Legal Rights for Families After a Child’s Injury in Daycare or School
Every day that you send your child to daycare or school, you trust the facilities to teach them well and keep them safe. Unfortunately, many children wind up with serious injuries while in the care of daycare facilities or even at elementary schools.
In fact, children of all ages could be at risk of injuries when they are getting an education or participating in school-sponsored activities in both public and private school systems. There are some accidents that can’t be avoided but many others are due to the negligent behaviors of other adults or students or through unsafe conditions.
Common Types of Daycare and School-Related Accidents in Alabama
From the moment you kiss your child goodbye in the morning until they arrive back home in the afternoon, they could potentially be exposed to dangerous hazards that cause them injury. Both daycare facilities and schools have a duty to keep children reasonably safe from harm, and when they fail in that duty, it may mean your child suffers painful injuries as a result.
What kinds of accidents could arise that may hurt your child? If you put your kid on the provided transportation to the daycare or school, the driver may behave negligently behind the wheel, causing an accident.
Almost anything you may already worry about when you send your little one off to school can happen – food poisoning from the meals served in the cafeteria, sports injuries, defective playground or toy injuries, exposure to toxic chemicals, slip and fall injuries, and even assault by an adult or other children.
As mentioned, some injuries occur without any fault. However, when someone’s negligent acts cause injuries, you have the right to hold them responsible for the damages.
Why Do Daycare and School Injuries Occur in Alabama?
When your child is hurt at a daycare or school, you will most likely have many questions. The most pressing one is, “How could this happen to my child?” It all boils down to a lack of supervision in most cases.
Lack of supervision is usually the root cause, particularly for playground accidents, bullying instances, unsanitary conditions that cause illnesses, and slips and falls. However, some injuries are deliberate, such as a daycare worker hitting a child or using excessive force on them. Negligent hiring practices may be to blame for not properly vetting staff.
If your child has been injured either at a daycare facility or at their school, you should speak to an injury lawyer serving Montgomery to determine the next steps to take.
Who Is Liable When Your Child Is Injured in an Alabama Daycare or School?
It can be a huge challenge to determine who is responsible for what has happened to your child at their Alabama daycare or school. The school district must provide a safe and secure place for every child. However, sovereign immunity is provided in public school settings, which may be a roadblock in your case.
With the protection of sovereign immunity, government entities such as public schools are protected from lawsuits, with certain exceptions. When the school district or one of its employees is negligent or causes the injury of a student, this protection is waived.
You can determine if negligence was a factor in your child’s injury by reviewing your situation with an attorney. All elements of negligence must be present to have a valid case. These include proving that the daycare or school owed your child a duty of care, which can be shown through school registration records.
Once the duty is established, it requires digging deeper to show that it was breached in some way. This breach of care needs to then be directly linked to the accident that caused the injuries your child sustained.
Who is liable will depend on the circumstances of events that led to your child’s injuries. For example, if they were hurt in a school bus accident, the school bus driver could have been speeding, leading to the crash, making them responsible. In some cases, it may be the fault of those responsible for maintaining the school buses or daycare vans. If they did not properly inspect or maintain these vehicles and it is determined that the lack of maintenance caused the crash, they will be liable. There may even be a chance that the school and transportation heads were not responsible if another driver in a passenger vehicle crashed into the bus.
How to Proceed After Your Child Is Injured at Daycare or School in Alabama
It is imperative that you take the right steps to protect your legal rights after this upsetting incident. Parents are protective of their children and seeing them suffer is heartbreaking.
What you can do will depend on the type of school setting. If it is a public school, then you must meet certain state requirements and follow proper procedures before filing a lawsuit against the district or any of its employees. Since the time limits in place are restrictive, it is essential that you contact a personal injury lawyer immediately to find out more about your potential legal options.
After your child has been hurt, you should take photos of the injuries they have sustained. Get them medical care and keep an organized record of all the medical records and expenses associated with these treatments. In some daycare settings, parents can view video footage from work or home. You may have access to the footage that shows your child’s injury and the circumstances behind it, such as an employee assaulting your child.
Since there are many scenarios and lots of red tape surrounding your child’s injuries, talking to an attorney can help. You are understandably upset that something has happened to your child in a place that you expected to keep them safe. A lawyer will know the applicable laws, local statutes, and how to fight for justice for your child, allowing you to get the compensation deserved for the damages they suffered.
*This is a collaborative post
