Duty of Care Toward Children in Day Cares
We often leave our little bundles of joy at day cares and pre-schools.
What duty do those day cares and schools have to look after our children?
Florida Law provides that teachers and schools have an obligation to supervise the activity of children when the child is entrusted to their care. Benton v. The School Board of Broward County, 386 So. 2d 831 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980); Barrera v. Dade County School Board, 366 So. 2d 531 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979); Rupp v. Dade County School Board, 417 So. 2d 658, 666 (Fla. 1982); Concepcion v. Archdiocese of Miami, 693 So. 2d 1103 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997).
A private day-care center owes its children in attendance a high degree of care, and the relationship between a child and his or her day-care center includes both an implied agreement and a duty to render reasonable care to a child in its custody who becomes imperiled. Restatement (Second) of Torts ยง 314.
Put simply, day-care centers have a duty to render aid to children in their custody.
A day care, for instance, is operated for profit and they typically holds themselves out as a professional provider of day-care services. This service is the primary and basic service for which that day care charges parents and it is also undeniably its main function.
In fact, Florida Law also provides that all persons or entities chargeable with a duty of care to children are chargeable with a higher degree of care for the safety of the children than of adults. Bagdad Land & Lumber Co., 140 So. 798 (Fla. 1932) (Children are expected to act upon childish instincts and impulses. Accordingly, it must be presumed that children have less ability to take care of themselves than adults have. Therefore, in cases where a child's safety is involved, more care is demanded than towards adults.); Burdine's Inc. v. McConnel, 1 So. 2d 462 (Fla. 1941) (Those who invite children who have not arrived at the age of discretion, to go upon their premises are required to exercise a relatively higher degree of care for their safety than for the safety of adult invitees).
Therefore, day cares in particular are required to exercise the highest degree of care toward children.
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