Secretly Recording Your Daycare Provider
 

Has anyone recorded their daycare provider? Is this legal?

Be very careful and find out what the law is in your state. In some states it is legal to record a conversation, without telling the person before you start recordong. Then in other states, there are different degrees of punishment for recording a persons conversation without telling then before you start recording. You actually need to start the recorder and then say I am recording you, as proof. I learned that from the judge on Peoples Court (She deals with the law in all the states). One of the people on there entered a recording and the judge said did she know that was not legal in all states, but it was in that ladies state (she said she knew). The judge said that in one state (I forgot which one), it is a felony and you can or do serve time for it.
I assume it is the same for videos. Find out from a reliable legal source, not just a layman (a lawyer, paralegal, prosecutors office, etc...).

valid information
 

I realize that this is an old post. Maybe my recent experience might bring someone who is googling to this post and be helpful. This just happened to me and I consulted a lawyer. I'm a provider and in Texas, it is legal to record as long as one person has given consent. But, when someone surreptitiously places a record in say, a backpack, and ends up recording conversations that have nothing to do with the child who is giving the "consent" it is a FELONY.

It is a violation of Penal Code 16.02

(b) A person commits an offense if the person:
(1) intentionally intercepts, endeavors to intercept, or procures another person to intercept or endeavor to intercept a wire, oral, or electronic communication;

This means, that because neither of the parties recorded (say the conversation between a husband and wife or the conversations recorded between the husband and their personal children or the conversations between the provider and other children in the room) NONE of those parties consented, so therefore it is illegal. Not even to mention how unethical and a GROSS TRESPASS.