Many workers in the child care industry supplement their income with babysitting.

These workers have been screened by state regulatory bodies, have experience in dealing with children and quite frankly can frequently use the addtional income.  The after hours babysitting seems like a good idea, right?

As the owner of a child care center you can find yourself dragged into a lawsuit over your employees babsitting activities in the blink of an eye.

During working hours, your employee, Betty Sue, is talking to the parents of the children in her class and tells them she does babysitting after hours.  Some of the parents think this is a nifty idea and begin to use her services.  One evening a child comes to her home for babysitting, falls and is seriously injured.  Lawyers can n ame you as a defendant in the lawsuit because the agreement between your employee and the parents seemed to be condoned by your school.

Here are a few suggestions to protect your school:

1. Do not allow employees to solicit babysitting positions while on the job
2. Do not allow employees to take children off the school premises - even if the parents request the employee be added to the pickup list
3. Include wording in your parent handbook that you do not allow employees to babysit enrolled children
4. Include wording in y our employee handbook that you do not allow employees to babysit enrolled children AND that it is a terminating offense
5. Explain y our position to your employees

Frequently teachers and parents will ask if they can continue to babysit enrolled children outside the daycare center if everyone signs a waiver.  Unfortunately waivers rarely hold up in a courtroom so I would advise against such a practice.  As always, the decision regarding the amount of risk you are willing to bear is yours alone. 

Call Block Insurance for more information 800-225-0863