As a Virginia Beach-based personal injury and wrongful death attorney, I primary help victims of workplace accidents and car crashes. My specialty is actually railroad safety, in particular representing individuals who contract life-threatening diseases from on-the-job exposure to chemicals and cancer-causing materials like asbestos.
So why am I writing about child day care? First, because I am a parent with a working spouse. My wife and I know how difficult choosing a day care center can be. Cost is always a concern, regardless of one’s income, but safety is always paramount. We opted for a state-licensed day care, trusting that requirements for equipment like smoke detectors and electrical outlet covers, mandatory first-aid training and regular visits from state inspectors could limit dangers to our kids’ health.
Second, evidence that the Commonwealth of Virginia is not doing enough to ensure every parent can enjoy the same peace of mind continues to mount. In August 2014, the Washington Post published findings from a lengthy investigation into the state of child day care in the Old Dominion. The most-shocking news was that more than 40 children have lost their lives in unlicensed, primarily home-based day cares since 2003. Fatal accidents occurred near my own neighborhood in Virginia Beach, and in Roanoke. Babies only a few months old and elementary schoolers died in the far west of the state and in the Washington, DC, suburbs. Causes of death ranged from drownings to suffocation to internal injuries due to physical abuse.
This October, two more youngsters died while in the care of two different unlicensed day care operators. The most recent of these fatalities occurred in Midlothian, outside of Richmond, when a fire broke out in a home where eight kids were being looked after. The woman minding the children got seven of her charges out to the street, but she forgot about a 1-year-old who was napping upstairs and out of sight. By the time firefighters discovered the toddler after successfully putting out the flames, the baby too young to crawl had suffered deadly burns.
Virginia law requires any day care business taking in more than five children to qualify for a license. As the tragedy in Midlothian shows, however, many business operators ignore that rule. Not every home-based day care is unsafe, but without licensing, training and inspections, there is no way to know that all protections are in place.
The Washington Post estimated that some 200,000 children spend part of each weekday in a day care setting that has never been visited by a Virginia safety official. That is unacceptable. Even when no injuries or deaths occur, the risks remain too high to ignore.
EJL
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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