Twenty five years ago, my 14 month old son fell headfirst into a bucket of bleach laced mop water inside a licensed Georgia daycare.

His name was Anthony DeJuan “Juan” Boatwright.

On September 9, 2001, Juan was left unattended while in the care of a state licensed child care center in Augusta, Georgia.

In a matter of moments, he nearly drowned.

He suffered a catastrophic brain injury.

Doctors told me he would not recover. I was told my baby would likely remain in a vegetative state.

But Juan was still my child.

And I was still his mother.

After 65 days in the hospital, I brought him home. I cared for him. I fought for him. I learned how to advocate because I had no choice. And Juan fought too. He lived for another 11 years after the injury that changed every part of our lives. Georgia eventually changed the law because of what happened to Juan. But 25 years after his story began, Georgia still has not finished the job. The daycare responsible for caring for my child did not carry liability insurance. That fact became one of the most painful lessons of our tragedy. And it should never happen to another family.

Juan’s Story Became Law in Georgia

After Juan was injured, I took his story to Georgia lawmakers. I did not go because I wanted attention. I went because I had discovered a dangerous gap in the child care system that most parents would never think to ask about until something terrible happened. Parents often assume that if a daycare is licensed by the state, certain protections must already be in place. They assume that a facility caring for babies and young children must meet basic standards of safety, accountability and financial responsibility. But when Juan was injured, I learned that assumption was wrong.

On July 1, 2004, what became known as Juan’s Law took effect in Georgia. The law requires licensed child care programs that do not carry liability insurance to disclose that fact to parents. Georgia law also directs the Department of Early Care and Learning to recommend that licensed programs maintain sufficient liability coverage. That was meaningful progress. Juan’s Law gave parents information many had never thought to request. It brought an invisible problem into the light. It meant a child care provider could no longer quietly operate without liability insurance while parents remained unaware.

But there was still a problem. Disclosure is not protection. A notice on a wall does not pay a hospital bill. A signed form does not fund years of physical therapy. A disclosure does not replace a parent’s lost income when that parent must stop working to care for a severely injured child. It does not purchase medical equipment. It does not modify a home for a wheelchair. It does not provide specialized transportation. And it does not pay for a lifetime of care. Juan’s Law identified the problem. It did not eliminate it!

The Missing Piece Is Mandatory Insurance

Twenty five years later, the central issue is remarkably simple. Georgia can still license a child care program that does not carry liability insurance, provided the lack of insurance is properly disclosed. Think about what that means. The state recognizes that insurance matters. The state recommends it. The state requires parents to be told when it does not exist. But the state still allows a licensed provider responsible for the lives of children to operate without it. For most families, the significance of that may not become clear until the worst possible moment. When a child suffers a catastrophic injury, the financial consequences can continue for years or even decades.

A family may suddenly face hospital stays, specialists, medications, medical equipment, feeding assistance, mobility support, home nursing, transportation needs, lost wages, rehabilitation, therapy and major changes to the family home. The emotional cost is immeasurable. The financial cost can be staggering. A child care business may be small.

It may be locally owned. Its employees may genuinely love children. But good intentions cannot finance a lifetime of medical care after preventable harm. That is why liability insurance matters. Insurance is not about punishing child care providers. It is about making sure there is a financial backstop when something goes terribly wrong. It protects children.

It protects families. And it protects responsible providers who understand that caring for children carries serious responsibility. Georgia already requires child care programs to meet numerous standards because children are uniquely vulnerable.

Staff ratios matter.

Supervision matters.

Background checks matter.

Training matters.

Facility safety matters.

The safe storage of cleaning chemicals matters.

Liability insurance should matter too.

If a business is licensed to care for infants and young children, meaningful liability insurance should not be optional.

Disclosure Places Too Much Responsibility on Parents

Some may argue that Juan’s Law already gives parents what they need. If a child care provider does not carry insurance, the parent is informed and can choose another provider.

That sounds reasonable until we consider how child care actually works for many families.

