Child Injury and Daycare Negligence: Liability Expert's Analysis

Millions of children participate in programs operated by daycare centers, nursery schools, and camps across the United States and Canada. The most important aspect of childcare is the safety and supervision of children. When a teacher, recreation leader, camp counselor, or other supervisor is engaged in activities involving young children, there is a duty to protect the child from physical harm, sexual abuse, and other forms of personal injury. A breach of duty to protect the health, safety, and welfare of a child that leads to injury may result in daycare negligence lawsuits.

As an example, just before naptime a 4-year-old in a nursery school found a small button-shaped battery. Before dozing off on the cot, the child put the battery in his nose. A few days later, his mother noticed a discharge from his nose and thought he had a cold. After the boy complained of facial pain, she took him to a doctor. The battery was discovered lodged in his nose, leaking toxic chemicals. The battery caused serious burns and injuries, requiring extensive medical care.

Child Supervision and Daycare Negligence

Parents who leave children in the care of professionals trust them to make the decisions necessary to protect their children. This is reasonable, and every parent expects their children to be as healthy when they pick them up at the end of the day as when they left them there in the morning. Daycare programs, nursery schools, and camps, then, must exercise the highest degree of protection with children under their supervision. This includes taking adequate precautions to prevent all reasonable dangers; failure to do so can leave these programs liable for injuries to children in their care - and thousands of dollars in settlement or litigation costs.

These programs, however, are not "insurers of children's safety." The law requires those in charge to follow a standard of care that is appropriate for the age of the children under supervision and the particular circumstances. This duty does not require individual supervision of each child at all times. If a child sustains a serious injury while under the care of a daycare, nursery school, or camp provider, courts typically apply a duty/risk analysis to determine whether the provider met the applicable standard of care. This analysis takes into consideration the age of the child and the activity in which an injury was sustained, and then considers the program's duty of supervision against the risk of injury. The standard of care forms the basis of reasonable actions for maintaining the health, safety, and welfare of children engaged in a specific activity.

While states and courts vary on examples of reasonable dangers in daycare centers, nurseries, and camps, the general rule is: Identify risks associated with operating a program and supervising children, and correct for those risks. This includes the risk that toys may become unsafe with use or neglect. Staff should also check for such dangers as electrical hazards, sharp objects, and unprotected holes in the playground surface. It is important to note that reasonable dangers are those that the staff can control. A facility inspection will reveal many of these potential dangers. In addition to physical risks, staff supervision should be a consideration. Does the facility provide the required ratio of appropriately trained supervisors to children? Compliance with this standard can reduce the potential for liability and claims of negligent supervision of students and staff.

In addition, the question of whether injury to a child was foreseeable is often addressed in litigation and argued by plaintiff and defendant attorneys in such cases. For example, if the director of a daycare center conducts a safety inspection and discovers the slide on the playground is not securely fastened to the ground, causing it to sway when children use it, is foreseeable by any reasonable person that a child could be injured when playing on it. Once the program director knows of a hazard, that person has a duty to correct the hazard and to guard the children from injury until it is corrected. In this example, a daycare administrator knew of the defect and reported it to the maintenance department but failed to warn of the danger by restricting children from using the slide and did not follow up to ensure that the maintenance department repaired the slide in a timely manner. The following week, when three children climbed the steps of the slide, it fell over, seriously injuring one child. This injury was foreseeable and the daycare center could not defend its inaction, which was judged to be a proximate cause of injury to the child.

Courts are less likely to hold daycare centers, nursery schools, and camps liable for injuries resulting from normal childhood play. For example, if a nursery school maintains the correct level of supervision and two children are running while engaged in play typical for their age, collide, and one is injured, the facility is unlikely to be held liable. This is considered typical child play that presents possible physical injury, a normal part of childhood interaction.

