Keeping Your Kids Safe at Daycare

Check Staff to Student Ratio 

If you’ve got kids, you probably know that they can be a handful—especially if they’re toddlers. Keeping an eye on a who group of children under three and ensuring that they’re not doing anything that’s going to result in a helicopter ride to the emergency room can be quite the ordeal, even if there are multiple people who can provide supervision. If you’re reviewing daycares, make sure that you ask about the staff to student ratio, especially if the daycare accepts special needs students, babies, toddlers, or other children who will need more supervision than the average daycare student. While daycare centers are generally responsible for providing an adequate amount of supervision to the students there, you would never want to be in a position where your child was harmed due to a lack of appropriate supervision. 

Review Pick up Policy 

Different daycare centers have different pick up policies to ensure that nobody’s picking up children who shouldn’t be picking up children. While most offenders aren’t brazen enough to simply waltz into a daycare and attempt to pick up a child whom they’ve never met, many people do have family members, exes, etc. who may attempt to pick up the child from daycare when they aren’t really authorized to do so. You should make sure that your daycare center of choice has a policy in place to ensure that these kinds of situations do not happen, especially if you have an ex-spouse who may attempt to pick the child up when they aren’t authorized to do so. Again, while strangers aren’t generally the concern, there have been cases of predators who have walked into daycare centers and successfully picked up children when they shouldn’t have been able to do so. Make sure your daycare center has a policy in place to ensure that this doesn’t happen. 

Check Certifications 

You should check the certifications of the employees at the daycare center. The necessary certifications to open and operate a daycare center will vary depending on where you’re located. Whatever daycare center you choose should, at the very least, have the bare minimum when it comes to state requirements. However, there may be other certifications that are highly desirable, if not necessary, for your individual child. For example, if your child has autism, and is prone to violent outbursts as a result, you may want to check to see if the daycare center you’ve chosen has staff members who are certified and equipped to assist your child in the event they need additional assistance. First aid certifications, CPR certifications, and childhood development certifications may all be highly desirable depending on your child. 

Do They Have Extra Precautions for Students with Special Needs? 

If you have a child with special needs, you may want to consider whether your daycare of choice has accommodations for children with special needs. For example, if your child uses a wheelchair, you should ensure that your child is able to use their wheelchair safely within the daycare center. Injuries can happen if daycare centers don’t have wheelchair accessible accommodations. While you certainly can get a wheelchair down a flight of stairs—as in the laws of physics and normal human capabilities don’t prevent it—it’s not safe to push a person in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs. Depending on your child’s unique needs, it may be necessary to find a daycare center that is dedicated to serving children with special needs. 

Read Reviews 

Not everyone is going to have a great experience with every product of service, especially when it comes to products and/or services that have been around for a substantial period of time. Daycare centers are no different, especially when they’ve been in business for a long time. When you’re reading reviews, look for multiple reviews that complain of the same things. That’s generally an indication that something is generally a problem. Sometimes, that problem may not be a big deal. For example, if people are complaining that there aren’t enough spaces available on Fridays, and you don’t even need daycare on Fridays, that might not be a problem. But if you’re seeing multiple parents complaining about certain staff members, or complaining about their child sustaining injuries in daycare, that may be an indication that the daycare center may not be the one for you. 

When You Need an Attorney

If your child has sustained injury due to a negligent daycare facility or a negligent daycare worker, Moxie Law Group is here for you. Contact us today to find out how we can help you get started on your personal injury claim.