Walnut Creek day care insurance tends to cover established preschools and enrichment programs with long waitlists, significant tuition revenue and demanding parents. That profile raises two things: the value of business interruption if you cannot operate, and the seriousness with which any allegation will be pursued.
We write those programs with a real abuse limit, professional liability, and business income sized to a full enrollment cycle.
What day care insurance needs to include
Child care coverage is built around three exposures: an injury on your premises, an allegation involving a child, and an employment dispute with staff. General liability handles the first. Abuse and molestation coverage — with its own limit, not shared with general liability — handles the second, and it is what licensing agencies, landlords and parents increasingly ask to see.
Professional liability responds to supervision and care decisions, which is a different question from a playground injury and needs its own wording.
Abuse and molestation coverage: read the limit
Many package policies include a small sublimit, defense-inside-limits, and a claims-made trigger. For a licensed center that combination is thin. Ask for the limit in writing, ask whether defense costs erode it, and ask whether coverage continues for allegations reported after a former employee leaves.
Field trips, transportation and off-site care
Any time children leave the building, your exposure changes. If staff drive children in personal vehicles, hired and non-owned auto is essential. If you own a van, it needs a commercial auto policy with the right seating and driver class — a personal auto policy will not respond.
Staff workers' comp and employment practices
Lifting children, slips, and illness exposure drive comp claims. Turnover is high in the sector, which also makes employment practices liability worth its cost: wrongful termination and wage-and-hour allegations are common and expensive to defend even when you are right.
What we see in Walnut Creek
Tuition-dependent programs need business income coverage that accounts for the enrollment calendar. If a closure runs through the point where families commit for the next year, the loss continues well past the repair.
Higher-value leased space downtown also means tenant improvement values and landlord requirements are worth confirming rather than assuming they carried over from the last renewal.
Questions Walnut Creek owners ask us
Does insurance cover lost tuition if we have to close?
Business income coverage does, after a covered property loss. We size the limit to the enrollment cycle rather than a standard 90 days, because families who leave mid-year rarely come back immediately.
Is an allegation covered even if it is untrue?
Defense costs for covered allegations are typically paid, which is the point — most of the expense in these claims is the defense. Confirm whether those costs erode your limit.
Do enrichment classes and outside instructors need their own coverage?
Yes. Independent instructors should carry their own liability and name you as additional insured; otherwise their exposure lands on your policy at audit and after a claim.
Get a child care quote for your Walnut Creek business
Send your license type, enrollment, and payroll and we'll start by checking your abuse and molestation limit. We are an independent brokerage based in Antioch, serving Contra Costa County and the wider Bay Area. CA License #0D90958.
Other cities we write this coverage in
See our full Human Services Insurance overview.