Legal Issues: Preschool Safety Tips for Educators

 

As the number of preschool programs offered in school districts increases, so should district leaders’ attention to safety. Here are some tips to keep students safe and costs down.

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Charles  J. Russo, JD, EdD, and Debra L. Russo

 Published August 2025

According to the National Institute for Early Childhood Research’s most recent comprehensive nationwide study, “The State of Preschool 2024,” the 2023–2024 school year set records for public preschool enrollment and funding. More specifically, 1,751,109 children, or 37% of four-year-olds and 8% of three-year-olds, an increase of 111,243 or 7% from the prior year, attended publicly funded preschools at a cost of $15,297,320,514 for the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Preschools are defined as “early childhood programs in which children combine learning with play in a program run by professionally trained adults.” Preschools differ from day care centers because they emphasize learning and development rather than primarily looking after children while their parents work or engage in other activities.

Given the growth of preschool programs along with their costs and related safety issues, this topic should be of significant interest to school business officials (SBOs) and their teams. This column is divided into two sections. The first part examines the appropriate legal standard educators must meet when caring for preschoolers, while the second offers recommendations to help keep youngsters safe.

[E]ducators must meet the higher standard of a reasonable parent rather than that of a reasonable educator of a similar background and experience when working with preschool and/or younger students.

Educators and Legal Standards 

Aware that preschoolers need to be supervised more closely than older students, two judicial standards emerged. Without setting hard and fast age limits on an appropriate level of care, courts agree, albeit in the relatively scant litigation, that educators must meet the higher standard of a reasonable parent rather than that of a reasonable educator of a similar background and experience when working with preschool and/or younger students.  

Courts apply this higher standard both because younger children are typically less able to care for themselves than their older peers and teachers have the authority to act in loco parentis, literally, in the place of the parent, when supervising students. 

A trial court in New York, applying the reasonable parent standard, ruled that even though a mother voluntarily sent her son to a preschool, she could have expected educators to provide a level of care no less than he would have received at home.  

In other cases, for example, courts agreed that educators were not liable for injuries first-graders suffered when tripping on a crack in the sidewalk used as a play area for recess, running into a classmate during a physical education class, and playing tag during recess because educators met the higher duty of care as a reasonable parent.  

Another court in New York agreed that officials were not liable for the injuries an eight-year-old second-grader suffered on falling from monkey bars during recess because they met the reasonable parent standard insofar as the area was well-maintained and supervised. 

Recommendations 

When working with their preschool safety policies, SBOs and their teams should include, but not necessarily be limited to, the SBO, administrators and teachers from the building and district levels involved in preschool education, a staff member, a school nurse, a school counselor, a representative of a local college or university specializing in preschool education, the board attorney, and parents. 

Policies should: 

  • Mandate hiring staff with appropriate professional credentials and experience.  

  • Ensure that facilities are checked regularly for safety while keeping items in classrooms and other locations no higher than eye-level so small children are not injured if they climb to reach toys, books, and/or other objects. Heavy equipment, such as cabinets and bookcases, should be bolted to floors and/or walls to keep them stable.  

  •  Require that equipment on playgrounds, in gyms, and other indoor areas be checked regularly, at least annually, before the start of the school year, to receive regular maintenance. Because large, stationary equipment such as swings and climbing toys remain outdoors during storms, they should be examined and repaired before children can play on them to ensure the weather does not damage them. Of course, all equipment should be cleaned regularly. 

  • Create locked-in facilities with alarmed doors to keep children in and unwanted persons out.  

  • Provide regular inservice programs for staff on topics ranging from child development to first aid, CPR, childhood illnesses, child abuse detection and prevention, along with school safety. Sessions should remind staff to always keep students in their sight, never leaving them unattended anywhere on school property.  

  • Remind staff to be careful when alone with or touching children, especially if helping them in restrooms, such as when changing diapers. If educators must be alone with students, they should be in the front of the room with doors open, readily observable to passers-by. In bathrooms, it would be wise to have two adults present. 

  • Include sign-out procedures, including lists of who is authorized to pick children up if it is individuals other than parents or legal guardians, along with the type of identification needed.  

  • Create schedules to practice emergency severe weather, evacuation, and lockdown drills regularly to help children stay calm if teachers must act quickly in leading their classes to safety.  

  • Advise educators to take their roll books with them whenever they leave their classrooms so they can take attendance to account for all children. 

  • Highlight the need to keep schools clean, given how easily germs can spread, especially at the beginning of school years. On a related point, staff should join students in the habit of washing frequently to eliminate germs.  

  • Obligate all staff, volunteers, and visitors to wear identification badges while signing in and out of school at a centralized location to enhance safety.  

  • Require staff to file accurate, written incident reports when children are injured by providing specific information about what, when, and where accidents occurred and who was present before leaving school for the day. Officials should notify parents quickly if their children are seriously injured.  

  • Be included in parent handbooks, asking parents to sign off that they have read and understand the rules, as well as on district websites, plus materials sent home. Policies should also be included in faculty-staff handbooks. 

Policies should be reviewed annually to ensure they are up to date with changes in litigation and state laws.

About the Author:

Charles  J. Russo, JD, EdD, and Debra L. Russo

Charles J. Russo, a member of the ASBO Education Webinar Taskforce, is Joseph Panzer Chair of Education, co-director of its PhD program in educational leadership, research professor of law in the School of Law at the University of Dayton, Ohio, a visiting professor on the faculty of law at Notre Dame University of Australia, Sydney Campus, and a senior research fellow at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, India.  

Email: crusso1@udayton.edu  

Debra L. Russo taught preschool in Ohio for 20 years. 

Email: dlrusso51@yahoo.com

  

   

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