Day Care Negligence and Injuries to Children
For working parents, dropping off their child at a day care center is a routine part of day-to-day life. Not that putting a child’s health, safety and well-being in the hands of others is easy, but it is often necessary. According to Child Care Aware of America, in 2017 there were over 443,000 children in Michigan under the age of six who potentially needed day care. With that kind of demand, it is no surprise that there are more than 10,000 licensed and registered child care centers throughout the state.
With that many kids spending their days in that many facilities, accidents and errors can and do happen. But when the negligence of a day care facility and its staff causes harm and injury to a child, they should be held accountable.
The Call No Parent Wants to Receive from Their Child’s Day Care
When parents get a telephone call from a day care center advising that their child has been hurt, or if their child returns home with signs of an injury, the shock and worry are quickly followed by questions about how it could happen.
Kids being kids, it can be easy to attribute some daycare injuries to unavoidable mishaps, such as tripping or falling. But day care facilities have an obligation to properly supervise and provide a safe environment for children, knowing that indeed, kids can be kids.
Many injuries to children at day care facilities are avoidable and the direct result of day care staff failing to do the job they’ve been trusted to do. Even worse, many children are injured because day care staff are abusive or neglectful, adding psychological and emotional trauma to the physical harm such reprehensible conduct causes.
When day care center negligence leads to serious injuries to their child, parents want answers and they want to hold those responsible accountable. At Sommers Schwartz, we know how vulnerable children are and how reliant their parents are on the care, competence, and concern of day care staff. When a child is neglected or mistreated at a Michigan day care center, our experienced personal injury lawyers aggressively pursue compensation that can bring comfort to the family and the justice that can help prevent future misconduct.
Types of Day Care Negligence
Children can suffer from a wide range of injuries at any time, including the time they spend at day care. From cuts, scrapes, and bruises to broken bones, burns, or brain and spinal trauma, day care injuries can range from routine to life-altering.
Day care centers have a duty to minimize the likelihood of such injuries by taking reasonable care to ensure the safety of the children in their facilities. They can breach this duty in any number of ways, but some of the most common forms of day care negligence which lead to child injury and trauma include:
- Lack of supervision
- Lack of sufficient staffing
- Inadequate staff training, education, or screening
- Unsafe facilities, including playgrounds
- Poor hygiene, sanitation, and maintenance of the facility
- Dangerous or unsafe toys
- Abusive or violent conduct, by staff or other children
- Failure to account for a child’s known health issues, such as food allergies
- Failure to keep unsafe material or poisonous substances out of children’s reach
Speak With a Michigan Day Care Negligence Lawyer Today
If you suspect that a day care center’s negligence or misconduct injured your child, the attorneys in Sommers Schwartz’s Personal Injury Litigation Group are ready to help. In Michigan, lawsuits for injuries to children have their own unique rules, and parents who want to obtain compensation have a limited time to file a claim. It is important to understand your rights and options as soon as you can.
Please contact us today to arrange for your free initial consultation.