So I Sent My Child Off to Daycare....

My daughter turned one in June.  We knew we were going to have to transition her from having Aunty watch her nearly every day to a traditional daycare setting soon.  Panic ensued.  Anxiety was my friend at night. How was my daughter going to be OK if she couldn't even talk to me and tell me how her day went?

Let's talk childcare insurance.  You see, I come from a different perspective.  I come from a side where I see the most horrific claims come through as one of my specialties is in the childcare insurance industry. 

It's pretty astounding to me that some, not all, but some childcare owners are ignorant in that claim scenarios "would never happen at their daycare".  I hear "Our staff is extremely professional and well trained.  Something like that would never happen here."  Fortunately, they're usually right.  But it's not necessarily the staff, parents or visitors that the school or daycare needs to look out for.  It's other children. 

I would say, and this is a rough estimate so don't quote me on this, that approximately 50% of the claims I have seen aren't teacher, instructor or caregiver driven.  It's child vs. child.  Whether that is a hit, a slap, a push or something more inappropriate, children who can't properly express their emotions through words, sometimes turn to violence out of frustration.  I see little bouts of this every day in my daughter.  She tries to communicate with us what she would like.  She points at things, gives us signs.  But at times, we have no idea what she is trying to tell us.  She gets frustrated...and understandably so. 

It turns out that we found an excellent daycare that's right for my daughter and our family.  But, when I did visit other daycares, I not only paid attention to the facility, the employees, the surroundings, but to the other children that were attending.  My daughter would be attending this facility every day with this group of children.  And I needed to feel comfortable with that.

Now I could go on and on about the different types of insurance that is needed for childcare organizations, but here are a few that I believe are overlooked but pertinent to schools, daycare centers and childcare organizations of any kind:

• Failure to Educate - especially here in Silicon Valley, we've seen a major uptick in failure to education claims coming from Pre-K or Kindergarten school settings.  Facilities that make any sort of promise of "curriculum" or learning ability are under fire.  Make sure a failure to educate limit is included in your insurance.
• Incidental Medical Malpractice - this affords coverage for an act, error or omission in providing or failing to provide "incidental medical services", first aid or "good Samaritan" services to a person.  Think of school nurses who accidentally mix up Tylenol and Benadryl or even worse, another child's medication.  Enough said.
• Defense Wording - Some insurance carriers have the right not to defend an accusation or claim.  It's important to have a carrier that has defense wording language that will continue to defend the organization until guilt is admitted or a guilty verdict is determined. 
• Abuse and Molestation - This is a touchy topic and an obvious one.  Many insurance carriers do not provide a separate limit for A&M.  They include a sub-limit for this coverage and it depletes your overall insurance limit for the year.  Find a carrier that will give you a stand alone limit for A&M.  They don't happen often.  But when they do, they are very, very large.  Your organization will need the separate limit.  Trust me. 

As my daughter grows up, I will get to know the child care industry from a more personal level.  Don't skimp out on insurance coverage's for your organization.  Here at The Liberty Company we have an exclusive childcare insurance program that offers the above and many more important insurance coverage's.  Feel free to email me if you'd like some additional information.