Massachusetts sets an insurance minimum on the van and none on the building.

Not for the premises. 606 CMR 7.00 governs family child care, small group and large group programs together, and nowhere in it is a program asked for general liability insurance on the building. The minimum it does set is on the vehicle: 7.13(5) requires $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident and $5,000 property damage on any vehicle used to transport children, whether the program’s, an educator’s or a parent’s. The landlord and any subsidy contract fill the gap the rule leaves.

General liability, explained

Yes, and Massachusetts’s licensing rule does not ask for it, so nobody else will until the claim arrives. A general liability policy without the endorsement excludes it. It is written as a sublimit, often below the general liability figure, and sometimes on a claims-made form, which stops responding the day the policy lapses, unlike occurrence. Every carrier conditions it on screening, and the background check Massachusetts already requires of you is most of that condition met.

Abuse and molestation coverage, explained

Yes, with numbers. 606 CMR 7.13(5) requires any vehicle used to transport children to carry at least $100,000 per person, $300,000 per accident and $5,000 property damage, and 7.04(6) makes you keep proof on file for every program or educator vehicle used. Those are the floor for being licensed, not what a van full of other people’s children should carry. A commercial auto policy on the program’s vehicle normally carries a $1,000,000 combined single limit, and a personal policy excludes the trip.

Commercial auto for a daycare vehicle

Workers comp for the staff, because a daycare is staffed by ratio and the afternoon assistant is an employee whatever the paperwork calls them. Property on the contents and the playground equipment, and business income for the weeks a burst pipe or a licensing suspension keeps the doors shut. Accident medical, which pays a child’s urgent care bill without anyone proving fault. Commercial auto if any vehicle carries children. We place all of it for Massachusetts programs, with the licensing rule read first.

Every coverage a Massachusetts business needs, in one place

Because it is the claim that ends businesses, and because an allegation is expensive whether or not it is founded. Coverage is usually written with its own limit, and the important questions are whether defense costs sit inside or outside that limit, and whether the form covers allegations against volunteers and parent helpers as well as employees. Expect underwriters to ask hard questions about background checks, two-adult rules, sightlines, camera coverage and bathroom procedures — those answers determine whether you can be written at all.

How this coverage is structured

Yes, and hired and non-owned auto if staff ever use their own cars. Field trips, an emergency run and a school pickup all count, and a personal auto policy excludes carrying children for business. No exposure is more likely to produce a catastrophic claim from an otherwise low-severity business, so the limits should be set with that in mind rather than at the minimum.

Coverage for staff cars used on business

No, and this is the most common uninsured position in the sector. Homeowners policies exclude business pursuits, so a child injured in your home daycare is not covered, and in some cases the business use itself can jeopardize the whole policy. Home childcare needs a commercial policy — it exists and is affordable — alongside a disclosure to your home insurer that the business is being run there.

Almost everything, because the state ratios and standards are what an underwriter uses as a baseline. Being licensed and in good standing widens the market substantially; operating over ratio, with lapsed staff clearances or with an open licensing complaint narrows it fast. Insurers commonly ask for the current license, recent inspection reports and your staff-to-child ratios by age group, so have those to hand at quote.