The Button Law Firm Highlights Trends in Daycare Center Injuries

What Are the Most Common Causes of Injuries at Daycare Centers in Texas?

Through our firsthand work helping families across Texas with daycare injury cases, we have observed that daycare injuries can be attributed to five primary causes. Our findings are consistent with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the agency responsible for investigating potential abuse and neglect claims at daycare centers and citing the centers for violations of the minimum standards.

The state’s collective data shows the following most common safety violations at daycare centers:  

• Hiring unqualified caregivers who do not demonstrate competency or good judgment
• Failing to ensure no child is abused, neglected, or exploited at the center
• Lacking the proper supervision of children in their care, including maintaining proper auditory and visual supervision to ensure child safety
• Not issuing incident reports to the appropriate state agency or providing parents with a copy of the report after a child is placed at risk or suffers an injury that required medical attention
• Using inappropriate and unsafe punishment tactics such as grabbing or pulling children

Read more about the common daycare safety violations that cause child injuries in this article.

Operational Daycare Center Trends Contributing to Injuries and Investigations

With a state as large as Texas, there is an increased demand for childcare help. As a matter of fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that Texas has the highest employment rate for childcare workers, with numbers nearing 50,000 in 2023. Dallas-Fort Worth itself has more than 13,000 childcare workers. However, even these shockingly large numbers aren’t enough to support the need for early childhood care.

A common issue is that daycare centers have problems hiring qualified caregivers. They are not easy to come by and are difficult to retain at local centers due to the stressful nature of the job. (The turnover rate is over 20% for daycare center employees, according to Texas Health and Human Services.) To make matters worse, Texas childcare workers have some of the lowest salaries in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the average annual salary ranging from $27,000 to $29,000. What’s more is that with such low salaries, these caregivers can’t afford childcare for their own little ones, as reported by San Antonio Report.

What does this mean for daycare center injuries? The short answer is that with a worker shortage and the increased demand for childcare help, many daycare centers prioritize profits over child safety and hire unqualified workers. Our team of experienced daycare injury lawyers has seen how negligent daycare centers do not conduct or complete background checks before placing adults with children. In addition, little to no training is often provided to these new workers—they are not knowledgeable about the minimum standards, including how to identify or intervene when little ones are in unsafe situations, what proper discipline methods they should use, or how to respond in the event of an emergency. Our team has even seen instances of unqualified workers exposing toddlers to illegal drugs and vape pens at a daycare center.

These unqualified caregivers are likelier to skirt the rules or use poor judgement when it comes to taking care of your little one, leading to innocent children suffering serious or fatal injuries at a daycare center.

What Are the Most Common Daycare Injuries in Texas?

Our team of Texas daycare injury lawyers have observed similar trends as the DHHS’s most reported daycare center injuries from inquiries of parents seeking help after an incident at a local center:  

• Allergic Reactions. The CDC reports that 1 in 13 children have a food allergy. We’ve helped families across Texas seek justice for their child’s allergic reactions due to neglect. From severe ant bite reactions to failing to recognize a child eating prohibited foods, allergic reactions can cause sudden, intense trauma to a child. When caregivers lack the knowledge in how to quickly treat allergic reactions, or fail to identify them entirely, children may suffer the effects of allergic reactions of varying severity, from hives and itching all the way up to death.

