A child care center's insurance program has six real parts, and one of them matters more than the other five combined.
General liability answers for the premises. Professional liability answers for supervision, which general liability commonly excludes. Workers' comp covers the staff. Auto covers field trips and errands. Property and business income cover the building and the closure. And abuse and molestation coverage answers for the allegation that decides whether the center is still open in three years — a coverage that is normally excluded from the base forms, added back by endorsement, and written on a sublimit that is often a fraction of the number printed on the front of the policy.
Inside a hundred-mile circle of Statesboro, Georgia there are hundreds of licensed centers — independent daycares and preschools in Statesboro, Savannah, Pooler, Richmond Hill, Hinesville, Vidalia, Dublin, Swainsboro and Waynesboro, church-affiliated programs, Pre-K providers, after-school and summer camp operations, and a large number of small owner-operated centers with thirty to eighty children and a dozen staff.
They are genuine commercial accounts with meaningful payroll and a severe tail risk, and they are frequently written on whatever package a generalist could bind quickly — which in this class means the abuse endorsement is small, the defense treatment was never discussed, and nobody looked at the retroactive date.
| Coverage | What it answers for | Characteristic failure |
|---|---|---|
| Abuse & molestation | Allegations against staff, and entity claims for negligent hiring, retention and supervision | Excluded by default; added back on a low sublimit with defense inside it |
| Professional liability | Supervision and care decisions — failure to supervise, ratio failures, policy not followed | Assumed to be inside GL, which excludes professional services |
| General liability | Premises — playground falls, parents and visitors, slips | Bought alone and treated as the whole program |
| Commercial auto / HNOA | Field trips, van transport, staff driving personal cars on errands | No van, so nobody bought non-owned auto |
| Workers' compensation | Lifting, slips, illness exposure among staff | Payroll understated; seasonal summer staff omitted |
| Property & business income | Building, contents, playground structures, and a closure | Income limit ignores that displaced families do not come back |
Employment practices liability, commercial crime and cyber sit around this, and a center with a board — church-affiliated or nonprofit — should also read our page on directors and officers coverage.
This is the section worth the page. Abuse and molestation is typically excluded from base general liability and professional liability forms and added back by endorsement. When it is added back, four details decide whether it is worth anything:
One more question that gets missed: how does the form treat allegations involving one child against another? Peer-to-peer incidents are a real and recurring scenario in group care and are handled inconsistently between forms.
Underwriters price all of this on your program rather than your intentions — background check scope and fingerprinting, reference verification, re-screening frequency, two-adult and one-on-one contact rules, diapering and toileting policies, nap-time supervision, camera coverage and retention, and how complaints are investigated and documented. The same structural logic drives our page on abuse and molestation liability for churches and youth ministries, and it applies with more force in a licensed setting where ratios and policies are already written down.
Abuse and professional coverage in this class is often written claims-made rather than occurrence, and the consequences are unusually severe here because claims involving children can surface long after the alleged conduct.
Two specific traps:
A child falls off equipment. That sounds like general liability, and a simple fall often is. But the allegation that gets filed is usually inadequate supervision — not enough staff outside, ratio not maintained, the policy not followed — and that framing pushes the claim toward professional liability, which is exactly why professional liability belongs on the program alongside general liability rather than instead of it.
On the physical side, the items underwriters ask about are the items that actually drive claims, and documented inspection routines are credited:
Building code, licensing, ratio and playground safety requirements are set by state and local authority, differ by age group, and are amended; confirm yours with your state licensing authority and local officials rather than relying on any published summary.
If staff drive their own cars for supplies, errands or to move a child, the center has a liability exposure from vehicles it does not own, and hired and non-owned auto is the coverage for it. This is inexpensive and routinely absent.
If the center owns or leases a van or bus, commercial auto with the right covered-auto symbols is required, and expect real underwriting: driver selection and motor vehicle records, passenger restraint arrangements appropriate to the ages carried, and the head-count-and-check procedure at every loading and unloading. That last item is not paperwork — a child left in a vehicle is the catastrophic scenario in this class, and the written procedure is both a safety control and an underwriting fact.
Chartering a bus or using a third-party provider does not fully transfer the exposure either. Collect certificates, confirm limits, and read what the contract says about indemnity — the same discipline our certificate tracking page applies to subcontractors.
Several common add-ons materially change the placement and are frequently never disclosed: summer camp programs, field trips to water, transportation to and from schools, after-school pick-up routes, overnight events, on-site food preparation, and renting the facility to outside groups on weekends. Each one is a different exposure than licensed daytime care. If a center rents its space out, the certificate and additional-insured discipline described on our event venue page applies directly. And a center that also provides in-home care shares most of its risk profile with our home care agency page.
Bettr Coverage is an independent commercial insurance agency serving Georgia and the wider Southeast, and child care is a class where a cheap policy and an adequate policy look identical until the day they don't. On a center review we check the abuse sublimit and whether defense erodes it, whether entity claims for negligent hiring and supervision are covered, whether any coverage is claims-made and what the retroactive date says, whether professional liability is actually granted rather than presumed inside the GL, whether non-owned auto exists at all, whether the umbrella follows over abuse, and whether the business income limit reflects how slowly enrollment rebuilds. One agency, one relationship, all of it read together.
Send your declarations pages and the abuse endorsement. We'll tell you what limit really applies, whether defense erodes it, whether your retro date is intact, and whether your umbrella sits above any of it.
Get a free coverage reviewGeneral liability for premises, professional liability for supervision, abuse and molestation coverage, workers' comp, auto or hired and non-owned auto for trips and errands, and property with business income — plus EPLI, crime and cyber. A GL policy alone insures the parking lot, not the business.
Confirm four things in writing: that it exists, the per-claim and aggregate sublimits, whether defense costs sit inside that sublimit, and whether the entity is covered for negligent hiring and supervision. Also ask how the form treats one child against another.
Both exist, and it matters more here because claims can surface years later. With claims-made, confirm the retroactive date on the policy as issued, don't let it reset at a carrier change, and price tail coverage before closing, selling or switching.
A simple fall often engages GL, but the allegation is usually inadequate supervision, which GL may exclude as professional services. That's why professional liability sits alongside GL. On the physical side, surfacing, fall heights, fencing and documented inspections drive the claims.
Yes — hired and non-owned auto, for staff driving their own cars on errands or transporting a child. If you do own a van, commercial auto is required and underwriters will scrutinize drivers, restraints and the head-count procedure at loading and unloading.
No credible single number. Licensed capacity and enrollment, age mix (infant care rates differently), receipts and payroll, owned or leased building, transportation, water features, playground, your screening program, state and loss history all move it — and the abuse limit you select moves it on its own.
Evidence of a supervision system: capacity and enrollment by age, staffing and ratios, the screening program, written supervision and release policies, playground and surfacing records, transportation and head-count procedure, water activities, the parent handbook, licensure status with any deficiencies addressed, and narrated loss history.
For general information only. Not legal advice and not a quote or contract of insurance. Policy forms, endorsements, sublimits and exclusions vary by carrier and form edition — abuse and molestation grants, per-claim and aggregate sublimits, defense-within-limits treatment, entity versus individual coverage, professional services exclusions, retroactive dates and extended reporting provisions, and umbrella follow-form over abuse must all be read as actually issued. Licensing, staff-to-child ratio, background-check, supervision, transportation and playground safety requirements are set by state and local authority, differ by age group, and are amended; confirm your obligations with your state licensing authority and local officials. Handling of children's personal, medical and custody information is subject to regulation; confirm your obligations with qualified counsel. Coverage subject to policy terms, conditions, exclusions and carrier appetite.