What insurance does a daycare need?
There's no one-size answer. The right mix depends on how you work, who you work for, and what your contracts ask for. These are the coverages a daycare typically looks at first:
General liability
Covers third-party injuries to children in your care and property damage at your facility, with the $1,000,000 per-occurrence limit licensing agencies and landlords typically request.
Professional liability
For claims that your supervision, staffing, or care decisions themselves caused harm, separate from a single physical accident.
Business property
Toys, furniture, and classroom equipment fill a daycare space, and this helps protect what you'd need to replace after a fire, theft, or water damage.
Workers' compensation
Once you have staff watching children alongside you, their injuries, from a strained back lifting a child to a fall during outdoor time, are handled here.
Coverage always depends on your specific situation. The fastest way to see what fits is to get a quote and review your options.
What does it protect against?
The risks that matter aren't abstract. They're the everyday accidents of the work. A few scenarios that turn into real claims:
A child is hurt on the playground
A child slips off a climbing structure during outdoor time and breaks an arm. The parents' medical bills, and any claim that your supervision was inadequate, become the kind of third-party injury claim general liability is built to address.
A parent alleges neglect in supervision
A parent claims a child wandered unsupervised for several minutes, or that a staffing ratio was too thin the day of an incident. Claims about the quality of your care and supervision, rather than a single accident, sit in professional liability territory.
An allergic reaction from a feeding mistake
A child with a known allergy is served a snack containing the allergen and has a reaction. Whether the claim centers on the physical harm or the care decisions that led to it, it's a serious exposure either way.
Fire or water damage closes your space
A kitchen fire or a burst pipe damages your classroom, toys, and equipment overnight. Beyond the disruption to families who depend on you, replacing what's lost is a real cost to the business.
Certificates of insurance
Licensing agencies, landlords, and sometimes families themselves are the usual sources of a certificate request for daycares: most licensing requirements call for proof of general liability before you can operate, and a leased space adds the landlord's own request on top. Some enrollment contracts ask that parents be shown proof too. Olli's general liability policies include instant certificates, so licensing paperwork doesn't stall on coverage.
New to certificates? Start with our guide to the certificate of insurance: what's on one, who asks for it, and how to provide yours.