I am no teacher but to be honest as most other posters have pointed out, children trip, fall, push, kick, etc all the time. The reporting procedures would have to allow a judgment call on the part of the supervising teachers as to whether the incident warranted further action. The child may not even have had a bruise or any swelling at the time of the incident or for some time after and was capable of walking away from it. Only the child can communicate if they are in pain and at 9 years of age they are capable of determining how comfortable they are. The yard was supervised, the supervisors were aware of the incident, the supervisors examined the incident and determined to the best of their ability that the incident was not sufficiently serious to warrant reporting. Chances are within a few minutes of the incident the child was sitting down in the classroom (unless it was immediately before they left school) and didn't feel particularly bad. If the child had been there for a full day and had complained later of pain or been seen to be limping it would be a different matter. That the parents made a similar initial judgment call to the teachers is indicative of how serious it appeared initially. The child probably worsened as the day went on which of course prompted the parents to take the child to the doctor (who you'll notice probably suspected but did not diagnose a broken foot). IMHO the school was not negligent. That later events proved their initial decision incorrect is not the point, they did not have the same information as the parents did 5 hours later. To report every knock where there is no visible injury would be a needless administrative burden and would not necessarily have altered the parent's subsequent actions as well insist that every school is fitted with x-ray machines and have a policy of x-raying every child that falls!! I can't see why you think there is any negligence on the part of the school. There is inconvenience, there is a child feeling poorly but from what you say, at no point was the child not treated with due consideration. It was bad luck.