Every working parent knows the moment. You drop your child off in the morning, sign the clipboard, and hand your son or daughter to someone you have trusted to keep them safe. Most days nothing goes wrong. But when a child comes home with a burn, a broken arm, or signs of something far worse, parents are left asking how it happened and who is responsible.
At Jenner Law, much of our practice involves holding institutions accountable when children are harmed in their care. A growing share of the calls we receive involve day care centers: children burned on hot surfaces, children hurt on unsafe playgrounds, and children abused by staff or other adults the center should never have allowed near them. These cases differ in their facts, but most share one theme. The injury was preventable, and the center failed to do what the law and common sense required.
The Legal Duty a Day Care Owes Your Child
For a free legal consultation, call,
(888) 585-2188
A licensed child care center is not a passive landlord. When a center accepts a child, it takes on a duty to use reasonable care to protect that child from foreseeable harm. Because young children cannot protect themselves, recognize danger, or reliably report what happened to them, courts expect a high level of vigilance from people paid to watch them.
In Maryland, child care centers are licensed and regulated by the Office of Child Care within the Maryland State Department of Education. The state’s regulations, found in the Code of Maryland Regulations at Title 13A, Subtitle 16, cover staff qualifications and training, criminal background checks, staff-to-child ratios, supervision, and the safety of indoor and outdoor spaces. These rules set a minimum standard. When a center breaks them and a child is hurt, the violation can be strong evidence that the center was negligent.
A center’s legal responsibility generally falls into a few categories.
Complete a Free Case Evaluation form now
Negligent supervision. This is the most common basis for day care liability. Children must be watched, and watched closely. Maryland requires centers to keep enough staff on hand for the number and ages of the children in their care, with the strictest ratios for infants and toddlers. When a center is understaffed, when a teacher steps away, or when staff are on their phones instead of watching the room, children get hurt. A toddler who wanders into a kitchen, climbs a shelf that tips over, or leaves the building unnoticed is almost always a supervision failure.
Call or text (888) 585-2188 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
Negligent hiring, training, and retention. A center is responsible for who it puts in a room with children. That means running the required criminal background and child protective services checks before a person starts work, checking references, and refusing to hire people with disqualifying histories. It also means training staff in child development, health and safety, behavior management, pediatric first aid, and CPR, and recognizing and reporting abuse. When a center hires without proper screening, skips training, or keeps an employee after complaints or warning signs, it can be held liable for the harm that follows.
Premises liability. A day care facility must be kept reasonably safe for the small, curious, and unpredictable people who use it. That includes playground equipment, surfacing under climbing structures, gates, fencing, electrical outlets, furniture, water temperature, and storage of cleaning chemicals and medications. A center that ignores a broken slide, a missing safety rail, or worn-out ground cover is gambling with children’s safety.
Institutional failures. Sometimes the problem is not one employee but the organization itself: a culture that tolerates shortcuts, owners who cut staffing to save money, or managers who ignore complaints from parents and staff. In these cases, the center and its owners or operators may be directly responsible for creating the conditions that allowed a child to be harmed.
Burn Injuries
Burns are among the most painful and lasting injuries a young child can suffer, and in the day care setting they are almost always preventable. We see burns from scalding water at sinks where water heaters are set too high, hot liquids left within reach, kitchen appliances in areas children can get to, heated food or bottles not checked before serving, and hot playground surfaces in summer. Chemical burns can happen when cleaning products are not locked away as required.
A child’s skin is thinner than an adult’s and burns more deeply and more quickly. A burn that would be minor for an adult can mean skin grafts, months of treatment, permanent scarring, and emotional trauma for a toddler. These cases often turn on basic questions. Why was the child in that area? Who was supposed to be watching? Why was the hazard within reach?
Playground and Premises Injuries
Playgrounds are supposed to be places where children can explore safely. When a center fails to maintain its equipment or supervise outdoor play, they become dangerous. Common causes of playground injuries at day care centers include:
- Equipment that is too tall or not designed for the age group using it
- Inadequate or worn-out protective surfacing under climbing structures and swings
- Broken, loose, or rusted parts, sharp edges, and entrapment hazards
- Gaps in fencing or unsecured gates
- Too few staff members watching too many children outdoors
National safety guidelines from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission address equipment design, spacing, and fall surfacing, and they are often a useful measure of whether a center’s playground met the accepted standard of care. Fractures, head injuries, and dental injuries from falls are frequent results when those guidelines are ignored.
