by a car, or even kidnapping.

These situations happen when daycare centers:

• Cut safety corners to meet an increasing childcare demand and maximize profits
• Do not properly train workers and do not ensure caregivers complete annual training requirements
• Fail to ensure caregivers are properly supervised and complying with the minimum standards
• Hire unqualified caregivers
• Not mainlining the facility itself, including conducting safety checks around the center’s premises and monitoring all exterior doors

Can I Sue a Texas Daycare Center That Does Not Perform Face-to-Name Checks?

If your child was seriously hurt or endangered because a daycare center did not conduct face-to-name checks, you can hold the facility accountable for its negligence by filing a lawsuit. Going through this process can compensate your family for damages and can put the daycare center on notice that if it doesn’t correct its failures, it could be shut down.

The following are examples of damages that your family may be compensated for in a lawsuit against a Texas daycare center:

• Developmental regressions that a child may experience, such as forgetting potty training
• Experiencing severe behavioral issues such as extreme separation anxiety from a parent or not trusting authority figures
• Medical bills for current, ongoing, and future treatments to help your child heal from their injuries sustained at the daycare center
• Mental anguish that can manifest via constant nightmares and disrupted sleep patterns
• Pain and suffering
• Resources such as play therapy sessions to help a child process a traumatic daycare incident in a healthy way

Lawsuits in Texas are required to be filed within two years of the date of your child’s injury or trauma. In addition, our legal team requires time to investigate. That’s why we encourage parents to reach out sooner rather than later to prevent the statute of limitations from expiring. Call us at 214-699-4409, email us at  [email protected], or fill out a contact form for a free consultation. Our experienced daycare injury attorneys will listen and determine the best way to help you and your family move forward.  

Help Your Child with The Button Law Firm’s Daycare Injury Lawyers

Our team of experienced and compassionate daycare injury lawyers at The Button Law Firm is dedicated to advocating for you and your family if your child was harmed or injured while in the care of a Texas childcare facility. We are ready to listen and fight for your family to get justice and move forward. Our attorneys at The Button Law Firm are recognized on the prestigious Texas Super Lawyers list, and we can help guide you after a traumatizing incident involving your child. We work on contingency, meaning we don’t charge you or collect any upfront fees to get started on your case. Get a free case evaluation by calling us at 214-699-4409, emailing us at [email protected], or filling out a contact form.