If your child is hurt at daycare

First, get your child checked

• Call 911 if your child is unconscious or getting harder to wake, has a seizure, is struggling to breathe or turning blue, is bleeding and it won’t stop, has a deep or large cut or burn, may have a serious head, neck or back injury (don’t move them), or has a bone through the skin (AAP; Nemours KidsHealth).
• After a bump or blow to the head, call 911 or go to the emergency room if your child has a seizure; passes out, gets more and more drowsy or can’t be woken; vomits more than once; has one pupil larger than the other; has a headache that gets worse; has slurred speech, weakness, numbness or clumsiness; or seems confused or doesn’t recognize people or places. For a baby or toddler, also if they can’t be comforted or won’t nurse or eat (CDC).
• Babies under 1: call the doctor after a bump on the head about any loss of consciousness, a bulging soft spot, more swelling or bruising than you’d expect, more fussiness or sleepiness than normal, or vomiting. Signs usually show up within 24 hours but can rarely take up to 3 days (Children’s Health).
• Bites that break the skin: have a medical provider look at them and ask about a tetanus shot (Texas Children’s). Watch for swelling, redness, pus or red streaks spreading from the bite, and get deep bites, or bites on the face, head, neck, hands or feet, seen promptly (MedlinePlus).
• A possible broken bone: every broken bone needs medical care, however minor it looks (Nemours KidsHealth).

This isn’t medical advice. If you’re not sure, call your pediatrician, or 911 in an emergency.

What the center has to tell you, and the state

All three states require centers to tell parents about injuries and to report serious ones to the state, but the deadlines and the paperwork differ:

Texas: 26 TAC Chapter 746 (school-age programs follow the same rule numbers in Chapter 744) and Human Resources Code §42.04271; California: the Title 22 center rules (22 CCR) and the Health and Safety Code; Pennsylvania: 55 Pa. Code Chapter 3270. Rule text as published through mid-2025; check the state’s current rules for changes.

What to do, step by step

1. Get care and ask what happened

   Ask who saw it, when and where it happened, what first aid was given and who else was told.

2. Get the incident report

   In Texas, for an injury that needed medical treatment, the center must share the report and get your signature within 48 hours; ask for your own copy. In Pennsylvania, you get the original the same day. California doesn’t require a copy for parents, so ask for one in writing. A complete report gives the date, time and place, what happened and any equipment involved, the treatment and where it was given, who was told, and the follow-up, and it’s signed and dated (Pennsylvania’s rule lists these for its reports to the state). Read it before you sign and add your own notes if you disagree.

3. Write it down and take photos

   Note the date and time, what staff told you and when, and take photos of the injury over the next few days. Keep medical records and bills.

4. Ask in writing for any video to be kept

   No state requires cameras, and footage can be recorded over. Ask the director in writing, the same day, to keep any recording. In Texas you have the right to inspect video of alleged abuse or neglect of your child.

5. Check that the state was told

   If the injury needed medical treatment, the center has to report it (Texas within 2 days, California by the next working day, Pennsylvania within 24 hours for a hospital or ER visit). You can report it yourself if it wasn’t, or if you think the center broke the rules: how to report a daycare.

6. Read the center’s record

   Look up the center’s inspection history on its page here, including any past citations for not reporting injuries or for supervision.

Bites, bumps and scratches

• Biting is common and normal for babies and toddlers, who may bite while teething, exploring or when they don’t yet have the words for big feelings (Zero to Three). A bite that breaks the skin needs a medical look.
• In Texas, a scratch or a bite that only needs first aid is reported to you at pickup, with no state form.
• Who bit my child? Pediatric guidance tells centers to tell both families about a bite without naming the other child, if possible (the AAP’s Managing Infectious Diseases in Child Care and Schools, via Centennial Valley Pediatrics). We found no rule in any of the three states requiring a center to name the child, and California and Pennsylvania make children’s records confidential (§101221(c); §3270.183).
• Ask what the center is doing to stop it: closer supervision of the child who bites, changes to the room or schedule, and a plan it shares with both families. Since 2021, California has published 192 complaint investigations whose allegations mention a bite; 46% had at least one allegation substantiated.

When an injury may not be an accident

Doctors use the TEN-4-FACESp rule for children under 4: bruises on the torso, ears or neck; on the frenulum (the skin under the lip or tongue), the angle of the jaw, the cheeks, the eyelids or the whites of the eyes; a bruise in a pattern; or any bruise at all on a baby 4 months or younger are reasons to have a doctor check for abuse (Lurie Children’s). Unexplained burns, bites, bruises, broken bones or black eyes are warning signs too (Child Welfare Information Gateway). These signs don’t prove abuse, but they’re reasons to get your child checked.

• Texas: Texas Abuse Hotline, 1-800-252-5400, 24 hours a day; txabusehotline.org is for situations that aren’t urgent (DFPS).
• California: your county’s child welfare agency (county list) or the police, and Community Care Licensing, 1-844-538-8766.
• Pennsylvania: ChildLine, 1-800-932-0313 (DHS).
• Call 911 if a child is in danger now.

