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On a 92-degree day in July 2024, workers at a daycare center in Sugar Land, Texas, left a 2-year-old boy outside on a playground. The panicking toddler desperately banged on the door and begged to get back inside the center. No one heard his cries while he was left in the dangerous heat. When he was finally found nearly an hour later, his body was covered in bug bites.
The toddler’s mother contacted our Houston daycare injury lawyers at The Button Law Firm to hold the Sugar Land daycare center accountable for essentially abandoning the toddler and causing him to suffer an unnecessarily high amount of stress. Our experienced legal team fought to get justice and secured a life-changing recovery for the boy and his family.
How Did the Sugar Land Daycare Center Fail This Toddler?
Parents, like the ones in this case, pay daycare centers to keep their children safe. If a center fails to uphold its end of the agreement, and a child is hurt, this is called breach of duty. In this case, the Sugar Land daycare center breached its duty to provide a safe and nurturing environment for the toddler. Fortunately for the toddler’s parents, the center had surveillance cameras that captured the entire incident. Footage revealed that the center failed to closely supervise the toddler. For 42 minutes, the toddler was seen banging on the exterior door and begging to be let inside.
What makes this abandonment incident all the more concerning is the location of the daycare center: near the intersection of heavily trafficked roads and by homes with uncovered swimming pools and no perimeter fencing. Had the toddler been able to escape from the daycare center’s playground unnoticed, he could have been hit by a car, abducted by a stranger, or even drowned in a nearby pool without anyone from the daycare center noticing.
Per Texas daycare laws, also known as the minimum standards, daycare centers are required to closely supervise the children they are responsible for by maintaining close visual and auditory proximity. In addition, when children are let outside for recess, caregivers are required to conduct face-to-name counts upon exiting and re-entering the facility. This is intended to prevent any incidents where a child is locked out of a facility, like the toddler in this case.
Sadly, the Sugar Land daycare opted not to follow any of these safety measures, which led to what happened to this toddler. To make matters worse, the daycare center chose not to immediately contact the toddler’s parents to alert them about the incident that endangered their son, breaking the state’s childcare laws.
An independent investigation conducted by the state cited the Sugar Land daycare center for seven different violations of the minimum standards, including its lack of supervision. This investigation revealed that two caregivers at the center did not know which children they were responsible for; therefore, it resulted in the toddler being left outside without anyone at the center noticing he did not return to the classroom.
The investigation also found that the daycare center’s negligence stemmed from the top. The daycare director was aware that the toddler was left outside for a prolonged amount of time on the day of the incident, but did not report the incident to the state as required by law. In addition, the director and caregivers did not follow the daycare’s safety plan intended to protect the other children at the center upon learning about what happened to the toddler.
Lastly, the daycare center was cited for not immediately communicating with the toddler’s parents and alerting them of the dangerous situation involving their young son and his subsequent injuries. The center also neglected to provide them with a copy of the incident report, a step that is outlined in the minimum standards.
Our experienced daycare injury lawyers discovered the incident involving the toddler in this case was not a one-off event. The center had previously received six additional citations for safety violations—three were issued just two months before the incident in this case.
How Did The Button Law Firm Get Justice for The Toddler and His Family in Sugar Land?
As you can see from the citations listed above, the daycare center in Sugar Land violated multiple minimum standards meant to keep the toddler safe.
Our team of daycare injury lawyers is experienced in dealing with daycare centers like the one in this case, which attempted to cover up the incident by hiding from the state’s agencies right from the start.
Because of the daycare’s and its caregivers’ negligence, the toddler was deeply traumatized from the incident. He suffered a high degree of stress and developed separation anxiety whenever he was away from his parents. He would throw tantrums and act out when left alone in a room or when dropped off at his new daycare center.
His trauma also impacted his developmental milestones. Prior to the abandonment incident at the daycare center, the toddler was potty-trained. In the aftermath, he regressed and began having accidents. Even his speech skills regressed. He also began turning to items such as blankets and stuffed animals for comfort.
We fought to hold the daycare center accountable for abandoning the toddler and attempting to cover up the incident. With our help, the family got justice and gained access to long-term resources to help the toddler process his trauma and move forward in a healthy way.
Contact The Button Law Firm If Your Child Was Injured at a Daycare Center
If your child was endangered or physically or emotionally injured at a daycare center anywhere in Texas, contact our experienced daycare injury lawyers at The Button Law Firm. With lawyers in Dallas, Houston, and Midland, we are ready to listen, fight for your family, and help your family move forward. Our lawyers 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. Call us at 214-699-4409, email us at intake@buttonlawfirm.com, or fill out a contact form for a free case evaluation.
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