Accidents at day care who is resonsible for medical bills? (longish)

[the cooks]

hi my ds is in a day care center in the newcastle area i won't say the name or where but lets say the day care center is listed on the asx,

a couple of months ago my son had an accident at day care which resulted in him chipping and cracking his tooth, he was taken to the dentist and had the tooth repaired unfortunally he had to be put under an an anesthitic (sorry for spelling)
any how it cost me $700 in total with me now being a single mum off two boys some friends had said look ask the daycare to help with costs,

the stand in dircetor had said the their insurance would cover the costs for me as it was an accident done at the school. after almost of three months of chasing everything up i recieved a letter this morning stating that yes it was a terrible accident that had happened and yes it happened at day care but the day care centre is unable to reimburse me any of the money that i had paid and their insurance policy does not cover accidents.

i am quite confused and i was wondering if anybody else has had any experiance with injuries at day care i just can't believe that insurance does not cover accidents

[SamiH]

Hi
usually when you commence them in day care you sign all sorts of paperwork and one of them is that you understand that they are not financially liable for injuries that occur - ambulance etc.

As far as I am aware their insurance cannot cover them for accidents - the cost of the premiums would be huge as with little kids it is high risk!

Sorry, I think you will be stuck witht he costs.

Sam

[Je$$_84]

We are the same. I had to sign before they acepted him that any accidents that happened they were not financially liable for. There insurance premiums would be enormous and there for so would the cost of care.

[Neenee Jellybeanie]

Surely it can't be that they are not liable unconditionally? What if the accident is through negligence?! When I was in daycare waaay back in the day, I smashed my head in a glass door. Really, it should've been safety glass. I still have scars from the stitches on my forehead. Surely in a situation like that, the centre is liable?!

[the cooks]

Surely it can't be that they are not liable unconditionally? What if the accident is through negligence?!

this is what i thought considering the accident occured on the play equipment they tell me he was being completly supervised but who knows ?

[CrystalBoo]

I'd be checking to see if you actually did sign any waivers like that as it sounds a bit strange to me that they would not have insurance to cover situations exactly like that. I know when I was working, we could never have events on the weekend because our centre was only covered during normal working day hours. It's entirely possible that he WAS being closely supervised btw, these things can happen in a split second, right in front of you. Only takes a slip of the foot or a trip while running. But either way, I think there has to be cover of some kind. Perhaps the letter is a standard thing, advised by lawyers to send in the hope that no-one takes it further?

[MantaRay]

Why don't you ring or email the Department that accredits day care centres and ask them. They should either be able to answer the question or point you in the right direction. GL.

[CathieW]

Hi
I own a centre and we are covered for public liability, so if a child trips over a mat at preschool and hits there head on the table and the child needs to go to hopital we are responsible. But if a child is running around outside trips falls and a tooth goes through there lip than it is an accident and the centre is not liable for this as kids are kids and they are going to fall and hurt themselfs.
We had one child not sitting correctly on a chair a staff member asked this child a couple of times to sit properly, the child fell and her tooth went through her tougue.

[mumofmany]

If you are not covered by the centre, you will get some back through medicare. I've just had a $500 bill for DD3 to be knocked out for dental work and I got back just over $200 of it.

[Melly01]

My son broke his leg at preschool, apparently a child jumped on his leg. Nobody realised it was broken at the time so I didn't get an ambulance to pick him up until I took him to a medical centre later in the day. I never asked about the centre reimbursing medical fees, mainly because I'm on a pension so haven't recieved any bills or anything for the ambulance, the operation, and the few days in hospital. Thankfully since he was not attending for 5 or 6 weeks, the centre had that reimbursed onto my account so that even though I had paid for them, I had that credit available again to pay for weeks when he was actually attending the centre. They also paid for him to go to a reptile show at the centre that was on while he was in his cast. It wasn't a big expense but it was a nice gesture.