Day care tragedy leads to battle for law requiring liability insurance

Tragedy struck Demarion Pittman's family twice last year.

The first tragedy occurred in August when home day care operator Redina Alexander forgot about the 3-year-old boy after returning from a bowling field trip. Demarion was left alone in a sweltering vehicle for more than two hours, resulting in extensive brain damage.

The second tragedy came when The Village family found out the day care operator wasn't carrying business liability insurance.

"How can a business that cares for kids not have liability insurance?” asked Edna Pittman, 31, the boy's mother. "You go to a gas station — they have insurance. I would think that any business would be required to have insurance.”

‘We were shocked'

Pittman said she and her husband delved into the situation and made a surprising discovery: The state Department of Human Services licenses day cares, but there is no licensing requirement that day cares carry business liability insurance.

"We were shocked,” she said.

Pittman is now on a crusade. She has been talking with legislators in hopes of getting a law passed that would require day cares to carry business insurance and to get a fund created that could be used to help day care children who suffer catastrophic injuries.

State Rep. Mike Shelton, D-Oklahoma City, said he plans to introduce legislation to accomplish those goals.

"I'm still exploring coverage limits to come up with something that is affordable, but covers what is necessary to protect families,” he said.

"This is something DHS should have done through its rules, but for some reason it was not done,” Shelton said. "I'm embarrassed that this hasn't already been done. Unfortunately, we're going to have to go through the legislative process to do something that DHS could have fixed in a couple of meetings. Now we're going to have to make it a law.”

Some states require day cares to carry business insurance. Texas, for example, requires large day care centers to carry $300,000 in liability insurance. The requirement can be waived if the operator cannot afford to pay or coverage is unavailable, but if it is waived, the operator is required to notify every parent with a child in the facility. Small home day cares are not covered by the Texas law.

Many Oklahoma child care centers carry business liability insurance, even though it is not required. Pittman said she will do everything she can to make coverage mandatory in Oklahoma.

"Nothing is ever going to change what happened to our family,” she said. "It's not going to help us. I just hope that through our strength, something will be changed to protect families from experiencing what we've been through.”

When everything changed

For the Pittmans, Aug. 2, 2007, will always be remembered as the day life changed.

Demarion's temperature climbed to 117 or 119 degrees during the time he was left alone in the sweltering Dodge Durango, resulting in severe brain damage, Pittman said.

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