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Can You Sue a Daycare for Child Abuse in North Carolina?

In This Article

A group of young children, guided by an adult, enjoy a creative drawing session with crayons, working on large sheets of paper filled with shapes and letters.

Yes, North Carolina law allows families to bring a civil claim against a daycare, its owners, and the individual who harmed your child. 

Learning that your child was hurt by someone who was trusted to protect them is devastating, and you deserve answers. If this has happened to your family, Maginnis Howard is here to help. Contact us for a free, confidential consultation, and we will explain your options and the next steps. 

What Qualifies as Child Abuse in a Daycare?

Millions of parents entrust their children’s health and safety to childcare facilities and individual caregivers every day. Unfortunately, some facilities and caregivers violate this trust by inflicting physical, sexual, and emotional abuse on children in their care. Physical abuse includes hitting, shaking, or rough handling that causes injury. Sexual abuse includes any sexual contact with or exploitation of a child. Emotional abuse includes threats, humiliation, or isolation that cause serious emotional harm. A child can also be harmed by neglect, such as inadequate supervision or failure to meet basic needs. Neglect can support a legal claim even when no one intended to cause harm. Not every injury at daycare is abuse, since young children fall and bump into things, a full investigation into the matter must be done to determine whether physical abuse, sexual abuse, or emotional abuse has occurred that would give rise to a civil claim.

What Are the Signs a Child Is Being Abused?

The occasional fall or bruise from daycare isn’t usually cause for alarm. But unexplained injuries, inconsistent with the explanation you were given, or repeated injuries deserve a closer look. Common signs of child abuse include: 

  • Physical Signs: Unexplained bruising, cuts, scratches, bite marks, or burns. 
  • Behavioral and Emotional Changes: Sleep disruption, loss of appetite, excessive aggression, personality changes, and avoidance of daycare. 
  • Sexual Abuse Signs: Displaying inappropriate behavior or sexual knowledge, physical injuries around the genitals, regressive behavior like thumb-sucking after the child developed out of it. 

What to Do If You Suspect Child Abuse at a Daycare

If you suspect your child has been or is being abused at a daycare, follow these steps to prevent further harm and get information to help get justice. 

  1. Seek medical attention. A medical assessment can identify hidden traumas. Consider reaching out to a mental health professional to begin treating the mental and emotional effects of abuse. 
  2. Report your concerns. Immediately contact the appropriate authorities in your area, usually the Department of Social Services in your county. Additionally, you should file a complaint about the facility with the NC Division of Child Development and Early Education. 
  3. Document everything. Keep detailed records of your child’s injury, behavior, and treatment. Preserve evidence such as photographs, video, communications with the facility, and other pertinent circumstantial evidence. 
  4. Contact a Child Abuse Daycare Injury lawyer. An experienced attorney who specializes in pursuing justice for injured children will be able to guide you through the legal process, so you can focus on supporting your child through their healing.

Who Can Be Held Responsible for Daycare Child Abuse?

Cases of child abuse at daycares frequently involve more than one defendant. Typically, an individual employee will be the perpetrator, but they will not bear the responsibility alone. You may also hold the facility responsible along with owners and directors for improper training, improper supervision, and more.

What Do Families Have to Prove

Your child’s injuries alone are not enough to prove that a daycare facility is liable. A daycare abuse claim requires proving that a daycare and/or its employees acted negligently to cause the injuries to your child. You must prove that the daycare had a duty of care to keep your child safe, show that it breached that duty, and identify how the breach resulted in your child’s injury. Finally, you must show that your child suffered damages as a result of the negligence.

What Are Typical Damages In a Child Abuse Daycare Case?

Generally, personal injury victims can pursue damages for: 

  • Medical expenses, both past and future 
  • Pain and suffering 
  • Permanent injury, scarring, or disfigurement 
  • Punitive damages for particularly egregious behavior. This type of compensation is rare and is used as a punishment against the perpetrator/facility.  

Why Do I Need a Lawyer to Sue a Daycare?

Legally, you can file a claim on your own, but daycare abuse and injury cases are rarely simple. An attorney can investigate what happened, preserve evidence before it is lost, handle communications with the daycare’s insurance company, and ensure your claim is filed on time. That lets you focus on what matters most: your child’s recovery. If you are unsure about hiring a lawyer to sue a daycare, a free, confidential consultation can help you understand your options.

Talk to a Daycare Child Abuse Injury Lawyer

Maginnis Howard’s daycare injury lawyers are knowledgeable and dedicated advocates for children and their families. If your child has experienced abuse at a childcare facility, or negligence that resulted in any injury, contact us today. Our firm offers free consultations and represents child abuse cases on a contingency basis. That means you don’t pay anything unless and until we recover compensation on your family’s behalf. We serve clients from our three conveniently located offices in Charlotte, Raleigh, and Fayetteville.

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