Daycares and covid liability waivers

[Anonymous]

Is anyone else's daycare making them sign a waiver saying the daycare isn't liable for covid exposure/transmission resulting from the provider's negligence? The Children in the Shoe is asking parents to do this, and it makes me uncomfortable. It's isn't the norm in this area at all, as far I can tell from asking around. For example, none of the Bright Horizons federal daycares has done this, and neither has any of the Goddards.

Obviously you and your kids can get covid even if everyone's trying their best; precautions aren't perfect. But that's why you have to show a breach of reasonable care to win a negligence claim, and that's what smells funny about the waiver.

[Anonymous]

Nope. We’re at Goddard Gaithersburg and they haven’t asked us to sign a thing.

[Anonymous]

So then don’t send your child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So then don’t send your child.

Ah yes, because people totally have a choice and there are SO many available daycare spots right now.

NP, but you’re being an ass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So then don’t send your child.

Many parents will do just that -- which makes this whole exercise silly. If you're a small business like a daycare, frankly you need to be more concerned about surviving as a business for the next year. And if you're still around, and have enough assets to be worth suing in a year or two, when any hypothetical lawsuit reaches judgment, count yourself lucky.

[Anonymous]

sounds reasonable to me. why not just sign it? do you think they will intentionally spread it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sounds reasonable to me. why not just sign it? do you think they will intentionally spread it?

Because it says the daycare won't be liable *even for transmission that results from their negligence* -- in other words, even if the daycare doesn't take reasonable precautions, and that failure is the reason your kid gets covid, they say they're off the hook. It'd be unreasonable to expect complete protection, but that's not what I want; I just want them to have maximum incentives to take *reasonable* care, which is the definition of not being negligent.

[Anonymous]

Then keep your kid home.

Understand the US is a litigious society. I don't blame the daycare.

[Anonymous]

If it's so reasonable, why does this daycare want a waiver, but not, apparently, many others in the DC area? Why are they more worried than other daycares? What makes them different?

[Anonymous]

Every single daycare should have both a care safety plan in regards to COVID-19 along with a assumption of the risk and waiver of liability relating to COVID-19.

[Anonymous]

Every daycare should also have a crisis communications plan, which includes a template letter for announcing the serious illness or death of a student or teacher.

[Anonymous]

Yes, ours did. I am comfortable with the precautions they are taking and had no problem signing it.

[Anonymous]

Ours did, we need care, and I signed it. But I know of other parents who decided not to go back for this reason, and the center is currently under enrolled by quite a lot. I do think they need to realize that some measures will affect their ability to keep running.

[Anonymous]

I can see why a daycare would do this. It's not like they're planning to infect everyone with Covid and then say "Muah ha ha ha ha you can't do anything". They don't want to be sued for something they feel is out of their control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Then keep your kid home.

Understand the US is a litigious society. I don't blame the daycare.

This is it, entirely. If you disagree about what reasonable precautions were, or whether they followed them when they claimed to, you might well want to duke it out in court. The waiver is phrased that way not necessarily so that they can slack off, but to draw a bright line so they don't have to worry about liability as much.