Parents often rely on child daycare instructors for the safety, development, and growth of their child. The daycare employees provide a critical role and takes on the role of substitute parents during the school week. It is not unusual for daycare instructors to spend more time with a child than a child’s actual parents.
It is every parent’s worst nightmare, but sexual assaults of children do occur in daycares and pre-schools at alarming rates. Our sexual abuse attorneys are experienced in handling child sexual abuse cases in the day care setting. Cases of sexual abuse in day care typically involve multiple victims and multiple perpetrators, and use of extreme threats to prevent disclosure. There are documented cases involving sexual abuse by daycare owners, visitors, employees and even child-on-child sexual assault in daycares. Due to the large amounts of time children spend in daycare and the enormous trust placed by parents in the daycare makes, this setting presents itself an ideal location for opportunistic perpetrators. Tragically, perpetrators in the daycare may seize upon the trust they are given and the tender age of the children to commit sexual abuse and threaten children into silence.
Toddlers and infants are in the most vulnerable stage of life. Parents have an expectation that a daycare will be operated in a safe manner with only licensed instructors and supervisors having access to children. State law regulates the supervisor-child ratios and the amount of training required of all personnel who interact with your children. Daycares should have a written policies and procedure manual which govern every aspect of the daycare operations, from the bathroom use policy, naptime to taking attendance. Tragically, daycares often make the same mistakes as other businesses, including failing to implement or follow proper safety rules. For instance, we have seen cases where daycares do not adhere to proper supervisor-child ratios or they hire staff without ensuring they have been properly certified or maintained continuing education requirements. Even worse, the daycare may hire an employee without conducting the requisite background check or reviewing employment references. In other situations, daycares allowed untrained visitors or untrained personnel to volunteer and interact with the children. Any one of these violations of safety protocols can lead to dangerous results for your children.
If someone you know has been a victim of childhood sexual abuse at a day care or pre-school, contact our law firm at (954) 614-2100 or send an email to sexual abuse lawyer Adam Horowitz at [email protected]