Daycare insurance for licensed child care.

Child care is one of the most closely regulated small business sectors in Texas, and the insurance requirements reflect the responsibility involved. Beyond ordinary premises liability, centres face injury claims involving children, transportation exposure, and the abuse and molestation cover that is the defining underwriting question in this sector.

Abuse and molestation cover

This is the coverage that determines whether a daycare policy is adequate. Many general liability forms exclude abuse and molestation entirely, or provide it at a sub-limit well below the main limit. For a child care operation that exclusion is not survivable.

Carriers writing this class expect to see documented screening, background checks, supervision ratios, visibility in rooms and a clear reporting procedure. Those controls are how the cover is obtained and priced, and they are worth having regardless.

Texas licensing and the insurance requirement

Texas law requires licensed child care facilities to carry liability insurance covering injury to children, and where a centre cannot obtain it, to notify parents in writing. The statutory figure is a floor rather than a sensible limit.

Licensing standards administered by Texas Health and Human Services also govern ratios, facilities and record keeping. Underwriters look at your licensing history, and a clean record materially improves the markets available.

Transportation is a separate exposure

Any centre transporting children — field trips, school runs, outings — has a commercial auto exposure that a personal policy will not cover. Vehicle type, driver vetting and child restraint procedures all feature in the underwriting.

If staff ever use their own vehicles for centre activities, hired and non-owned auto cover needs to be in place. That is a genuinely common gap in this sector.