What if a Child is Injured or Killed by Another Child at a Day Care Center?

Parents rely on day care centers to provide a safe educational environment for their children. Tragically, children suffer serious personal injuries and even fatal injuries at the very place where the children are supposed to be protected – the day care center.  At times, other children in the day care center are violent and unstable.  It is important that day care centers closely monitor all children in the day care center. If a child is exhibiting strange, dangerous, or disturbing behavior, it should be addressed right away.  For the protection and safety of the children enrolled in the day care center, a child, with dangerous tendencies or propensities, can and should be removed from the day care center.  The local licensing agency can also step in if there is a problem with the parents of the “problem child”.  It is vital that the day care center act in a timely manner to prevent injuries at all times possible.  Unfortunately, many day care centers ignore the problem or gloss over the problem rather than take action to protect the children in the day care center.

In Michigan, it was reported that a 14 month old toddler died a day care center by an 8 year old girl with a history of odd behavior.  The toddler (Korey Brown) was crying in his crib.  Then, the 8 year old took him out of the crib, bit him in the face, and kicked the toddler.  The 8 year old girl had a number of issues.  It is suspected by the family of Korey Brown that the day care center knew or should have known about the odd behavior and should have taken action to protect Korey Brown.   At the time of the attack, there were no adults present in the room.  As such, it appears that the 8 year old was left unsupervised in a room with younger children in the room including Korey Brown. You can read more about this story at Girl Kills Toddler at Michigan Day Care Center. 

If the 8 year old had a history of aggression or behavioral problems, there should be some kind of paper trail in the form of incident reports and progress notes at the day care center.  This assumes that the day care center at question followed the applicable rules and regulations for day care centers.  Certainly, if the 8 year old posted any risks whatsoever to younger children or other children, there should have been action taken by the day care center.  Adult supervision at all times would have likely prevented the incident at questions and protected Korey Brown from this attack.  Day care center workers should not wholly rely on the confines of a crib or play pen area to protect a toddler from older children at the day care center

When a child dies at a day care center as a result of the negligence of one or more staff members, a wrongful death action can be pursued on behalf of the parents of the deceased child.  No parent should have to attend the funeral of a small child. It is unnatural.  The grief suffered by a parent who loses a child is immense.  While no legal case, settlement or verdict could ever replace a child or properly compensate a parent, a wrongful death case is the legal process to go through from a civil standpoint to seek some kind of justice on behalf of the parents and the victimized child.  In addition to the civil case, there may be other cases brought in the aftermath of a child death at a day care center including an administrative case against the day care center and a criminal case against the day care workers.

David Wolf is a child injury attorney with over 26 years of experience.  He has handles thousands of personal injury cases during his career including those related to day care centers and wrongful death.  David Wolf is the author of 11 books including the book titled – The ABCs of Child Injury – Legal Rights of the Injured Child – What Every Parent Should Know.  This book has chapters on Medical Care and Medical Bills, Damages / Compensation, Automobile Accidents, Day Care Center Injuries, School Injuries, Park and Playground Injuries, Theme Park and Amusement Park Injuries, Store, Shopping Center, and Mall Injuries, Homeowner’s Insurance, Dog Bite Injuries, Swimming Pool, Water Parks and Other Bodies of Water, Child Abuse and Neglect, and Sports and Recreational Injuries. You can get this book for free at The ABCs of Child Injury.