Maryland law lets families sue a daycare when the facility's negligence causes a child's injury, from poor supervision to unsafe playgrounds to unqualified staff.
A liability waiver you signed at enrollment is not automatically the end of the road, because waivers cannot excuse gross negligence, recklessness, or abuse.
The Maryland child injury attorneys at Meyers, Rodbell & Rosenbaum help families across the DMV region understand whether they have a claim and how to protect it.
When you drop your child off at daycare, you trust the staff to keep them safe, supervised, and cared for. If your child comes home hurt, one of the first questions many parents ask is whether they can sue the daycare. In many situations, the answer is yes.
Maryland law allows families to hold a daycare accountable when negligence causes a child's injury. The Maryland child injury attorneys at Meyers, Rodbell & Rosenbaum help parents across Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia understand their options after a daycare injury.
When can you sue a daycare in Maryland?![Child Injury on a Playground]()
A daycare has a legal duty to keep the children in its care reasonably safe. To bring a successful claim, your attorney generally has to show four things:
-
The facility owed your child a duty of care.
-
That failure caused your child's injury.
-
Your child suffered real harm as a result.
When a facility cuts corners on supervision, hiring, training, or safety, and a child is hurt in a childcare setting as a result, those elements often line up.
What kinds of daycare injuries may lead to a claim?
Daycare injuries take many forms. Some of the most common situations that give families grounds to sue include:
-
Supervision failures. Children need constant, attentive oversight. When staff are distracted or a center is understaffed, kids can wander off, hurt one another, or fall victim to abuse.
-
Playground and premises hazards. Broken equipment, hard fall surfaces, wet floors, and unsecured furniture can cause fractures and other serious head injuries.
-
Transportation crashes. Children can be severely injured in a daycare van collision, especially if the vehicle is poorly maintained or the driver is unqualified.
-
Animal attacks. When a facility keeps a pet on-site without proper precautions, a dog bite can leave a young child with lasting physical and emotional scars.
-
Negligent medical response. If staff ignore a serious injury or a provider gives improper medical treatment afterward, that failure can add to your child's harm.
-
Abuse and neglect. Physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, along with failure to feed, clothe, or supervise, are among the most serious grounds for legal action.
What about the liability waiver I signed at enrollment?
Many parents assume the release they signed when they enrolled their child ends any chance of a personal injury claim, but that’s not necessarily true. Maryland does enforce some pre-injury waivers that a parent signs on a child's behalf, but a waiver is not a blank check. Under Maryland law, a release cannot excuse a provider's gross negligence, reckless or intentional conduct, or abuse, and an overly broad or poorly worded waiver may not hold up at all. Whether a particular release blocks your claim depends on its exact wording and on what the facility actually did. It’s crucial to have an experienced child injury lawyer review the document and explain your options.
Who pays, and what can you recover?
Daycares usually carry insurance meant to limit payouts, and going up against those insurers alone puts families at a disadvantage. A personal injury claim can seek compensation for your child's medical bills, future care, and pain and suffering. Maryland caps non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, and the cap increases by a set amount each year. Because Maryland follows a strict contributory negligence rule, the way fault is presented matters a great deal. A seasoned Maryland child injury attorney knows how to build a claim that stands up to an insurer's tactics.
Reporting the Daycare and Protecting Your Claim
Pursuing a lawsuit is not the only step available to you. If you believe a facility broke state rules, you can file a licensing complaint with the Maryland Office of Child Care, which investigates regulated providers. If abuse is involved, report it right away. Keep in mind that although a child's deadline to sue is often paused until adulthood, evidence disappears quickly, and a parent's own claim can expire sooner, so acting promptly protects your family's ability to recover.