Designed to help child care centers in their search for liability insurance, this report explores the controversy about insurance provision, and offers advice on how to combat high rates and locate policies offering the most protection. Chapter 1 reports on how insurers justify their treatment of day care centers as high risk enterprises. Discussion centers on insurers' fear of liability for criminal acts, such as child abuse, and on controversy over data showing that the insurance industry has recently lost money on child care premiums and that substantial increases in child care claims have occurred. Chapter 2 offers tips on how to buy liability policies wisely. Topics include claims-made versus occurrence forms, surplus lines versus admitted carriers, limiting claims payments, child abuse exclusion, legal defense costs, and the vulnerability of child care providers to a variety of mishaps. Chapter 3 describes company criteria for coverage and rate structure. Chapter 4 indicates how to combat high insurance rates, discussing tighter supervision and higher premiums, self-insurance, marketing assistance plans and joint underwriting associations, aggressive actions taken by Florida and Maryland to force the insurance industry to accept child care as a risk, and the government's claim that the tort system is to blame for the liabiity insurance crisis. Appendix A provides a list of insurance companies that offer new policies to child care providers. Appendix B is a glossary of terms. (RH)