• Observe the obvious safety features or hazards in your home. Get down on your hands and knees, then crawl around each room in your house to which the children have access. Why? This gives you a look from the child's point of view. You will see table corners, electric outlets and cords, and other hazards that you didn't notice while standing.

• Never let a child go into the bathroom unattended. And purchase a stool for the children so they aren't climbing on bathroom fixtures.

• Do not let parents coerce you into tying a pacifier around a child's neck. As a professional, you must take a stand and say, "I'm sorry, I can't do that. There have been too many cases of children strangling from a pacifier tied around a their neck."

• In your yard, make sure any playground equipment has soft sand or grass beneath it, to make for a soft impact in case of falls.

• Dogs and cats are notorious for accidents, especially those with claws. One little girl received a scratch on her face which resulted in over $5,000 of medical bills alone. Another small child was bitten on the face by the family dog after crawling into his sleeping space and yanking the dog's whiskers. The child developed a staph infection which was hard to cure and resulted in numerous scars. The Department of Health was ultimately called into this incident which was very traumatic for the provider and her family. Remember, no matter how friendly your family pet is, it can easily be startled by a young child who would grab and pull on the animal, causing the animal to instinctively protect itself by biting or scratching.

The above suggestions come from an insurance agent, Joe Silverman, who sees these as the most "common" preventions for accidents in the child care home. When these kind of accidents happen in the child's own home, a parent will kiss and coddle the child and then the incident is over. Not so in a child care setting. When a child is in your care and an accident happens, the question of your liability is likely to arise.

What happens when an accident occurs in the provider's house? From the parents' point of view, dreams for their child's future are at stake. A daughter's modeling career is ruined because of a scarred face caused by your cat. Or, a son's future baseball career is over before it begins because of a broken arm caused by a fall in the your bathroom.

In cases of accidents, parents (and even the children in their own right!) may decide to sue you for neglect. Most lawsuits are filed 3 to 7 years after the incident has occurred. If you lose such a lawsuit, court judgements can be made against you which will affect your current and future assets. Everything you work for may be at risk. We don't say this to sound alarmist. But we live in a "litigious" society and even a seemingly frivolous lawsuit can tie people in knots for months.

So, what can you do to protect yourself?

• First of all, if you do not have liability insurance, get some. That is the best way to protect yourself.

• Second, report all incidents from stitches and lost fingernails to broken bones to your insurance company. That way, if a parent sues you several years from now, you will be covered.

Here at CCNI, we are offering information on an insurance program offered through the Friesinger-Stuckert company. We like this plan for three reasons:

1. First of all, if you choose this insurance program through CCNI, there is no membership fee. (Membership fees usually go to the groups offering the information on the program.) CCNI decided not to pursue that approach with providers on our Food Program sponsorship.) Therefore there are no hidden costs tacked on to these policies.

2. Second, the rates are divided out by the Family or Group Family License Classification. Some are divided out by the number of children in your care. Depending on how your policy is written, we see this scenario: If you take out less insurance than children in your care at the time of the accident (even though you're within your legal license limit), there is a chance the insurance company could decide not to pay.

3. Thirdly, this insurance carries no deductible. Each incident is covered 100%. Sometimes minor accidents such as stitches could be less or just a little over other carriers' deductible amount (usually $100.00.). That is a cost you must cover on each incident.

If an accident takes place in your home, according to Joe Silverman the best way to pacify a parent is to pay all the medical costs for the child's accident.

Excerpts from this article were taken from:
Tape #51, "Insurance: Why, What, and Association Growth" by Joe Silverman.
Fifteenth Annual Save the Children Conference,
Atlanta, Georgia (April, 1992).

From the January, 1993, issue of The Teddy Bear.