Can I file a negligence claim for a child daycare injury?

Depending on the circumstances, a child daycare injury may entitle a parent to file a claim against a negligent party. A Denver personal injury attorney can help collect evidence that a caregiver’s actions were careless or reckless and can be considered daycare negligence.

Types of Child Daycare Injuries

Entrusting a child to the care of another person isn’t an easy decision to make. Parents shouldn’t have to concern themselves with their child’s safety or issues of daycare negligence. But the fact remains that some caregivers are neglectful or even downright abusive.

It’s not uncommon for children to get injured. While most of these are minor and may not require anything more than a little comfort and a Band-Aid, other types of injuries can be serious or even fatal.

Falls are a common type of child daycare injury, especially from playground equipment. Whether care is provided in a home or at a center, it’s expected that the equipment will be safe and children will be properly supervised while using it. If children fall from a great height or land on a hard surface (such as concrete), it can cause injuries to the head, spinal cord and brain. It may also result in multiple and/or severe fractures.

Another type of injury is when a child becomes seriously ill as a result of unsanitary conditions. This could be the result of the environment or even food preparation. One example is food poisoning. Young children can be at risk of becoming severely dehydrated or developing a serious complication from E. coli, hemolytic uremic syndrome. This causes damage to the blood vessels in the kidneys, which may even result in kidney failure.

An injury that can cause permanent brain damage or even death is Shaken Baby Syndrome. This is the result of a baby or young child being shaken vigorously, oftentimes stemming from a caregiver’s frustrations over crying or having to attend to the child’s needs.

Blood vessels and cells can be torn away from the brain. The consequences of this type of injury may include speech, hearing and vision impairment, along with paralysis, learning problems, developmental delays, mental retardation and subdural hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain).

Child abuse, whether it’s physical or sexual, could also lead to injuries. In Colorado, daycare centers are required to perform background checks on employees. This includes checking the child abuse and sex offender registry. Failure to do so may be considered daycare negligence and may warrant intervention from a Denver personal injury attorney if a child is injured after being exposed to a dangerous individual.

A Denver Personal Injury Attorney Can Help Prove Liability for Child Daycare Injuries

The circumstances surrounding the injury will be a determining factor in who could be liable. As mentioned, a failure to supervise could be one type of negligence. Other types of daycare negligence could include failure to perform background checks or exposing children to unsanitary conditions.

In order to prove liability, negligence will need to be established. It may not only include a specific caregiver, but an entire facility in some cases.

When injuries aren’t intentional (such as abuse), then it would need to be shown that the risk of injury was foreseeable. In other words, not having enough staff to supervise, not performing a background check (or performing a background check and knowingly hiring a dangerous individual), or not sanitizing toys and surfaces in the facility.

Contact Denver personal injury attorney D.J. Banovitz for help establishing daycare negligence and, ultimately, liability for a child’s daycare injury.