So I Sent My Child Off to Daycare....

My daughter turned one in June.  We knew we were going to have to transition her from having Aunty watch her nearly every day to a traditional daycare setting soon.  Panic ensued.  Anxiety was my friend at night. How was my daughter going to be OK if she couldn't even talk to me and tell me how her day went?

Let's talk childcare insurance.  You see, I come from a different perspective.  I come from a side where I see the most horrific claims come through as one of my specialties is in the childcare insurance industry. 

It's pretty astounding to me that some, not all, but some childcare owners are ignorant in that claim scenarios "would never happen at their daycare".  I hear "Our staff is extremely professional and well trained.  Something like that would never happen here."  Fortunately, they're usually right.  But it's not necessarily the staff, parents or visitors that the school or daycare needs to look out for.  It's other children. 

I would say, and this is a rough estimate so don't quote me on this, that approximately 50% of the claims I have seen aren't teacher, instructor or caregiver driven.  It's child vs. child.  Whether that is a hit, a slap, a push or something more inappropriate, children who can't properly express their emotions through words, sometimes turn to violence out of frustration.  I see little bouts of this every day in my daughter.  She tries to communicate with us what she would like.  She points at things, gives us signs.  But at times, we have no idea what she is trying to tell us.  She gets frustrated...and understandably so. 

It turns out that we found an excellent daycare that's right for my daughter and our family.  But, when I did visit other daycares, I not only paid attention to the facility, the employees, the surroundings, but to the other children that were attending.  My daughter would be attending this facility every day with this group of children.  And I needed to feel comfortable with that.

Now I could go on and on about the different types of insurance that is needed for childcare organizations, but here are a few that I believe are overlooked but pertinent to schools, daycare centers and childcare organizations of any kind:

• Failure to Educate - especially here in Silicon Valley, we've seen a major uptick in failure to education claims coming from Pre-K or Kindergarten school settings.  Facilities that make any sort of promise of "curriculum" or learning ability are under fire.  Make sure a failure to educate limit is included in your insurance.
• Incidental Medical Malpractice - this affords coverage for an act, error or omission in providing or failing to provide "incidental medical services", first aid or "good Samaritan" services to a person.  Think of school nurses who accidentally mix up Tylenol and Benadryl or even worse, another child's medication.  Enough said.
• Defense Wording - Some insurance carriers have the right not to defend an accusation or claim.  It's important to have a carrier that has defense wording language that will continue to defend the organization until guilt is admitted or a guilty verdict is determined. 
• Abuse and Molestation - This is a touchy topic and an obvious one.  Many insurance carriers do not provide a separate limit for A&M.  They include a sub-limit for this coverage and it depletes your overall insurance limit for the year.  Find a carrier that will give you a stand alone limit for A&M.  They don't happen often.  But when they do, they are very, very large.  Your organization will need the separate limit.  Trust me. 

As my daughter grows up, I will get to know the child care industry from a more personal level.  Don't skimp out on insurance coverage's for your organization.  Here at The Liberty Company we have an exclusive childcare insurance program that offers the above and many more important insurance coverage's.  Feel free to email me if you'd like some additional information.

Tis the Season for Oktoberfest

Tis the season for leaves changing colors, cool brisk evenings, scary costumes, pumpkin carving contests and OKTOBERFEST!  I have to admit, I'm not a beer drinker.  But, many, many of you out there are.  And judging from how many people attended Campbell's Oktoberfest festival this year, there are NO shortage of people drinking and loving their beer. 


Let's say you are one of the vendor's at an Oktoberfest festival or event.  How do protect your business from the typical mishaps that occur at a festival?  Can't think of any examples on how your business would be at risk for a pesky two day festival?  Here are a few of the top claims that occur from these events:

1.) WEATHER - We can't control it and sometimes, it doesn't cooperate.  You can control this financial risk by getting weather insurance for an event.  Whether it's snow, rain, adverse weather, wind, event cancellation, these types of perils are all insurable.  If you were a food vendor and purchased thousands of sausages for an Oktoberfest event only to find out that the event was cancelled....how would you recoup your cost?  Because let's be honest, where else are you going to need thousands of sausages?

2.) LIQUOR CLAIMS - The vendors serving beer can control how much a festival attendee drinks on site.  But the unfortunate thing is, most eager festival attendees pre-party.  And vendors that are serving alcohol typically don't know how much they've had prior to coming to the event.  If a person at the event gets in a fight, breaks a stores window, or drives off and gets in an accident, the person who served the patron could be sued for the damages.  Make sure that your business is covered by purchasing Liquor Liability if you are in the business of serving alcohol to event goers.  If you are not a bar, tavern, liquor store, etc., you still have an exposure if liquor is being served on your site.  In order to properly protect your business, purchase host liquor liability, a type of policy tailored to someone who is not in the business of alcohol sales, production, or service, but who needs liability coverage for hosting the event.  Liquor liability is normally excluded on all general liability policies unless requested to be included by your agent.

3.) SLIP AND FALLS - This is one of the most typical claim that pops up at events.  Someone trips over uneven payment or a curb...or an extension cord that is helping power one of the vendors stands.  If you are hosting the event, make sure a solid safety procedure is in place for events such as Oktoberfest.  All vendors should be required to sign off on a safety manual prior to setting up shop.  Everything from security, to sanitation, to crowd management, to first aid protocol should be covered in this document.  Whether you have EMS services on stand-by, have a standing first aid station, or both, make sure vendors know who to call or what to do if someone trips and falls or an unfortunate emergency occurs.

4.) VANDALISM - Anyone remember an old cheer?  Let's get a little bit rowdy, R-O-W-D-Y!  This is exactly what happens when you cram a bunch of people drinking alcoholic beverages into a roped off concrete street.   Sounds like fun, right?!  Not if you're a local store that gets it's window broken by a few rowdy festival goers.  If you're a local business owner and know a festival is coming up in the near future, it may be smart to double check your insurance policy to confirm what your glass deductible is let alone your property/general liability deductible.  Secondly, look around the store, do a quick estimated value total for all property in the store and check that against what your business personal property limit is on your current policy.  Most business owners don't have time to update their policies every year so making sure that limit is adequate saves a lot of headaches down the road. 

In short, it pays to be prepared.  Don't gamble on a two day festival by not protecting your business properly.  If your current general liability policies doesn't cover specific events, such as an Oktoberfest, secure event insurance.  It's cheap, easy to obtain and protects against most, if not all of the perils, listed above!  Happy Oktoberfest month!