How Common are Daycare Injuries?

How Common Are Kids’ Daycare Injuries?

Young children are prone to injuries. They are learning to crawl and walk, and their special awareness—the ability to recognize and avoid bumping into objects such as walls and furniture—is still not fully developed.

In addition, our Dallas injury lawyer explains, they are exploring the world and are full of curiosity. That is why there is an entire industry dedicated to child-proofing rooms, electrical outlets, and furniture to keep children safe at a daycare or home.

When a child comes home from daycare with a bump or bruise, it may be easy to dismiss the injury as kids being kids. However, the daycare has a responsibility to keep the children in its care out of harm’s way. This article explains how kids can get injured at a Texas daycare, what to do if your child gets injured at a Texas daycare, and when to get a lawyer involved.

How Kids Can Get Hurt at Texas Daycares

Kids are bound to get some scrapes or bruises as they master skills like walking or running on a daycare’s playground with classmates. Also, let’s face it: Kids can be excited to wear Band-Aids like stickers! However, severe injuries that require emergency medical attention are not normal, nor are they acceptable.

Sadly, there were 1,415 confirmed serious injuries in licensed daycare centers across Texas over the course of two years, according to the latest report from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. In our view, that is 1,415 too many.

When children get hurt at daycare, it is important for parents to understand the severity and the circumstances of the injury.

Key questions to ask:

• Who caused the injury?
• Was this injury preventable by abuse or neglect?

Common causes of daycare Injuries caused by abuse or neglect include:

• Inadequate staffing such as an overwhelming child-to-teacher ratio
• Lack of supervision for the children and daycare workers
• Unqualified workers who lack knowledge about age-appropriate discipline techniques or interacting with children
• Unsafe facilities, including unsafe classrooms, furniture, handwashing, and playground equipment. Also, lack of proper hygiene such as handwashing
• Criminal acts such as a care provider purposely abusing a child physically or sexually

How to Investigate Your Child’s Daycare Injury

Here are five important questions to ask after your child has been injured at a Texas daycare:

1. Can I get a copy of the incident report?
2. Who is in charge of monitoring my child?
3. Can I see a video of the incident?
4. When did the incident happen?
5. Have you reported the incident to the state? If you haven’t already, are you going to report the incident to the state?

It is important to ask these questions and preserve evidence such as taking pictures of your child’s injuries and saving a copy of any videos of the incident, including recording the video with your own phone as soon as you learn about your child’s injuries. This way the daycare doesn’t have time to delete any evidence or claim that the incident never happened.

When to Get a Lawyer Involved After Your Child Was Hurt at a Texas Daycare

To avoid any potential damage to a daycare’s reputation, the facility director and employees often refrain from telling the whole truth after a serious incident involving a child. If you believe your child’s daycare is hiding information about your child’s injury or your child’s injury was preventable, reach out to our experienced and knowledgeable daycare injury lawyers at The Button Law Firm. Your family may be able to hold the daycare accountable for your child’s injuries and seek compensation to cover:

• Costly medical bills to treat your child’s injuries
• Pain and suffering