What To Do If Your Child Is Hurt at a FL Daycare

As a parent, it can be difficult to trust the care of your child to another. But for many families, there is no choice but to enroll a child in daycare, especially when parents must work to make ends meet. When the worst happens and your child sustains an injury at daycare, what can you do?

If you find yourself facing a situation where your child has been injured at a Florida daycare, you may want to understand how the daycare can be held accountable. What is their duty to your child? How do you know if they’ve been negligent?

Here is what you need to be aware of in the instance that your child is injured at a Florida daycare, something every parent should know – just in case.

Negligent Supervision

Some cases of injuries at daycare occur because of what is called “negligent supervision.” This occurs when the staff at the daycare are not supervising children adequately or closely enough, and that lack of supervision leads directly to injuries.

There are two types of negligent supervision, which are:

Inattention

Inattention occurs when the person in charge of the children simply isn’t paying close attention in an effort to help minimize risks.

Failed Supervision

With failed supervision, injuries usually result from the facility failing to do what it should have – and that failure leads straight to injury. A good example is a daycare that doesn’t maintain adequate staffing to properly supervise the children in its care.

What If Your Child Is Injured?

If your child becomes injured at daycare, then there are a few things you should do if you think the facility is responsible. You should:

Get Medical Care

This is the number one priority for any parent with an injured child. If they’ve not gotten medical care already by the time you find out about the injury, then you should take them to see a medical professional at once. Make sure to keep all medical documentation relating to the injury.

Ask for an Incident Report

Daycare facilities must file incident reports when a child is injured under their supervision. Get an incident report copy for your own records.

Talk to an Attorney

If you think you have a case, then consult with an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as you can. They’ll help you see what steps you need to take in order to move your case forward.

How To Establish Negligence

In order to be successful in pursuing damages for your child’s injuries through a personal injury lawsuit, you must show the court that the daycare failed to prevent foreseeable injury. It is also your burden to show that they had a duty of care owed to your child, and they breached that duty, leading directly to their injuries.

While it can be a complex issue to bring a personal injury lawsuit, you may want to do so if your child is injured, so that your medical costs, continued care, and any other expenses related to the injury can be covered. After all, you entrusted your child to the daycare. If they were negligent, and your child was injured because of it, then you need to make sure your family gets the compensation they deserve. This will also help ensure that the daycare changes its practices so that it doesn’t happen to another child in the future.

About the Author:

Andrew Winston is a partner at the personal injury law firm of Winston Law. For over 20 years, he has successfully represented countless people in all kinds of personal injury cases, with a particular focus on child injury, legal malpractice, and premises liability. He has been recognized for excellence in the representation of injured clients by admission to the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and named one of America’s Top 100 High-Stakes Litigators. Mr. Winston is AV Preeminent Rated by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, enjoys a 10.0 rating by AVVO as a Top Personal Injury Attorney, has been selected as a Florida “SuperLawyer” from 2011-2021 – an honor reserved for the top 5% of lawyers in the state – was voted to Florida Trend’s ”Legal Elite,” recognized by Expertise as one of the 20 Best Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorneys, named one of the Top 100 Lawyers in the Miami area for 2015-2021, and one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Florida for 2015-2017 and 2019-2021.