Illinois Standards for Child Care
When you leave your child with a daycare facility, a nanny, or a school, you are placing your trust in others to keep your loved one safe and out of harm’s way. If your child sustains injuries while under the care of someone else, you have the right to seek justice and pursue damages. Our personal injury lawyers in Chicago can help you navigate this extremely stressful time.
The Illinois Premises Liability Act maintains that a property owner or property owner owes visitors or “entrants” onto that land a duty of reasonable care. Child care providers are not required to provide a higher level of care to children (than to adults), but they must meet the duty of reasonable care. Making claims for child care negligence falls under Illinois tort law, which covers personal injury and premises liability.
Child Care Negligence and Injury Lawsuits
There are four elements for determining liability when making a child care negligence claim:
- Duty: A legal duty owed by the defendant to the plaintiff must exist in every successful injury claim and refers to the legal responsibility one person has to avoid causing harm to another. In the case of child care negligence, the care provider had a duty to exercise reasonable care under the Illinois Premises Liability Act.
- Breach: The victim (plaintiff) needs evidence to show exactly how the child care provider (defendant) failed to meet that duty and therefore breached the duty of care.
- Causation: Because of the breach, the child was injured, and the injury was caused by the breach.
- Damages: The child care provider’s direct actions (or lack of action), the child’s injury would not have occurred. The plaintiff must incur actual damages from the incident. This means things like incurred medical bills, pain, and suffering.
Types of Child Care Negligence Injuries
- Falling
- Drowning
- Physical abuse
- Verbal abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Inadequate access to food or water
- Choking or ingesting non-food objects
- Improper gating or fencing leading to children wandering away
- Exposure to chemicals or toxic substances
- Exposure to sharp objects (scissors, rusty nails, and knives)
Daycare Injury Lawsuits
You may be able to file a claim against both the child care facility and the negligent individuals. You may wish to seek damages that include pain and suffering, medical bills, and ongoing medical expenses for treatment like psychologist appointments.
The law provides a remedy for injuries that occur in this scenario: someone who has a legal obligation to supervise others fails to do so responsibly. The legal remedy is known as a claim for negligent supervision. The most common types of negligent supervision are negligent supervision of children, negligent supervision of the elderly, and negligent supervision of employees. The greatest numbers of negligent supervision cases involve injuries to children.
Adequate Supervision of Children
A number of factors can be involved in determining what level of supervision is required in any given situation that resulted in accidental injury or even death of a child:
- Age
- Experience
- Actual activity
- Factors outside the supervisor’s control
Negligent Supervision
Negligent supervision is a failure to provide adequate supervision under the circumstances. The level of adequate supervision is determined by a number of different variables. Negligent supervision can happen at a school, a daycare, a camp, a church, or even a private home. Cases can pursue damages as a result of injury due to the lack of attention given by those responsible for the care and when a child suffers harm because of it, they can be sued for negligence and therefore damages as a result. Examples of those responsible for providing adequate supervision include:
- Teachers
- Coaches
- Daycare providers
- Babysitters
- Church youth group leaders
- Camp counselors
- Foster parents
- Nannies
- Parents
Common examples of negligent supervision of children are:
- Insufficient daycare center staffing ratios and not having enough supervision to properly monitor all children on the premises.
- Caregivers failing to protect children from the dangers of traffic, train tracks, pools, animals, or other dangers in the environment such as ingesting chemicals, playing with matches, etc.
- Parents allowing teens to use harmful drugs at unsupervised parties, allowing young children to drive a car or, even worse, leaving a gun unprotected causing an accidental shooting.
- Foster parents neglecting the child in their care.
Chicago Daycare Injury Lawyer
If you have a basis for a negligent supervision claim, contact our office today for a free consultation to review your situation and available options. There’s no fee unless we obtain compensation.
Get a free case review by calling 866-699-3339 or complete the case request form.