A child finding a loose battery on the floor of a nursery school and inserting it in his nose is not typical child play. When a facility provides equipment and supplies, including electronic books and toys, the agency has a duty to reasonably assure that children will use these items in a way that does not present a risk of harm. Program administrators have a duty to check consumer warnings and recalls on equipment. Following manufacturer recommendations and training staff on appropriate use of equipment is insurance against misuse that might cause injury to a child. A facility can reasonably protect a child from harm by regularly inspecting its equipment and placing any unsafe item out of commission. In this case, there was no inspection of the battery-operated electronic books, even though a staff member was aware that the battery compartments were compromised on several books. Lack of attention to this detail cost the daycare center substantial litigation costs and a large settlement.

Daycare Accidents and Negligent Supervision and Training of Staff

Other types of accidents can be prevented and daycare negligence claims avoided with proper staff training and with appropriately developed and implemented policies and procedures. For example, children in an afterschool daycare program in a school cafeteria were running when one ran into a 300-pound, fold-up cafeteria table left in the middle of the room. The table fell over, crushing the head of another student. In this situation, the person in charge failed to make even a cursory assessment of any dangerous conditions present. Any reasonable person would agree that injury is foreseeable if there is a non-stationary fold-up table in the middle of a room where children are running. This example illustrates the importance of staff training, policies, and procedures and regular inspections for hazards to ensure children's safety. The procedure of the school custodian was clearly outlined in her job description: After lunch, fold up the tables, move them to the wall, and secure them in their proper location. The school had an adequate policy and the procedure was written.

Questions remained, however: Was the custodian adequately trained? Also, was the person appropriately supervised to ensure that she was meeting the requirements of her job description? The custodian saw or should have seen the table in the middle of the room. She should have moved it and secured it to the wall but didn't. Additionally, the teacher saw the table in the play area but did not warn the students - and even encouraged them to play around an obviously dangerous item that was not supposed to be there. The custodian and the teacher both saw the table but deliberately ignored the foreseeability of student injury.

Sometimes, accidents and child injury are unavoidable even when daycare centers, summer camps, and schools follow all of the rules. For example, a child in a summer preschool program was accidentally struck in the eye with a stick, causing serious permanent injury, despite the presence of an appropriate number of counselors who were trained and carefully supervising the children. Because this center acted reasonably and appropriately with regard to staff hiring, training, and child supervision, it had a strong defense against liability.

Beyond accidents and environmental hazards, claims against a staff member of sexual or physical abuse or neglect, student-on-student sexual abuse, and even wrongful death are not always the fault of the program. A strong defense can be made when the agency practices appropriate supervisory techniques, develops and implements good policies and procedures, trains and supervises staff, and follows up on any foreseeable hazards and safety concerns. These steps include regular background checks for employees and volunteers, making sure that facilities are properly secured so that children can't leave the premises, child-staff ratios, keeping up with state licensing requirements, training staff on how to report child abuse and neglect, and inviting outside agencies and professionals to conduct trainings and safety-and-risk assessments. Various online resources can provide daycare and camp administrators in the United States with additional information on local, state or national standards and guidance on health and safety requirements. The Canadian Child Care Federation also provides numerous guidelines and resources for childcare providers.

Conclusion

The standard for daycare centers, nursery schools, and camps is higher than one would expect of parents who supervise children at home or at a playground, and courts have continuously upheld supervision and safety as the primary intent of such facilities. The standard of care is measured by the judgment, knowledge, experience, perception of risk, and skill that a person in a professional capacity would have, and this standard must be comparable to best professional practices. Did the nursery school administration in the battery example take reasonable precautions to prevent injury? Did the administration of the day camp take reasonable precautions so that a child would not be injured with a stick? Although it is reasonable for parents to demand a safe environment for their children while at a nursery school, daycare center, or camp, courts recognize that it is impossible for caretakers to prevent every possible injury. On the other hand, those responsible for the safety of children must demonstrate that they acted appropriately, reasonably, and within the professional standard of care if they are to avoid liability and costly lawsuits.