Daycares must follow guidelines put in place by the state to keep kids safe. One of the most important guidelines that daycares must follow is ensuring children are kept in age-appropriate rooms. In Texas, daycares usually split children up into the following age groups:
- Infants under 11 months old
- Babies 1 to 2 years old
- Toddlers 3 to 4 years old
- And school-aged children at 5 years old and up.
Why Do Kids at Daycare Need to be Separated by Age?
Age grouping in daycare classrooms is done for a few reasons:
First, to ensure there is a proper ratio of caregivers to children. Younger kids, like babies and toddlers, require more supervision than older kids. That means the younger the kids, the smaller the classroom.
Second, younger children require more child-proofing of their classrooms. Everything, including the flooring, furniture, and toys kids play with should all be age-appropriate for that group. Younger kids need soft flooring since they fall down more often. Furniture must also be properly secured because kids have a tendency to climb on things. Secured furniture will prevent tip-overs which can cause serious crushing injuries. Kids have a tendency to put objects in their mouth – which means the toys in their room must be free of choking hazards and age-appropriate.
And third, putting kids of different ages in one room can be dangerous, especially for younger and smaller children. They are at risk of being physically harmed by older kids simply due to size and maturity differences. We see this happen when daycares are short-staffed and combine age groups in unsafe ways. If your child was seriously injured because their daycare ignored proper age-grouping rules, it’s important that you get help immediately.
Contact our daycare injury lawyers at The Button Law Firm to get help today. We’re here to keep you moving forward.