Not every parent has several affordable providers to choose from. Child care openings can be difficult to find. Waiting lists can be long. Tuition can consume a significant portion of a family’s income. Some parents need care close to home, school, work or public transportation. Some work nights, weekends or irregular schedules. Some live in communities where licensed child care options are already limited. A parent may receive a disclosure saying a provider has no liability insurance and still have nowhere else to take their child. What kind of choice is that? Do they withdraw their child and risk losing their job?

Do they remain because they cannot afford another facility? Do they even fully understand what the phrase “no liability insurance” could mean if their child suffers a devastating injury?

Parents should not have to become insurance investigators before leaving their baby at a licensed child care center. They already have enough to consider. Who will supervise my child? How are medications handled? What happens if my baby becomes sick? How are children disciplined? What is the emergency plan? How secure is the building? How are allergies handled? Who has access to my child? Whether the licensed facility carries adequate liability insurance should not be another uncertainty.

A state license carries meaning. It tells families that a provider has met minimum standards established to protect children. Financial responsibility should be one of those standards.

Parents should not discover the limits of disclosure after tragedy strikes.

Responsible Child Care Providers Deserve a Clear Standard Too

Any serious reform must also acknowledge the pressures facing child care providers. Staffing is difficult. Operating costs have increased. Many employees perform demanding work for modest wages. Parents are already struggling with the cost of care. Small providers may reasonably worry that additional insurance requirements could increase the cost of doing business. Those concerns should be part of the conversation. But they cannot be the end of it.

The answer cannot be to leave children and families financially unprotected. Georgia can establish a responsible insurance requirement while helping providers meet it. Lawmakers could consider reasonable phase in periods, technical assistance, group purchasing opportunities or other mechanisms that make compliance achievable for smaller providers.

The details can be debated. The principle should not be. A licensed child care program should carry meaningful liability insurance.

A statewide requirement would also create a more level playing field. Responsible providers who already purchase liability coverage should not be financially disadvantaged because another provider chooses to operate uninsured. Every licensed program should operate under the same basic expectation of accountability. Insurance can also strengthen prevention. Insurance carriers often examine risk. They may look at supervision practices, incident reporting, employee training, facility conditions and safety procedures. That kind of oversight can reinforce the very culture of prevention that child care systems should encourage.

No insurance policy can prevent every accident.

No law can undo a devastating injury.

And no amount of money could ever give Juan back the life he should have had.

But Georgia can do more to protect the next family.

Juan’s Life Cannot Be Reduced to a Disclosure Form

Juan lived for 11 years after his injury. For 11 years, I saw what one preventable moment could do. I saw what catastrophic brain injury meant not only in a medical chart, but inside a home. I saw the appointments. The equipment. The sleepless nights. The uncertainty. The caregiving. The sacrifices. I saw what it did to a family. But I also saw Juan. I saw his strength. I saw his determination to live. I saw the child behind the diagnosis. The son behind the legislation. The human being behind the law. That is why this issue can never be reduced to a notice posted on a daycare wall.

When Georgia passed Juan’s Law, the state acknowledged an important truth. Parents deserve to know whether the people caring for their children are insured. I will always be proud that Juan’s story helped bring that truth into law. But after 25 years, we should be willing to ask the next question. If liability insurance is important enough for Georgia to recommend, and important enough for the state to require disclosure when it is absent, why is it not important enough to require?

That is the unfinished work.

What Real Reform Should Look Like

Georgia should strengthen its child care laws so that families receive more than a warning. Real reform should begin with three basic protections.:

Require Licensed Child Care Programs to Carry Liability Insurance

A licensed child care program should not be permitted to operate without meaningful liability coverage. The requirement should apply broadly to licensed programs entrusted with the care and safety of children. And the law should establish meaningful minimum coverage standards. A policy that exists only on paper but cannot realistically respond to catastrophic injury does not solve the problem.

Make Proof of Insurance Part of Licensing

Insurance should be part of the licensing process, not an afterthought. Providers should be required to demonstrate coverage when obtaining or renewing a license. If that coverage lapses, the state should know. Parents should never be the last people to discover that a provider is uninsured.

Keep Transparency, But Do Not Confuse Transparency With Protection

Parents should still receive clear information about a provider’s insurance coverage.

Transparency matters. But disclosure should support protection, not substitute for it.

Families deserve both. Clear information. Real protection. That is not radical. It is accountability.

