Accident and Injury Reports

As a licensed family child care provider, you are responsible for notifying a child’s parent(s) in the event of an accident/injury/unusual incident that occurs while the child is in your care. In some cases you may be required to notify Community Care Licensing as well.  

Minor Injuries

Bumps, bruises, and other minor injuries are common with young children. As a child care provider it is important to provide clear communication with parents in the event their child is injured while in your care.

• For minor injuries, complete the attached Accident/Incident/Illness form or create your own version
• Parents need to be notified the day of the incident, although not immediately for minor injuries  
• Keep a copy of the form on file 

Head Injuries; Other Larger Injuries

For head injuries or other more serious injuries it is advisable to contact the parents as soon as possible, so they can be advised of the injury and decide if they would like to seek medical treatment.  This would include bonks, scrapes, collisions with another child, etc.  

When you are notifying a parent of a head injury, always be sure to let them know if it is, or is not, an emergency at the beginning of the call.  Also include information about what happened, any treatment given, and how things are going now.  

Sample Call:

Hi (Parent’s Name), this is (Your Name) from (Your School’s Name).  Everything is fine with (Child’s Name), I was just calling to let you know she bonked heads with another child about 15 minutes ago, and you know it’s our policy to alert parents any time a head injury has occurred. She cried briefly, we put ice packs on both children and gave TLC, and she is happy playing now.  She does have a bump and bruise forming over her eyebrow so I wanted to let you know.

In the event of a more serious injury where you or the parent feel medical treatment is necessary, you are required to notify Licensing either the day of, or by the close of your business the following day, with a phone call giving a general report of the incident.  You will also need to follow up within 7 business days by submitting the Unusual Incident/Injury form either by fax or mail that is attached at the end of this article.

In addition to injuries requiring medical attention, you are required to report in the same timeframe as above any incident that includes:

• Any child absence where the child is missing for any period of time (i.e., left alone outside, wanders away from your home, is lost during an outing, or does not return from school)
• Death of a child from any cause
• Any other unusual incident or accident that threatens the physical or emotional health or safety of any child.