By David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
In Washington and other States, parents rely on day care center to provide a safe, clean, and healthy environment for their children during working hours. Parents, with children in day care centers, should visit frequently and at odd times. In other words, a parent should visit at different times of the day in order to see how the staff is supervising the children under their care. The staff in the morning may be different than the staff in the afternoon. Furthermore, if the day care center staff believes that a parent could walk in at any moment of the day, this may, in turn, make the day care center staff more attentive to the duties and responsibilities at hand. For most children, day care centers, schools, and summer camps provide that certain educational environment that certainly contributes to the growth and happiness of a child. Unfortunately, some child care providers use their position of trust and access to abuse and neglect the very children that they are responsible for supervising and protecting from harm. Certainly, the good child care providers outnumber the bad ones; however, one bad child care provider who abused and neglects children is frankly one too many. Day care centers should carefully screen all day care center employees with background checks that are not only completed by an electronic search but also follow up calls to work and personal references. Once hired, day care center employees should be trained and supervised.
