It’s every parent’s worst nightmare. You send your child off to school, and it’s already a big step for you, as the parent, to put the responsibility of your child’s safety in the hands of someone else throughout the day. Whether it’s your child’s first day of school or their last, the feeling of dread never goes away. You’re excited for them to learn, but nervous for them to find their footing as they grow in the world.
Of course, anyone can have a nasty accident and most people, of all ages, do at some point. When that happens, what do you do? Is it your fault? The school’s fault? Your child’s fault?
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No parents wants their child to ever be injured, but we’ve all been that age at one point and we all know how these things happen. Most injuries sustained by our children involve a few cuts or bruises, which is to be expected from playing around or getting a little too rough with the other kids, but what do you do when the injury is much more serious?
Much like any serious accident, if your child requires medical treatment for a broken bone, a pulled muscle or any other physical injury that might have resulted from physical education, or even playing on unsafe monkey bars, your first priority will be medical treatment before pointing fingers and calling out culprits.
Consult a doctor regarding the severity of the injury.
This should be the first point of call after your child is injured. You need to put their health first, as a priority, but it’s also important to get your head wrapped around the situation. How severe is their injury and how much is treatment going to cost you? Once you know all this, you can start to think about the compensation you may or may not be owed by your child’s school.
Many schools have been failing on issues of basic health and safety precautions, so you’re not kicking up a fuss by holding the school responsible if your child is injured. If they were injured through no fault of their own, especially if the culprit was equipment which was either broken and caused them to fall, hurting themselves, or equipment which was unsuitable for younger children to be using, such as more advanced climbing apparatus for older students.
If it’s not your fault, there are ways you can be financially smart about this.
Of course, if an injury happened at home, you’d just have to bite the bullet and accept the medical bill or other expenses, for the sake of your child’s well-being. However, when an accident happens on school property, it can often be the fault of a neglectful teacher or something as hazardous as ill-maintained equipment in the gym hall. At that point, your child’s injury wasn’t your fault, and you don’t have to endure the financial burden: https://www.injurylawyer.com/new-york/slip-and-fall-accident/
It isn’t fair for you to be paying huge sums of money you can barely afford simply because the school broke your trust. They have a duty of care to your child, and they have a responsibility to compensate you if they fail to look after your child.
