Daycare Abuse: How to Keep Your Kids Safe at Daycare

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare: after painstakingly looking for a daycare that suits your needs, you drop your child off for the day. You trust the staff to take care of your kid, only to discover hours or days later that your child is suffering from a mild concussion or an even more serious injury. While your first course of action is ensuring the health of your child, you may be wondering what legal course of action is available to you. In this article, we examine daycare abuse, tactics providers should follow, signs to keep in mind, and why talking with an expert daycare abuse lawyer as soon as possible is a good idea.

Daycare Abuse Overview

According to the Austin American-Statesman, daycare injury reporting in the U.S. is inconsistent at best, and as a result, has become an obstacle in ensuring child safety. For example, in 2013, 521 daycare providers were singled out as perpetrators in neglect and abuse cases in Pennsylvania alone. However, that figure drastically decreased to 17 in 2015. At Patrick Daniel Law, we believe that lack of reliable and available data, combined with the fear and uncertainty that can keep parents from pursuing justice, are stumbling blocks that can be overcome with the right legal team.

Discouraging Daycare Abuse from the Get-go

 According to the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), there are more than a few ways for daycare programs to promote child safety and curb daycare abuse:

• Appropriate observation of daycare team
• Putting together transparent and easy to understand procedures and policies for fostering safe conditions
• Advocating for guardians to get involved in the daycare program
• Hiring enough competent staff
• Make the physical surroundings so there is a lower chance of out of sight areas that can lead to abuse

Signs and Signals

One aspect of keeping kids safe is understanding the four main types of abuse: neglect, physical, psychological, and sexual. In the case of physical abuse, common indicators include bruising, markings, dental injuries, broken bones, severe head injuries, soreness, burns, aggressiveness, cowering, flinching, and more.

For a more in-depth look at abuse indicators, take a look at this report.

Speak with a Daycare Abuse Lawyer Today

As the top experts in our field, we’ve seen our fair share of daycare abuse cases and understand that keeping kids safe isn’t something that parents have control over 100% of the time. Daycare providers that participate in unsafe practices won’t disappear overnight, but what we can promise is that we will fight for full and fair compensation on you and your child’s behalf and hold these businesses accountable for their actions. We’re ready to fight for your child and safe kids everywhere, so contact us online or call us at 713-999-6666 today.