Your Child’s Rights After a Daycare or School Injury in Arizona
When your child is hurt in the care of a daycare or school, you deserve answers — and your child may have real rights. These facilities take on a duty to supervise and protect the children entrusted to them, and when they fall short, they can be held accountable.
What facilities are responsible for
Daycares and schools are responsible for supervising children appropriately for their age, maintaining safe grounds and equipment, following staffing and safety standards, and addressing known hazards. When a failure in any of these leads to a child's injury, the facility may be responsible.
The records tell the story
Incident reports, staffing and ratio records, inspection and licensing results, and any camera footage usually show what happened and whether the facility met its duty. Requesting and preserving these early, before they are lost, is an important step we handle for you.
How we help
We request and preserve the records, work to show what happened, and pursue the facility with care and sensitivity. The review is free and confidential. Se habla español.
Frequently asked questions
Can I make a claim if my child was hurt at daycare or school?
You may, where inadequate supervision, understaffing, or an unsafe condition led to the injury. The incident reports, staffing records, and any footage help establish what happened and whether the facility met its duty.
How long do we have to act?
It can be nuanced — a child's claim may have an extended window, but a public-school claim often has a much shorter deadline. Because of that, it is worth a confidential conversation soon.
Arizona law — what people ask
How long do I have to file an injury claim in Arizona?
Generally two years. But if a public entity is involved you must serve a formal notice of claim within 180 days and file suit within one year — and Arizona runs a much shorter one-year clock on dog-bite strict-liability claims specifically.
Can I still recover if I was partly at fault in Arizona?
Yes. Arizona applies pure comparative negligence, so fault reduces your recovery rather than ending the claim, and there is no percentage at which it cuts off. Arizona also treats fault questions as belonging to the jury rather than being resolved beforehand.
Does Arizona cap what I can recover?
No — and this sets Arizona apart from most states. Its constitution prohibits laws limiting damages for injury or death, and that applies to medical-malpractice claims too, where most states impose a cap. If you have read that pain and suffering is capped, that is not Arizona law.
What if more than one party was responsible?
Arizona generally applies several liability, so each responsible party answers for its own share rather than the whole judgment. That makes identifying every responsible party early a practical question about what is actually collectible.
The driver who hit me had no insurance. What now?
Your own uninsured or underinsured coverage is the usual route. Arizona also requires insurers to offer that coverage in writing — so if you were told your policy carries none, the underwriting file is worth checking before that answer is accepted.
Will the jury hear that my health insurance paid my bills?
Usually not — Arizona generally follows the collateral source rule. Medical-negligence cases are the statutory exception, where that evidence has been made admissible, which changes how medical damages are presented in those claims specifically.
Injury law in Arizona
Arizona injury law has some features that set it apart from its neighbors.
- Filing deadline: Arizona generally gives you two years from the injury to file, but only 180 days to serve a notice of claim on a public entity.
- Fault: Arizona follows pure comparative negligence — being partly, or even mostly, at fault reduces your recovery but does not bar it.
- Damage caps: Arizona is unusual: its constitution prohibits caps on injury or death damages, so a statutory cap does not limit what you can recover.
- Multiple defendants: Arizona generally applies several (not joint) liability, so each responsible party is accountable for its own share.
California injury law
This is general information about Arizona injury law, not legal advice. Every case is different.
Was your child hurt in someone else's care?
A quick, confidential review can tell you where you stand — about two minutes, no cost, no obligation.