Texas Form 7239, the Incident or Illness Report, is the two-page form that licensed child-care centers, registered and listed child-care homes, and school-age programs must complete whenever a child in their care is hospitalized, injured badly enough to need professional medical treatment, has an emergency anaphylaxis reaction, contracts a notifiable communicable disease, or is placed at risk by a non-routine event. You can download the PDF from the Texas Health and Human Services website and complete it digitally or on paper.1Texas Health and Human Services. Form 7239, Incident or Illness Report Submission goes through the state’s online child-care portal.
When You Have to File
Title 26 of the Texas Administrative Code lists five categories of events that require a Form 7239 (or a substitute form containing the same fields). The rules for licensed centers appear in 26 TAC 746.701, and the near-identical rules for registered and listed child-care homes appear in 26 TAC 747.701.2Legal Information Institute. Texas Administrative Code 26 TAC 746.7013Legal Information Institute. Texas Administrative Code 26 TAC 747.701
- An injury that required professional medical treatment or hospitalization — anything staff couldn’t handle with the first-aid kit, whether the child was seen at an ER, urgent care, or a doctor’s office.
- An illness that required hospitalization, even if it didn’t originate at your facility.
- An emergency anaphylaxis reaction that required an unassigned epinephrine auto-injector. Auto-injector use also has to be reported separately to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
- A notifiable communicable disease contracted by a child or an employee. DSHS maintains the current list of notifiable conditions under 25 TAC Chapter 97, Subchapter A.4Texas Department of State Health Services. Notifiable Conditions
- Any other non-routine situation that placed or could have placed a child at risk. The regulation gives two examples — forgetting a child in a facility vehicle, and failing to prevent a child from wandering away unsupervised — but the category is intentionally broad.
If you’re debating whether to file, file. Under-reporting draws more scrutiny than one report too many.
How to Complete Each Section
The form has six sections. You always complete Section I. Then you complete only the one middle section (II, III, or IV) that matches the event. Sections V and VI are signatures.5Texas Health and Human Services. Form 7239 PDF
Section I: General Information
Enter the name of the director or the person in charge at the time of the event, along with the operation number assigned by Child Care Regulation. Record the date and exact time of the incident or illness onset. The section asks whether the parent or guardian was notified, when, and by whom, and asks the same about notifying Child Care Regulation. Fill every notification field. Inspectors read a blank timestamp as a sign the operation was slow to respond.
Section II: Injury or Incident
Use this section for injuries and non-routine safety incidents only. Not for illnesses and not for communicable-disease reports.
Enter the child’s full name and date of birth, the name of the caregiver in charge at the time, and the full names of any other staff who witnessed the event. Describe what happened and how in the narrative fields. Below the narrative, record whether first aid was provided and what kind, whether EMS was called and at what time, whether the child was transported for medical care, and who did the transporting. Be specific. “Child’s mother drove her to Dell Children’s Medical Center” is more useful to a regulator than “parent transported.”
Section III: Illness Requiring Hospitalization
For illnesses only. After the child’s name and date of birth, record whether first aid was given and what type, whether medication was administered (with name and dosage), and whether the child had a fever with the temperature reading.
Then walk through the medical-response timeline: whether treatment was required and when the child received it, whether EMS was called and at what time, whether the child was transported, and who transported them. An allergy block asks whether an allergy plan was enacted, what was done, and whether an unassigned epinephrine auto-injector was used. If it was, there’s a follow-up field for the date you reported the auto-injector use to DSHS.
The section closes with the doctor call: whether you called the child’s physician, the doctor’s name and phone number, the time of the call, the recommendations given, whether the child was seen, the diagnosis or outcome, and whether hospitalization was required. An “Additional Details” field catches anything the structured fields don’t cover.
Section IV: Communicable Disease
For notifiable communicable diseases only. Identify the disease contracted by a child or employee, indicate whether the disease requires exclusion from the facility, confirm that the Health Department was notified, and record the date of that notification. If you’re unsure whether a condition is notifiable, check the DSHS list before filing.
Sections V and VI: Signatures
Section V is signed by the director or person in charge. Print your name, sign, and date, certifying that you reviewed the information. Section VI is signed by the parent or guardian to acknowledge the operation relayed the incident information to them. An unsigned form is an incomplete form.
How to Submit the Form
Texas Child Care Regulation accepts incident reports online. The state’s child-care portal at childcare.hhs.texas.gov has a link to report an incident for child day-care providers, and the same site has a directory if you need to reach your local CCR office with a question. In-person drop-offs at CCR offices are not accepted.6Texas Health and Human Services. Search Texas Child Care
Keep a copy of every completed Form 7239 in your facility’s files, organized by date. Regulators routinely ask to see past reports during inspections.
What Happens After You File
Once CCR receives your report, it becomes part of your operation’s permanent regulatory history. For injuries requiring professional treatment and for hospitalizations, the report can trigger a follow-up visit from a licensing representative, who may inspect the location where the incident occurred, review staff-to-child ratios at the time, and check relevant training records.
If the follow-up review turns up a compliance problem — say the caregiver-to-child ratio was off, or a piece of playground equipment failed a safety standard — the inspector issues a deficiency citation, and the operation submits a corrective-action plan that CCR then verifies. A single report doesn’t automatically mean trouble. A pattern of similar reports at one facility can escalate enforcement.
Penalties for Late or Missing Reports
Failing to file Form 7239 on time is one of the violations Texas can punish with an administrative penalty before placing an operation on probation.7Texas Health and Human Services. CCR Enforcement Actions Under the Texas Human Resources Code, the recommended fine for failing to timely report a child’s injury requiring medical treatment or hospitalization, or an illness requiring hospitalization, is $500 per violation.8State of Texas. Texas Human Resources Code 42.078
Each day a violation continues counts as a separate violation. For non-residential child-care facilities, the daily maximum depends on capacity:
- 20 children or fewer: up to $50 per day
- 21 to 40 children: up to $60 per day
- 41 to 60 children: up to $70 per day
- 61 to 80 children: up to $80 per day
- 81 to 100 children: up to $100 per day
- More than 100 children: up to $150 per day
If an operation doesn’t pay an assessed penalty by the due date, CCR can refuse to renew the facility’s permit at the next renewal cycle.9Texas Health and Human Services. 7500, Administrative Penalties Repeated or serious violations can escalate to adverse actions, including involuntary suspension or revocation of the operating permit, particularly when the underlying events suggest an ongoing threat to children’s safety.10Texas Health and Human Services. 7600, Adverse Actions
If You Want to Contest a Penalty
You have the right to request a due process hearing after receiving a penalty notice. The operation or controlling person waives that right by neither accepting the penalty nor requesting a hearing, or by submitting a written waiver to the Child Care Licensing Legal Enforcement Department. Don’t ignore the notice. Silence is treated as acceptance.