Drawing on a range of personal caregiver experiences and risk analysis frameworks, this paper offers a critical reflection on related policy and practices in the U.S., focusing particularly on risk and it's impact on early childhood education. It develops a critique of the taken for granted imperative to protect children from any and all risks, and of how in the classroom context that is conflated with the idea of protecting teachers and children from real and potential risks. It addresses the complexities of on-going anxiety in the U.S. about the relationships between children and adults in popular teaching settings, and the new categories of risk vulnerability that these discourses have generated.