How to report a daycare, and what happens next →

What the inspection records show

Most daycare injuries are minor. A review of 53 studies found injury rates in child care similar to those in schools, on playgrounds and at summer camps, and most serious injuries, such as fractures and concussions, came from falls from playground equipment (Journal of Child Health Care, 2015). What the state records show is how often centers fall short on telling parents and the state:

Texas

Since Oct 20, 2021, Texas cited 1,136 of its 9,607 licensed centers (12%) 1,597 times under its injury reporting and incident report rules. 97% of those citations came from investigations after a complaint or a report, not routine inspections.

The incident report rules also cover illnesses that needed a hospital, notifiable diseases and other risky events, such as a child forgotten in a vehicle: 292 of the 881 citations in the last row (33%) are for those parts. Counts include school-age programs’ matching rules (Chapter 744).

California

Since Feb 8, 2021, California cited 849 licensed centers 994 times for not reporting an incident as required, including 884 times for not reporting to licensing (§101212(d)) and 114 for not telling the parent (§101212(f)). These rules also cover events other than injuries, such as outbreaks and fires. Of 10,033 complaint investigations it published, 1,459 (15%) involved an alleged injury, and 30% of those had at least one allegation substantiated (all complaints: 42%); 526 alleged that a center didn’t tell a parent or licensing something it had to, usually an injury or incident, sometimes an illness or outbreak (41% substantiated).

Pennsylvania

Since Aug 16, 2021, Pennsylvania cited 575 of 4,932 certified centers (12%) 767 times under its injury reporting rules.

A citation can name more than one rule, so it can count in more than one row.

Pennsylvania also counts serious injuries in child care of every kind that its inspectors found were caused by a broken health or safety rule: 28 in the 2025–26 fiscal year (34 in 2024–25), and no deaths (DHS).

Centers open or licensed now. Texas and Pennsylvania counts are citations under the rules named; California complaint topics come from keywords in the allegations the state publishes, so they’re approximate. How we use the records.

Getting the records

• Your child’s file at the center: you can see your own child’s record in Texas (§746.601 and HRC §42.04271), California (§101221(e)) and Pennsylvania, where a parent “shall have access to the child’s complete child care record” (§3270.184(a)). Ask for copies of incident reports in writing.
• Texas: the state’s child care search shows each center’s recent inspections and citations; other licensing records can be requested in writing through HHSC’s open records office, OpenRecordsRequest@hhs.texas.gov (how). DFPS still investigates abuse and neglect at child care centers; once an investigation is closed, people involved in the case, such as parents, can ask for the case record, with some information removed (DFPS).
• California: the facility search shows complaint investigation reports; licensing visits within 10 days of a complaint and tells you the findings in writing if you leave contact information (CDSS). Parents can also review the center’s licensing reports and substantiated complaints from the past three years at the center.
• Pennsylvania: the COMPASS provider search shows inspection results and verified complaints.
• On Daycare Record, each center’s page lists its citations and investigations in plain English: Texas · California · Pennsylvania.

Do you need a lawyer?

Most bumps and scratches don’t call for one. A serious injury, such as a broken bone, a head injury, anything that needed the emergency room or surgery, or suspected abuse, is worth a consultation. A negligence claim generally has to show that the center owed your child reasonable care, didn’t provide it, and that this caused the injury (Cornell Law School). In daycare cases that often comes down to supervision, staff-to-child ratios, unsafe equipment or a delay in getting care, and the center’s inspection record shows whether the state had cited it for the same problems before. This is general information, not legal advice.

Time limits for a child’s injury claim

The six-month notice for public programs matters for school-district preschools and other government-run programs: it can run out long before the usual deadline. In Texas, the law that allows injury claims against public bodies covers school districts only for injuries involving motor vehicles (CPRC §101.051). A parent’s own claim, for example for medical bills, may not be paused while the child is a minor, so don’t wait to ask. Claims of sexual abuse have much longer deadlines in all three states.

• Insurance: Texas centers must carry liability insurance of at least $300,000 per occurrence; a center that can’t afford or find coverage, or has used up its limits, must tell parents in writing (HRC §42.049). Pennsylvania centers must carry general liability insurance (§3270.18). California’s insurance rule covers family child care homes (HSC §1597.531), not centers.
• Waivers: don’t assume a waiver you signed at enrollment ends a claim. In many states, courts won’t enforce a parent’s advance waiver of a child’s injury claim, and California courts won’t enforce any waiver of liability for gross negligence. A lawyer can tell you how your state treats them.
• Finding a lawyer: the State Bar of Texas lawyer referral service, (800) 252-9690, offers a 30-minute consultation for no more than $20 in most counties; Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Jefferson, Tarrant and Travis counties have their own services (State Bar of Texas). California’s State Bar certifies lawyer referral services, and its directory searches by county (State Bar of California). The Pennsylvania Bar Association’s service covers counties that don’t run their own (Pennsylvania Bar Association).

Common questions

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Changes

• Oct 19, 2026: First published.