Get coverage to protect what matters most from the start with child care center insurance.
Child care center owners face liability, property, employee, and child-safety exposures every day, and daycare liability insurance is built to protect the business when injuries, allegations, accidents, or property damage disrupt operations.
Insurance for the risks of child care.
Daycare liability insurance is a package of business coverage designed for a child care center, including protection for liability claims, professional care decisions, child-safety allegations, employee injuries, and damage to buildings, furniture, learning materials, and outdoor equipment. A single playground fall, biting incident, staff transport accident, or property loss can create medical bills, legal expenses, and downtime that put your business at risk.
Your child care center needs insurance for the building, business property, staff, and daily operations. Home-based and commercial child care centers both need coverage that matches their enrollment, services, transportation exposures, and licensing obligations.
Get a daycare insurance quote built for liability claims, child injuries, staff exposures, and property damage.
What Does Daycare Liability Insurance Cover?
Child care center insurance provides coverage for business property and liability, with coverage options for the unique risks of child care center operations.
General Liability
General liability insurance for daycare is the foundational policy for third-party bodily injury, property damage, and legal defense claims. If a child falls on the playground or a parent slips during pickup, this coverage can help address the resulting claim.
Professional Liability
Professional liability covers claims that a child care center’s supervision, instruction, or care decisions caused harm. If a family alleges that a staff member failed to follow a care plan, supervision standard, or release procedure, this coverage responds to the professional-services side of the claim.
Abuse and Molestation Liability
Abuse and molestation liability protects a child care center from covered claims involving allegations of abuse or molestation and the legal costs that can follow. This coverage matters because child care centers serve a vulnerable population, and it is separate from standard general liability coverage.
Student Accident Liability
Student accident liability can help with covered medical expenses after a child is injured during normal activities. A biting incident in the classroom or a fall during indoor play can create immediate medical costs even before fault is determined.
Commercial Property
Commercial property coverage protects the child care center’s building and business personal property, including furniture, cots, art supplies, computers, toys, and outdoor play equipment. Fire, theft, vandalism, or certain weather-related losses can interrupt operations and damage the items you use every day.
Business Auto and Hired/Non-Owned Auto Liability
Business auto coverage protects vehicles owned by the child care center, such as a van used to transport children. Hired and non-owned auto liability applies when staff members use rented or personal vehicles for center business, and it can be critical if a staff transport accident occurs during a pickup, drop-off, or field trip.
Workers’ Compensation
Workers’ compensation covers job-related injuries suffered by employees while lifting children, cleaning spills, preparing food, or supervising active play. It can help with medical bills, lost wages, and employer obligations where coverage is required.
Employment Practices or Cyber Liability
Employment practices liability can address claims involving wrongful termination, harassment, discrimination, or retaliation brought by employees or applicants. Cyber liability can help a child care center respond to data breaches involving parent payment information, child records, medical forms, or incident reports.
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General Liability
Risk Factor
Visitors walking into the center could slip and fall, a teacher or employee could cause damage to a student’s property, or a lawsuit could be filed against your child care center.
Solution
General liability insurance is a necessity for any business. It provides broad coverage when you are deemed liable and will pay to defend lawsuits alleging injuries or property damage which occurred as the result of your center’s operations.
Business Personal Property
Risk Factor
Fire, weather, burst pipes, and other losses are frequent for child care centers given the large amount of physical space required to operate. These losses can cause significant damage to the school’s business personal property.
Solution
Business personal property coverage allows the center to replace property that has been damaged or destroyed by a covered cause of a loss. For a child care center, this may include property like chairs, tables, books, toys, materials, and supplies.
Workers’ Compensation
Risk Factor
If one of your employees receives an injury or becomes ill due to a work-related occurrence, you are required by law to have the proper coverage in place.
Solution
State disability and workers' compensation protects your employees should a job-related injury or sickness occur during their course of employment. This coverage is required by law, so be sure you have it.
Cyber Liability
Risk Factor
The internet has spun a whole new web of liability exposures. E-commerce, social networking, cloud storage, and other technologies bring great benefits to all businesses. But with these benefits also come challenges, including protection of privacy, data, and financial information of your employees and students.
Solution
Cyber liability coverage covers unauthorized access to electronic data or software within your network. It also provides coverage for spreading a virus, computer theft, extortion, or any unintentional act, mistake, error, or omission made by an employee. This coverage is quickly becoming more and more important as you embrace technology to help run your child care center.
Umbrella / Excess Liability
Risk Factor
What happens when your child care center faces a large liability loss that exceeds the basic limit of your standard policy?
Solution
A commercial umbrella policy provides high limits of insurance, typically between $2,000,000 and $10,000,000. Coverage is extended over your general liability insurance, workers' compensation, business auto, and directors and officer’s liability coverage. It provides a great safety net and helps ensure your school is well protected.
Professional Liability
Risk Factor
All child care centers and schools are at risk for professional liability claims to be brought against them for negligence.
Solution
Professional liability protects your teachers and child care employees. If your staff is sued due to negligence in relation to a child’s safety or for making an error in judgement, your center can also be sued.
Abuse / Molestation
Risk Factor
When working with children or youth, there is always a risk that staff/owners could be accused of physical, sexual, or mental abuse.
Solution
If an employee or owner is accused of abuse, you need abuse/molestation coverage to protect your center or school from the possibility of significant financial loss. Even unfounded lawsuits are costly to defend.
Commercial Auto
Risk Factor
Commercial auto is necessary if your center has company-owned vehicles and children are transported to and from school and/or field trips.
Solution
Commercial auto insurance can protect your center or school if an accident occurs or there is damage to a vehicle.
Hired and Non-Owned Auto Liability
Risk Factor
If you or your staff drive their own vehicle on business time or you rent vehicles in the business name to travel to meetings, conferences, or elsewhere, you face additional exposure and risk.
