Know What To Do If Your Child Is Injured in Daycare

An increase in the number of families with both parents working at jobs outside the home has increase the need for daycare and child care in Ontario as it has throughout Canada. According to Statistics Canada, almost half of all parents in the country make use of some form of child care for children 14 years of age and younger with parents of children ages 4 and younger reporting making use of some form of child care for their children.  Daycare centres are the most commonly used form of child care for parents in Ontario.

As a parent, you trust that the staff and administers of the daycare centre will keep your child safe and free from harm. Sadly, this is not always the case, and children can suffer serious injuries or die due to accidents or negligent care. The law allows you to hold daycare facilities responsible when their negligence causes harm to your child.

Recognizing when something is wrong

It is common for children to suffer minor bumps, bruises or lacerations during the normal course of playing with other children. Parents should note the frequency of cuts and bruises and question daycare staff about them to determine if their child is the victim of inadequate supervision or intentional abuse.

Accidents at daycare centres could be caused by a failure of staff to remove hazardous items and substances that could pose a danger to a child. Falls are a frequent cause of children’s injuries, but falls from playground equipment, furniture or elevated surfaces could be the result of a failure on the part of daycare stall to properly supervise and monitor the activities of the children.

What should a parent do when a child is injured?

A child injured at daycare should receive an immediate evaluation and treatment by a health care professional. Once the child’s medical condition has been stabilized, parents must contact the daycare facility to find out exactly what happened. At that point, parents should seek an evaluation of the facts and circumstances from an experienced personal injury lawyer to determine if making a claim against the facility is an option.

Daycare facilities owe a duty to provide such reasonable level of care as necessary to prevent harm to your child. Negligence occurs when the facility breaches its duty of car by failing to provide adequate supervision to your child, allowing playground equipment to become unsafe, or engages in other conduct that places your child at risk of being injured. If the breach of the daycare centre’s duty of care result in an injury, your child could be entitled to make a claim damages related to the injury.

Protecting children from harm

Parents choosing a daycare facility should make certain it complies with the Ontario Child Care and Early Years Act. Among other things, the law establishes minimum standards for supervision of children, including the ratio of staff to the number of children under their supervision.

Ontario personal injury lawyers

If your child has been injured in an accident at a daycare centre or has suffered an injury due to acts of abuse by staff at a centre or at the hands of other children due to a lack of staff supervision, contact the personal injury lawyers at Diamond and Diamond. They have years of experience successfully handling claims for compensation on behalf of accident victims throughout Ontario. Call the Diamond and Diamond 24/7 injury hotline at 1-800-567-HURT or visit our website to speak to someone now. We have offices located throughout Ontario offering free consultations and case evaluations to injury victims and their families.

Faqs

What injuries could result from daycare center negligence?

Daycare center staff have a duty of care towards the children left in their care. A lapse in supervision that results in physical harm to a child can be perceived as an act of negligence. Injuries that can result from such daycare center negligence include, and are not limited to: –

• Cuts and stab wounds from sharp objects and sharp-edged surfaces, e.g., broken glass, razors, table edges, sharp pencils, etc.
• Bruises from impacts with blunt objects, e.g., guardrails, walls, shelves, etc.
• Bone fractures and broken teeth from falls, e.g., while on a slide, atop a table, etc.
• Joint and muscle sprain from physical exertion, e.g., while playing, during a fight, etc.

What proof do I need to gather if I want to file a daycare injury claim?

If you seek to file a personal injury claim for your child’s injuries while at a daycare center, you must procure evidence that that proves three things:-

• Duty of Care to your child, i.e., contractual agreements you signed while enrolling your child at the center, receipts of payments made for daycare service, etc.
• Breach of the duty of care, i.e., verbal accounts that prove the negligence of daycare staff from your child, the child’s friend, another disgruntled parent, etc.
• Consequences of the breach, i.e., a doctor’s report of the injuries that your child sustained, medical bills, drug prescriptions, etc.

Who can I sue if my child got bullied?

You have two routes you can pursue when your child gets bullied at school:-

• Sue the parents of the bully This involves getting in touch with a personal injury lawyer and providing him/her with evidence of the bullying. Such evidence can include a doctor’s report describing injuries sustained by the child, medical bills, your child’s testimony, witness testimonies of other bullied children, and so forth. The lawyer would then file a personal injury against the bully’s parents on the grounds of vicarious liability.
• Sue the School where the bullying occurred In this approach, you would need to establish the school staff’s duty of care towards your child, prove that this duty’s negligence resulted in the bullying, and show the adverse outcome of the bullying on your child. This involves providing a personal injury lawyer with medical evidence of injury and including demonstrating other adverse effects.