• Child Abuse. When caregivers use inappropriate discipline tactics or otherwise cause harm to a child, whether it be physical or emotional, it is considered child abuse. Our team has covered several child abuse cases, with daycare centers being cited for spanking, withholding food, and even hitting children.
• Child Neglect. Any time a caregiver fails to abide by minimum standards, which we have previously noted happens more than you may think, it is considered neglect. Our team is knowledgeable on minimum standards and can recognize neglect quickly: We’ve handled cases where caregivers failed to notice a child locked in a bathroom and caregivers left a child in the hot Texas sun for hours.
• Child Burns. Children at daycare centers in Texas can suffer burns from hot outdoor equipment, and, perhaps more surprisingly, bottle warmers. In fact, the latter is one of the more common ways burns happen in children at daycare centers. We successfully secured justice for a family whose child suffered severe burns after caregivers failed to keep a bottle warmer out of a child’s reach, and their little one grabbed onto the hot device. Children may also suffer chemical burns from improperly stored cleaning chemicals, like this family in Denton.
• Children Overheating. When caregivers fail to properly supervise children, they sometimes leave them alone in dangerous spaces. Our team has successfully helped many families of children who have been left in a daycare van and become overheated due to the hot temperatures.
• Drugged Children. There is a rising concern of children being drugged in daycare centers as unqualified caregivers bring illegal drugs and vape pens into centers. Curious children can get their hands on these substances that look like candy and be poisoned. Another drugging situation can occur when caregivers administer medication incorrectly, either giving too much medicine or giving medication that is not permitted for the child.
• Falls. Lots of children fall, but when daycare centers fail to keep their premises safe and caregivers are not closely monitoring the children in their care, falls can result in serious and life-threatening injuries. Outdoor playground equipment is made for certain age groups, so when caregivers allow children to play on structures that are inappropriate for their age, a fall can mean serious blunt force trauma or scrapes.
• Finger Injuries. Little ones who are unsupervised are more likely to get their tiny fingers caught in doors or between heavy furniture. Additionally, sharp objects can cause children to suffer serious lacerations to their delicate hands.
• Sexual Abuse. Sexual abuse in daycare centers can be perpetrated by unqualified caregivers or other children. It is the responsibility of daycare directors and management to ensure their caregivers and classrooms are constantly supervised to prevent any harm or crime, such as sexual abuse, against a child at the center.

How Can Daycare Center Safety Be Improved in Texas?

Between 2020 and 2023, Texas had 5,000 childcare centers close, reports the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs. The school also found that over half of all Texas counties are considered childcare deserts, where there are three times as many children under 5 as there are licensed daycare centers.

Texas itself has some of the highest child-to-caregiver ratios, which means that more children are allowed to be under the supervision of one caregiver than in other states. As it stands, children are not only failing to be provided adequate learning experiences, but they are sometimes altogether forgotten due to the large class sizes and caregivers being unable to closely keep track of all the children.

In an ideal world, daycare centers would operate with lower ratios. A low child-to-caregiver ratio helps children learn better, have their developmental needs met, and keep them safe by preventing child neglect. ChildCare.gov explains that low child-to-caregiver ratios also enables children to get the necessary attention from a daycare teacher or caregiver.

Lawmakers and parents in Texas can advocate for other ways daycare centers can improve child safety such as:

• Streamlining the accreditation process for Texas Rising Star, which is how childcare facilities are rated as “high quality.” When more daycare centers strive for a high quality caregiving status, the LBJ school believes it will boost daycare center success.
• Requiring daycare centers to install and monitor surveillance cameras in all classrooms. Cameras help daycare directors and management teams ensure all caregivers comply with minimum standards when caring for little ones and can give parents peace of mind about a daycare center’s safety standards. When an incident happens and a child is hurt at a daycare center, our daycare injury lawyers have found surveillance footage helps identify exactly what happened and hold bad actors accountable.  

Our team’s experience working in the child and daycare center injury space has identified lack of supervision as one of the most extreme causes of daycare center injuries. Keeping ratios low and supervision a top priority are ways that daycare centers across the state of Texas can prevent negligence. However, more support is needed to get more qualified caregivers into the daycare space, otherwise understaffing will continue to cause issues that lead to more child safety incidents.

What Can Parents Do to Prevent Daycare Center Injuries From Happening?

When it comes to preventing daycare center injuries for your little one, the best thing you can do is choose a safe, reputable daycare center for them. Our team has created a free guide so that you know what to look for when touring a childcare center.

If your child comes home from their daycare center with what you think may be an injury, trust your intuition. It’s better to be safe than sorry. We suggest that parents follow four steps when they suspect their child may be the victim of a daycare center injury or abuse, including contacting our experienced daycare injury lawyers at The Button Law Firm by calling 214-699-4409 or emailing us at [email protected]. We can help answer your questions and help your family navigate what to do after your child is injured at a local daycare center.

Was Your Child Physically or Emotionally Injured at a Daycare Center in Texas? Contact The Button Law Firm.

If your child was physically or emotionally harmed because caregivers did not comply with Texas daycare safety laws, contact our experienced daycare and child injury lawyers at The Button Law Firm. We are ready to listen, fight for your family, and help your family move forward. Our lawyers at The Button Law Firm are recognized on the prestigious Texas Super Lawyers list, and we can help guide you after a traumatizing incident involving your child. We work on contingency, meaning we don’t charge you or collect any upfront fees to get started on your case. Call us at 214-699-4409, email us at [email protected], or fill out a contact form for a free case evaluation.