Solution
Hired and non-owned auto liability protects your staff if they are driving their own vehicle to run errands. Your center or school can be held liable for injuries or property damage if a driver is involved in an accident. The hired liability portion covers rented vehicles when listed in the business name for travel use.
Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI)
Risk Factor
Employment-related claims can be made by past or current employees, those who have applied for work, and even clients or potential clients.
Solution
Employment practices liability insurance can help protect your child care center from claims which may arise due to alleged negligence relating to discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination, service refusal, or any other employee-related claim.
Employee Benefits Liability Insurance
Risk Factor
It’s possible that your child care center could incur losses if you offer employee benefits to your team.
Solution
The administration of benefit plans can be tricky. Employee benefits liability insurance help cover any losses resulting from many types of employee benefits plans such as health insurance, retirement plans, and more.
Student Accident
Risk Factor
Everyone knows that children can be accident-prone. Often they trip and fall, collide with one another, or even knock out a tooth or break a bone, so it is important to obtain a student accident policy.
Solution
A student accident policy can cover children’s medical bills if they are injured at the center or on a sponsored field trip or activity. There are two options. Full excess reimburses secondary to the child’s health insurance plan and primary reimburses on a primary basis, regardless of the child’s current health insurance plan.
Liability and Property Coverage for Child Care Centers
A child care center also needs protection for the facility and the equipment children use every day, including classrooms, cribs, tables, fencing, playground surfaces, and toys. Transportation exposures also require the right auto coverage when the center owns a vehicle or when a worker uses a personal vehicle for business purposes.
Abuse and molestation liability deserves special attention in child care center operations because allegations can lead to severe financial and reputational damage. This coverage addresses exposures that standard general liability does not address on its own and is often an important part of a complete daycare liability insurance program.
Home-Based Daycare vs. Commercial Center Coverage
Homeowners insurance vs. daycare liability insurance: in-home daycare insurance usually needs business liability, professional liability, and business property protection because homeowners insurance often excludes or limits claims tied to paid child care services. A commercial child care center may need higher liability limits, building coverage, landlord-required proof of coverage, and broader auto or abuse coverage because it has more staff, more children, and more public foot traffic.
State Licensing and Insurance Requirements for Child Care Operators
Georgia is a useful example because child care operators may need to meet state licensing standards, contract requirements, landlord rules, or transportation rules before opening or renewing coverage. In some cases, operators may also need to provide a certificate of insurance as proof of daycare liability insurance.
Requirements vary by state, program type, enrollment, transportation, and employee count. Contact us for your state so we can match coverage to the rules that apply to your child care center.
Additional Business Insurance for Daycare Centers
Your child care center is also an employer, a tenant or property owner, and a business that stores records and handles payments. In addition to daycare liability insurance, many centers add employment practices liability for hiring and discipline disputes, employee dishonesty coverage for theft of money or supplies, and cyber liability for parent billing data and child records.
Workers’ compensation matters when teachers, aides, and support staff are injured while lifting children, moving equipment, or responding to incidents. Business auto coverage matters when the child care center owns a van, and hired and non-owned auto liability matters when an employee uses a personal vehicle for errands, pickups, or field trips.
How Much Does Daycare Liability Insurance Cost?
How much does daycare insurance cost depends on the size and risk profile of the child care center. Pricing is commonly influenced by enrollment, location, staff count, vehicles, coverage limits, and claims history.
Insurers may also review the ages of the children you serve, your hours of operation, playground equipment, transportation activities, and prior allegations or losses. A center with more children, more employees, and transportation services typically pays more than a smaller program with limited operations.
A business owner’s policy can combine general liability and commercial property coverage into one package. Bundling those core coverages may be a practical way to insure the child care center while keeping the policy structure straightforward.
Request a daycare insurance quote that reflects your enrollment, staff, vehicles, and property exposures.
For similar programs and related coverage, explore insurance by industry, school insurance for organizations serving older students, dance studio insurance for youth programs with student accident and abuse exposures, and social services agency insurance for organizations serving children and families.
Daycare Insurance FAQ
Is daycare liability insurance required by law?
It can be, depending on your state, license type, landlord agreement, or contract requirements. Some operators must carry specific coverage or provide a certificate of insurance, and requirements vary from Georgia to other states.
Does my homeowners insurance cover my in-home daycare?
Usually not in full. Homeowners policies often limit or exclude business activity, which is why in-home daycare insurance is commonly needed for liability, professional services, and business property exposures.
What is the difference between general liability and professional liability for daycares?
General liability applies to third-party injury or property damage claims, such as a parent slipping on the premises. Professional liability applies to claims that supervision, care decisions, or services provided by the child care center caused harm.
Do I need workers’ compensation if I have daycare employees?
Many child care centers do, and state law often determines when it is required. Even when requirements differ, workers’ compensation is important because employees can be injured while lifting children, cleaning, cooking, or supervising play.
What does daycare insurance cover for student accident liability?
Student accident liability can help address covered medical expenses when a child is injured during routine activities. It can be useful for incidents such as falls, collisions, or biting injuries that need immediate treatment.
Does daycare insurance cover field trips?
It can, but coverage depends on the policy and how transportation is handled. Field trips may involve general liability, student accident liability, business auto coverage, and hired/non-owned auto liability when staff members use personal vehicles.
What factors affect the cost of daycare liability insurance?
Cost is shaped by enrollment, location, staff count, vehicles, coverage limits, claims history, ages served, and the activities your child care center provides. Reviewing those details is the best way to get an accurate daycare insurance quote.
Review the liability, property, employee, transportation, and child-safety exposures in your child care center, then request a daycare insurance quote tailored to your operations.
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