Sexual Abuse in Child Care Settings
No harm a child can suffer at day care is more devastating than sexual abuse. The perpetrator may be a teacher, an aide, a volunteer, a driver, a relative of the owner, or an older child left unsupervised with younger ones. In home-based settings, it may be a family member or visitor of the provider.
Abuse in child care settings rarely happens without warning signs. Institutions that fail to protect children often share the same patterns: incomplete background checks, no policy against staff being alone with a single child, bathrooms and nap areas that are not monitored, ignored complaints from parents or coworkers, and a reluctance to report suspicions to authorities for fear of harming the business. Under Maryland law, educators and child care workers are mandatory reporters of suspected child abuse. A center that looks the other way may be liable not only for the abuser’s conduct but for its own failure to act.
Maryland law gives survivors of child sexual abuse important protections. Under the Maryland Child Victims Act of 2023, there is no longer a statute of limitations for civil lawsuits arising from child sexual abuse. A survivor can bring a claim at any age. The General Assembly later amended the law to set damages caps that vary depending on the type of defendant and when a claim is filed, so it is important to speak with an attorney who handles these cases regularly.
Warning Signs Parents Should Not Ignore
Children, especially very young ones, often cannot tell you what happened. Parents should pay attention to:
- Injuries with vague, shifting, or inconsistent explanations
- Repeated “accidents” or incident reports
- Sudden fear of going to day care or of a particular person
- Regression, such as renewed bedwetting, clinginess, or loss of language skills
- Sexualized behavior or knowledge beyond the child’s age
- Staff who are evasive, or a center that is slow to hand over incident reports or records
- Frequent staff turnover or rooms that always seem understaffed
Maryland parents can look up a licensed provider’s inspection history and any substantiated complaints through the state’s public Check Child Care Maryland website. Reviewing that history before enrolling, and again if concerns arise, is a smart step.
What to Do If Your Child Is Hurt at Day Care
If your child has been injured or you suspect abuse, taking the right steps early can protect both your child and any future claim:
- Get medical care right away and tell the provider how the injury happened, as best you know.
- Photograph injuries and keep all medical records and bills.
- Ask the center for a written incident report and keep copies of any texts, emails, or app messages from staff.
- Write down what you were told, by whom, and when, while it is fresh.
- If you suspect abuse, report it to local law enforcement or your county Department of Social Services, and notify the Office of Child Care.
- Avoid giving recorded statements to the center’s insurance company before speaking with a lawyer.
- Contact an attorney experienced in child injury and institutional abuse cases as soon as possible.
Time matters. Surveillance video is often recorded over within days. Staff members move on. Centers close or change ownership. An attorney can send preservation demands to secure evidence before it disappears.
Deadlines and Other Legal Considerations
In Maryland, the statute of limitations for most personal injury claims involving a minor is paused until the child turns 18, after which the child generally has three years to file. Parents’ own claims, such as for medical expenses, may be on a different timeline, so waiting is risky. As noted above, claims arising from child sexual abuse are not subject to a filing deadline.
Many day care enrollment packets include release or waiver language. Maryland’s highest court has held that a parent may, in some circumstances, sign a pre-injury release on behalf of a child. But those releases have limits. They generally do not shield a provider from gross negligence or intentional misconduct, and whether a particular waiver is enforceable depends on its wording and the facts. Never assume a signed form ends your child’s case.
Other issues can also affect a claim: whether the center is run by a nonprofit or religious organization, whether it is a family child care home rather than a licensed center, what insurance coverage exists, and whether a public entity is involved. Each of these can change the legal landscape.
How Jenner Law Can Help
Holding a child care provider accountable does more than compensate a family for medical bills, future care, and a child’s pain and suffering. It forces institutions to fix the staffing, training, and safety failures that put other children at risk.
Our firm has spent decades representing children and families harmed by the institutions entrusted with their care. We know how to obtain licensing and inspection records, staffing schedules, training files, background check records, and internal communications, and we work with experts in child safety, pediatric medicine, and child psychology to show what went wrong.
If your child was burned, injured, or abused at a day care center, contact Jenner Law, P.C. at 410-413-2155 or info@jennerlawfirm.com for a free, confidential consultation.
This post is for general information only and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.