Are you looking for a daycare injury lawyer in Hempstead, NY?
At Isaacson, Schiowitz & Korson, LLP, we provide daycare injury representation guided by more than 75 years of combined experience in Hempstead and the surrounding area.
If your child was hurt at a daycare center in Hempstead, you were probably given a short incident report written by the staff who were on duty. Those reports rarely include the staffing sheet, the attendance log, or the center’s inspection history, and each of those documents can matter more than the report itself.
Isaacson, Schiowitz & Korson, LLP has handled injury claims for New York families since 1978. A Hempstead, NY daycare injury lawyer from our firm can request those records, identify who was responsible for supervising your child, and explain what pursuing a claim would involve. The first consultation is free.
Daycare Injury Lawyer Hempstead, NY
Day care centers across New York reported 398 serious injuries to state regulators during 2025, along with 162 reported at school-age programs, according to OCFS aggregate data. Hempstead programs are licensed and inspected by the Office of Children and Family Services through its Long Island Regional Office, and cited violations are posted publicly for each facility.
A daycare injury attorney represents the child and the family, not the facility. The work involves establishing who owed your child supervision at the moment of the injury, what the center’s own written policies required, and whether the staffing on that date matched the ratio the program is licensed to maintain. We collect the records, calculate what the injury has cost and will cost, and handle the negotiation with the center’s insurance carrier so that parents are not doing it themselves.
Types of Daycare Injury Cases We Handle in Hempstead
A daycare claim usually begins with one incident, but the cause is often a condition that existed for months beforehand. Understaffing, a piece of equipment that was never repaired, and a shortcut in the hiring process all tend to appear in the file well before a child is injured. Our attorneys handle the following matters for Hempstead families.
- Supervision and staffing failures. Most daycare injuries trace back to how many adults were watching how many children. We compare the attendance record for the day against the staffing sheet and the ratio the program’s license requires.
- Playground and equipment injuries. Falls from climbing structures, injuries from broken or missing surfacing, and entrapment in damaged equipment are among the most common serious incidents at child care programs. Maintenance logs and prior inspection findings often show how long a hazard was present.
- Slip and fall injuries. Wet floors near bathrooms and cubbies, unsecured mats, and cluttered walkways cause a significant share of indoor daycare injuries. These claims turn on what the operator knew about the condition and how long it went unaddressed.
- Pedestrian accidents. Drop-off and pickup put small children in parking lots and near moving traffic. When a child is struck, both the driver and the program that failed to escort the child may bear responsibility.
- Car accidents. Programs that transport children to field trips or between school and the center owe the same duties as any other motor carrier. Age-appropriate restraints and booster seat requirements are frequently at issue in these claims.
- Wrongful death. A small number of daycare incidents each year are fatal, and those claims belong to the child’s estate rather than to the parents individually. The filing deadline differs from an injury claim, so timing needs to be confirmed early.
- Choking, allergic reactions, and medication errors. Programs are required to document food allergies, keep emergency medication accessible, and follow written administration procedures. When a reaction becomes severe, the question is usually whether staff recognized it and responded within the time the plan called for.
- Abuse and negligent hiring. Background check requirements exist because they screen out people who should not be supervising children. Where a program hired without completing that review, or kept an employee after complaints, the failure sits with the operator rather than with a single staff member.
Why Choose Isaacson, Schiowitz & Korson, LLP as my Daycare Injury Lawyer in Hempstead, NY?
Insurance Defense Background on Our Side
Jeremy Schiowitz has represented injury victims across New York City and Long Island for more than 16 years, and he came to that work with a defense-side background that helps him anticipate how carriers build a file. He was admitted in New Jersey in 2003 and in New York in 2004, and he has appeared on the Super Lawyers list each year from 2014 through 2025. Martin Schiowitz was admitted in 1973, co-founded the firm in 1978, and belongs to the state trial lawyers association. A personal injury lawyer in Hempstead, NY can investigate and determine who is responsible for the accident.
