Child Left in a Daycare Van: What California Law Says and What You Should Do

A daycare left your child alone in a van. Maybe staff forgot to do a headcount. Maybe the driver didn't check the back seats. Maybe nobody noticed your child was missing until you showed up for pickup. However it happened, your child was left in a vehicle with no adult supervision, and you need to know exactly where you stand under California law. The short answer: the law takes this extremely seriously, and so should you.

California Has Specific Laws Against Leaving Children in Vehicles

Two California statutes apply directly to this situation, and the daycare may have violated both of them.

The first is Kaitlyn's Law, codified as Vehicle Code Section 15620. This law makes it illegal to leave a child six years old or younger unattended in a motor vehicle without the supervision of someone at least 12 years old. For a parent, the first offense is a $100 fine. But for a daycare with a legal duty of care over your child, the consequences are far greater. Kaitlyn's Law was passed after Kaitlyn Russell, a six-month-old who died after being left in a parked car in 2001. The law exists precisely because of situations like yours.

The second, and more serious, is Penal Code Section 273a, California's child endangerment statute. Under 273a(a), any person who, having care or custody of a child, willfully causes or permits that child to be placed in a situation where their health or safety is endangered faces felony charges punishable by up to six years in state prison. Under 273a(b), if the endangerment occurs under circumstances not likely to produce great bodily harm or death, it can be charged as a misdemeanor with up to six months in county jail.

Leaving a child unattended in a vehicle, particularly in Southern California where interior car temperatures can exceed 120 degrees within minutes, routinely triggers felony-level child endangerment charges. Prosecutors don't need to prove your child was actually harmed. The fact that your child was placed in danger is enough.

Heat Is the Immediate Danger, and Southern California Makes It Worse

A vehicle parked in direct sunlight can reach lethal temperatures in under an hour, even on a mild day. When the outside temperature is 80 degrees, the inside of a closed vehicle can hit 109 degrees within 20 minutes. At 90 degrees, a common afternoon temperature across Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley from May through October, interior temperatures can exceed 130 degrees. Children's bodies overheat three to five times faster than adults. Heatstroke in a young child can cause brain damage, organ failure, and death.

This isn't hypothetical. On average, 38 children die from vehicular heatstroke in the United States each year. California consistently ranks among the top states because of its climate. When a daycare leaves a child in a van, the danger is immediate and potentially fatal.

Title 22 Transportation Requirements for Licensed Facilities

Licensed childcare facilities in California must comply with Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations, which includes specific requirements for transporting children. Facilities that transport children must maintain proper staff-to-child ratios during transport, take attendance before departure and after arrival at every stop, ensure each child is accounted for when exiting the vehicle, and keep the vehicle equipped with child safety restraints.

A child being left in a van means the facility failed at the most basic level of its transportation protocol. Attendance wasn't taken. The vehicle wasn't checked. Nobody counted heads. These are not minor paperwork issues. They are systemic safety failures showing the facility was either ignoring its own procedures or never had adequate ones to begin with.

This Is Often Gross Negligence, Not Ordinary Negligence

The legal distinction matters because it affects how much compensation your family can recover. Ordinary negligence means the facility failed to exercise reasonable care. Gross negligence means the facility's conduct showed a want of even slight care, amounting to a complete disregard for the safety of others.

Leaving a child unattended in a vehicle is, in most circumstances, gross negligence. The risk of harm is obvious to anyone. The steps needed to prevent it are simple: count the children, check the vehicle. When a daycare fails to do something that basic, California courts can find that the facility acted with conscious disregard for your child's safety. That finding opens the door to punitive damages, which are designed to punish the defendant and deter similar conduct, in addition to compensatory damages for medical bills, pain, suffering, and emotional distress.

Both the daycare facility and the individual staff members responsible for the transport can be held liable. The facility is liable under respondeat superior (employer liability for employee actions during the scope of employment) and directly liable for negligent hiring, training, and supervision. The driver or aide who left your child behind may face personal civil liability as well as criminal charges.

The CCLD Investigation Process

The Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) investigates complaints against licensed childcare facilities, including transportation incidents. When CCLD receives a complaint about a child being left in a vehicle, the response is typically urgent. An analyst will visit the facility, review transportation logs and attendance records, interview staff, and inspect the vehicle and the facility's written transportation policies.

If the investigation substantiates the complaint, CCLD can issue a Type A citation, which indicates an immediate risk to the health and safety of children. Type A citations can result in civil penalties, mandatory corrective action plans, and, in serious cases, license revocation. A facility that loses its license cannot legally operate. The citation and investigation results become part of the facility's public licensing record, which any parent can access.

Filing a CCLD complaint is separate from filing a police report or pursuing a civil lawsuit. You should do all three. The CCLD investigation creates an official regulatory record. The police report triggers a criminal investigation. The civil claim is how your family recovers compensation. These processes run in parallel, and none of them replaces the others.

What You Should Do Right Now

If your child was left unattended in a daycare van, take these steps as quickly as possible.

Get your child a medical evaluation immediately. Even if your child appears fine, have them examined by a doctor. Heat exposure, dehydration, and trauma symptoms may not be immediately visible. Children left alone in vehicles can also develop anxiety, fear of enclosed spaces, and sleep disturbances. Document everything the doctor finds.

File a police report. Leaving a child unattended in a vehicle is a potential criminal offense under both Vehicle Code 15620 and Penal Code 273a. Report it to local law enforcement. The police report creates an official record and may lead to criminal charges against the responsible staff.

File a complaint with CCLD. Contact the regional CCLD office (for Los Angeles County, the Van Nuys or Monterey Park office) by phone or online through the DSS website. Provide the date, time, which vehicle was involved, and what the daycare told you.

Document everything. Write down what happened while it's fresh. Save all communications from the daycare: texts, emails, written incident reports. Take photographs if relevant. Note the names of staff members involved or who spoke to you about the incident.

Talk to an attorney before talking to the daycare's insurance company. The facility's insurer will contact you, and their goal is to minimize liability and your compensation. A daycare injury attorney can protect your family's interests and handle those conversations for you.

Criminal and Civil Liability Can Both Apply

Parents sometimes wonder whether criminal charges mean they can't also file a civil lawsuit. The answer is that both can happen at the same time. Criminal charges are brought by the district attorney and can result in fines, probation, or prison time for the individual who endangered your child. A civil lawsuit is brought by your family and seeks monetary compensation for the harm done.

In a civil case for child endangerment or abuse, your family can recover damages including emergency and ongoing medical care, psychological counseling, pain and suffering, emotional distress for both the child and parents, and punitive damages if the court finds the facility acted with conscious disregard for your child's safety.

California does not cap compensatory damages in personal injury cases against private childcare facilities. If the evidence supports gross negligence, the punitive damages can be substantial.

Your Child Deserves Better. The Law Agrees.

Leaving a child alone in a daycare van is not a minor mistake. It is a failure so fundamental that California enacted multiple laws specifically to address it. You have every right to demand accountability from the facility, the staff, and anyone whose carelessness put your child at risk.

Our attorneys handle daycare negligence and child injury cases across Los Angeles, the San Fernando Valley, and surrounding areas. The consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless we recover compensation for your family. If your child was left in a vehicle by a daycare, call us today.