Best Daycare Business Insurance

The Hartford secures our top spot for daycare center insurance with perfect scores across coverage options and affordability. Its coverage packages and cost-effective rates set them apart in the childcare insurance market. 

You should also get quotes from our other recommended carriers, including NEXT, biBerk, Simply Business, and Progressive Commercial, before making your final decision.

*We based all scores on a daycare business with two employees across professional liability, general liability, workers' comp and BOP policies.

The Hartford leads daycare insurance affordability at $43 monthly, offering the cheapest business owner's policy and general liability coverage. But NEXT provides more affordable workers' compensation at just $13 monthly, making it worth considering for this specific coverage type.

In general, daycare business insurance costs are the following for the four most popular coverage types:

• General Liability: $33 on average per month, ranging from $29 to $46, depending on the state
• Workers' Compensation: $13 on average per month, ranging from $11 to $16, depending on the state
• Professional Liability: $108 on average per month, ranging from $92 to $125, depending on the state
• Business Owners' Policy Insurance: $49 on average per month, ranging from $41 to $56, depending on the state

Important coverage types and recommended limits for daycare and childcare operations are:ehensive yet cost-effective insurance coverage for your daycare or childcare

• General liability insurance: Covers third-party injuries and property damage, which matters when kids fall on playgrounds or accidentally damage parent belongings. Home-based daycares need $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate. Commercial centers need $2 million per occurrence and $3 million aggregate to handle playground injuries and visitor accidents.
• Workers' compensation insurance: Required by law in most states when you have employees. This pays medical costs and lost wages when staff get hurt on the job (think back strains from lifting toddlers, knee injuries from floor time, or falls during outdoor supervision). Your state and payroll size determine how much coverage you need.
• Professional liability insurance (errors & omissions): Protects you from claims about inadequate supervision, medication mistakes, or safety protocol lapses. Small daycares need at least $1 million per occurrence or aggregate. Larger facilities need $2 million to handle negligence claims and meet contract requirements.
• Business property insurance: Covers your physical stuff like playground equipment, educational supplies, furniture, technology and the building (if you own it). Home-based daycares need $15,000 to $25,000 in contents coverage. Commercial centers typically need $50,000 to $150,000 based on facility size and equipment value.
• Commercial car insurance (if applicable): You need this if your daycare owns vehicles for field trips or provides transportation. Industry standard: $1 million combined single limit with comprehensive and collision coverage for school pickups, field trips and daily operations.
• Abuse and molestation coverage: State licensing boards increasingly require this specialized protection against child abuse, molestation, or staff misconduct claims. Start with $1 million per occurrence and $2 million aggregate. If you're in a high-litigation state or care for lots of kids, go with $2 million per occurrence to cover legal defense and settlement costs.

This approach helps you get solid daycare insurance coverage without overspending.

The Hartford ranks first for daycare insurance with comprehensive coverage built for child care risks. Get quotes from NEXT, biBERK, and Simply Business too for comparison. Work with agents who know childcare operations, talk to other daycare owners, research costs for facilities like yours, and compare at least three providers before deciding.

We answer frequently asked questions about daycare business insurance:

We selected the best business insurer for daycare companies based on the following criteria:

• Affordability (50% of score): The lower a company's costs compared to the competition based on our base profile for four core coverage types, the better the company performs.
• Customer service (30% of score): We scored providers on overall customer satisfaction using industry studies, customer review forum ratings and public forum sentiment analysis from sites like Reddit.
• Coverage (15% of score): We scored business insurance providers for this category based on the flexibility, payment and actual coverage options.
• Financial stability (5% of score): Using financial stability industry ratings from companies like AM Best and Moody's, we created an overall rating to judge how likely companies are to pay out claims compared to the competition.

All pricing in this article is based on the following base profile to represent the vast majority of small businesses in all states:

• Three-person business with two employees
• Coverage: $1 million per occurrence and $2 million total per year for all but BOP, which includes the same coverage plus $5,000 of business property coverage
• $150,000 in payroll
• $300,000 annual revenue