A Record in Serious Injury Claims
The firm’s recoveries exceed $200 million across its personal injury practice. Individual premises and negligence results include $1,200,000, $470,300, $360,000, and $247,500. We take these matters on a contingency fee basis, which means no fee is owed unless we recover for your family.
Understanding Daycare Injury Cases
Damages, Liability, and Compensation for Daycare Injury Cases
A daycare claim is a negligence claim. The family must show that the program owed the child a duty of care, that it failed to meet that duty, and that the failure caused an injury with measurable consequences. New York permits recovery of both economic and non-economic damages, and a child’s claim is valued differently from an adult’s because the effects extend across a longer life.
- Emergency treatment, surgery, follow-up care, and any device or therapy the child needs
- Future medical costs where an injury will require care into adulthood
- Pain and suffering, including the effect on a child’s daily functioning and development
- Costs the parents incur directly, such as time away from work and travel for treatment
- Loss of future earning capacity where a serious injury will limit what the child can do
New York applies pure comparative fault under CPLR 1411, so an award is reduced by any share of fault assigned rather than barred outright. Programs sometimes argue that a young child contributed to an injury. New York courts recognize that very young children lack the capacity to be negligent, which limits how far that argument goes, and comparative fault more often becomes an issue when an older school-age child is involved.
What Is The Daycare Injury Case Timeline?
The statute of limitations for a negligence claim is three years under CPLR 214. For an injured child, CPLR 208 pauses that clock during childhood, so the three years generally begin at the eighteenth birthday. A parent’s own claim for medical expenses is not paused and runs from the date of the injury, and deadlines are shorter when a program is operated by a school district or another public entity. Most daycare claims that proceed to litigation resolve within two to three years.
- Records collection from the program, treating providers, and the state licensing file
- Medical review to establish the injury’s long-term effects on the child
- Filing and service of the complaint
- Discovery, including depositions of the director and the staff on duty
- Settlement negotiation, court approval of any settlement for the child, and trial if the case does not resolve
What Are Important Aspects of a Daycare Injury Case?
The staffing and attendance documentation for the day of the injury carries more weight than the incident report, because it establishes whether the required adult-to-child ratio was actually met. Close behind it sits the program’s regulatory file, which shows whether the same problem had been cited in an earlier inspection. Photographs of the injury and of the location where it happened also carry weight, particularly when the condition is repaired soon afterward, so preserving evidence matters from the first week.
Head injuries deserve particular attention. Symptoms of brain injuries in young children can be subtle, and a delayed diagnosis complicates both the treatment and the claim. Where the injury happened on the premises rather than during an activity, the operator’s duty of care as a property owner may apply alongside its duties as a licensed program.
Some daycare injuries are accidents that no amount of supervision would have prevented, and we will tell you when the records point that way.
What Should You Bring to Your Daycare Injury Consultation?
The documents below help us evaluate a claim quickly, and a partial set is enough to start.
- The incident report and any written communication from the program
- The enrollment agreement, parent handbook, and any allergy or medical action plan on file
- Medical records, discharge instructions, and photographs of the injury
- Names of staff, administrators, and other parents you have spoken with, along with dates
We will review the material with you and give you an assessment during the meeting rather than afterward. Consultations are usually available within a few business days.
Hempstead Childcare Oversight and Local Resources
Every regulated program serving Hempstead families has a public file that includes its license status, capacity, inspection dates, and cited violations. Parents can review that history before enrolling a child or while a claim is being evaluated.
- Child care search covering licensed and registered programs by name or zip code
- Regulated program types explaining how centers, family programs, and school-age programs differ
- State child care data including provider counts, capacity, and annual reporting
- Complaints about a program can be made to the Office of Children and Family Services, which investigates and posts the outcome in the facility’s record
Nassau County civil matters are filed in the Supreme Court in Mineola.
Reach Out to Isaacson, Schiowitz & Korson, LLP to Schedule a Consultation
Contact us if your child was injured at a Hempstead child care program and you want the records reviewed. We will identify the deadline that applies, request the program’s licensing file, and explain what the claim is likely to involve before you commit to anything. There is no fee unless we recover for your family, and the consultation itself costs nothing.
