Insurance for child care services

Child care services log 1.9 recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers — 17 percent below private industry's 2.3 and number 30 of 37 trades here. The injury record is not the hard part of insuring this trade; the liability and contract requirements are.

Tailor the checklist

1Child care services 1.9 per 100
2Private industry 2.3 per 100
3Rank of 37 #30

Total recordable cases per 100 full-time workers, 2024: this trade against private industry and the 37 trades on this site. Bars to scale. Source: BLS SOII Table 1.

Recordable cases

1.9

per 100 FTE, 2024

Serious cases (DART)

1.2

63% of all cases

Fatal injuries, 2024

≈0.5 per 100,000 FTE

Workforce

777,789

full-time equivalents

What goes wrong in this trade

A moderate injury rate for staff but a liability profile defined by injury to children, allegations of abuse, and transport in staff vehicles.

The checklist for child care services

GL
General liability
Injury to clients and visitors.
Not required by federal law. Required in practice by most contracts, landlords and many state contractor licences.
E&O
Professional liability (E&O)
Care decisions are an advice exposure GL excludes.
Not required by federal law; some state licences and client contracts require it.
Abuse
Abuse and molestation liability
Required by many state licences and clients.
Not required by law; often required by state licensing or clients for care providers.
WC
Workers' compensation
Required once you have employees; lifting injuries drive the loss record.
Required by state law in nearly every state once you have employees; the employee-count threshold and exemptions are set state by state and are not reproduced here.
HNOA
Hired and non-owned auto
Staff driving to clients or transporting them.
Not required by law; commonly added to GL or auto.
Cyber
Cyber liability
Health and personal records.
Not required by law; required by some health-care and corporate contracts.

Red tags mark policy types that a law or licence usually requires; green tags are what contracts, landlords and clients ask for. Tailor the list for your situation (no employees, no vehicles, alcohol) with the checklist tool.

What the injury record means for the premium

Child care services: total recordable cases, cases with days away/restriction/transfer (DART) and cases with days away from work, per 100 FTE, 2024, columns to scale.

With 1.9 cases per 100 workers the workers' compensation base rate for this class is comparatively modest, and only 63 percent of cases involved days away, restriction or transfer. Where the premium goes instead is liability: injury to clients and visitors, and that is a general-liability and professional-liability question rather than a payroll one. Expect the certificate requirements in your contracts to matter more than your loss history.

The nearest trades by injury rate are masonry contractors (1.9), nonresidential building construction (1.9), automotive repair and maintenance (1.9); the same payroll insured in those classes would start from a similar workers' comp base.

Legal, licence or contract?

Fixed by law

Workers' compensation once you have employees, in nearly every state (threshold and exemptions set by the state; not reproduced here).
State minimum auto liability on any vehicle the business operates.

Asked for by contracts and licences

Getting quotes. Take this checklist to a broker who writes child care services — ask them to quote each line separately so you can see what the 1.9-per-100 class rate is doing to the workers' comp figure versus the liability lines. This site does not sell or quote insurance.

Sources: BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, Table 1 (2024), incidence rates per 100 full-time workers; BLS SOII Table 3 (2024), hours worked by detailed industry; BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, Table A-1 (2024). Fatal rate per 100,000 FTE is derived (count ÷ hours × 200,000,000) and approximate. Checked 2026-10-23.