Why This Still Matters 25 Years Later?

Some people may hear Juan’s story and believe it belongs to another time. It does not.

Every weekday across Georgia, parents pack bottles, diapers, blankets, medications, extra clothes and snacks. They kiss their babies goodbye. Then they place those children into the care of someone else and continue with work, school, military service, appointments and the countless responsibilities of everyday life. They are making an extraordinary act of trust.

Most child care professionals take that trust seriously. This call for stronger insurance requirements is not an attack on the people who devote their lives to caring for children.

It is a call for a system worthy of the trust parents place in it. Because when a child is catastrophically injured, the consequences do not remain inside the daycare.

They follow the family home.

They appear at the hospital bedside.

They affect employment.

They affect siblings.

They affect marriages.

They affect grandparents.

They affect housing.

They affect finances.

They affect every part of family life.

Juan’s injury happened in seconds. Its consequences lasted the rest of his life. And they changed the rest of mine. That is why the law must look beyond the moment a parent signs a disclosure. The law must consider what happens to that child and that family if disaster actually occurs.

Georgia Can Finish the Job

Juan’s life mattered before September 9, 2001. His life mattered after September 9, 2001. And his story mattered enough to change Georgia law. Now, 25 years later, I believe his story is asking Georgia to act once more. Juan’s Law was progress. It made the invisible visible. It gave parents information they deserved to have. But progress is not completion.

A licensed child care provider operating without liability insurance leaves too much to chance. It places an extraordinary financial risk on families who may not understand that risk and could never afford its consequences.

And as recently as this year, Georgia lawmakers tried once again to close that gap.

In February 2026, House Bill 1281 was introduced in the Georgia General Assembly. The bill would have required child care learning centers to carry commercial general liability insurance and provide proof of that coverage. It addressed the very issue that has remained unresolved since Juan’s Law first took effect more than two decades ago. But the bill stalled in committee. It never even received a House floor vote.

It allows a business entrusted with our most vulnerable citizens to operate without a fundamental layer of financial responsibility. Twenty five years after Juan fell into that bucket, Georgia has a choice. We can continue relying on disclosure and hope another family never experiences what mine did. Or we can finish the job. Require meaningful liability insurance. Make coverage part of licensing. Maintain transparency for parents. Support responsible providers in meeting the standard. And make it clear that protecting children means planning not only for what we hope will happen, but also for what families will need when something goes terribly wrong. Juan cannot be brought back. The years he lost cannot be restored. The life he should have lived cannot be returned to him. But his story can still protect another child. His life can still guide lawmakers.

His name can still move Georgia forward. And another mother should never have to discover, in the worst moment of her life, that the protection she assumed existed was never there at all. Georgia changed the law because of Juan. Twenty five years later, Georgia needs to finish the job!

So, a quarter century after Juan’s accident, the underlying gap I have spent years trying to close is still open. A Georgia child care provider can be found negligent. A child can be catastrophically injured. A family can obtain a legal judgment. But if that provider has no insurance and insufficient assets, that family may be left with little more than a judgment on paper and no meaningful way to pay for the lifetime of care their child may require.

Mothers and fathers are trusting their children’s lives to licensed child care programs. They deserve more than a piece of paper acknowledging that insurance does not exist. They deserve actual protection when something goes terribly wrong. That is why disclosure alone is not enough.

Twenty five years after Juan fell into that bucket, Georgia still has a choice. We can continue relying on disclosure and hope another family never experiences what mine did. Or we can finish the job.:

Require meaningful liability insurance.

Make coverage part of licensing.

Maintain transparency for parents.

Support responsible providers in meeting the standard.

And make it clear that protecting children means planning not only for what we hope will happen, but also for what families will need when something goes terribly wrong.

Juan cannot be brought back. The years he lost cannot be restored. The life he should have lived cannot be returned to him. But his story can still protect another child. His life can still guide lawmakers. His name can still move Georgia forward. And another mother should never have to discover, in the worst moment of her life, that the protection she assumed existed was never there at all.

Juan’s Law was an important first step. It was never meant to be the last one.

Georgia changed the law because of Juan. Twenty five years later, it is time for Georgia to finish what Juan’s Law started.

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