Reducing the Risk of School Board Lawsuits

School business managers are extremely busy. Every day, you concentrate on improving the outcome for students, staff, and the school community while managing public funds and the district’s operating expenses. You wear many hats, jumping in and out of various roles in HR, IT, Finance, Facilities, and Business Administration to keep the school running smoothly and safely. You even handle contracts and all of the insurance. The last thing you need is the trauma and disruption of a school board lawsuit with its financial, emotional, physical, and reputational impacts.

Why Do Parents Sue School Districts?

The school administration and teachers have an obligation called a legal duty of care. They have to do everything reasonably possible to protect students from foreseeable harm while under their care. That includes providing a safe environment. But even with the best intentions and practices, school accidents happen. And they expose your district to the risk of an unhappy family suing for damages.

Is there a way to transfer—or even potentially eliminate—the risk, and make your school and parents financially whole after an accident happens? Fortunately, there is, with participant accident insurance.

Participant Accident Insurance Provides Medical Expense Protection for Treatments

Long known for providing coverage for student-athlete sports injuries, participant accident insurance can also be used to cover K-12 students. And that’s important when you consider that the majority of K-12 injuries happen in the classroom, in the gym, on school buses, in drop-off zones, and on the playground. These include:

• Slips and falls
• Cuts and bruises
• Burns and trips
• Bus and car injuries

If the families have primary health insurance when these or sports accidents happen, it is applied to treatment costs first. After that, the family will have to cover the deductibles, co-payments, and out-of-pocket costs left by the primary health insurance. If they have participant accident insurance through the school, the good news is that it picks up where their primary health insurance leaves off, covering all of the out-of-pocket costs for them.

The bad news is that if a family doesn’t have primary health insurance, they will be left handling the entire medical treatment bill themselves. However, if they have participant accident insurance, they at least have some financial recourse.

Transferring Your School District’s Risk

Parents are understandably upset when their children are injured. With the duty of care obligation your school has, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they might sue the school for damages if they lack funds or health insurance. With participant accident insurance plans offered by A-G Administrators, your school district’s financial risk from those situations is transferred to the insurance company. We help ensure that the school and the families are “financially whole” after the accident. And, most importantly: no worries stand in the way of the student’s recovery.

Plan Choices Can Have a Positive Impact on Your School Budget

Providing this insurance doesn’t have to be an expense to your school. In fact, parents pay the affordable premiums in many instances. Plans can be tailored to your unique needs and can cover your choice of students, student-athletes, or both:

• Mandatory Plans where parents are responsible for paying the affordable premiums; this option incurs no premium cost when the school makes it available
• Compulsory Plans where the school pays the premium
• Voluntary Plans that the parent can purchase for around-the-clock coverage (interscholastic sports and catastrophic plans are also available)

These plan options make it easy to help mitigate the financial risk of accidents for K-12 students and athletes alike.

Additionally, when you work with A-G, we can help control medical expenses (and, in turn, premium costs) through our extensive nationwide provider networks. Just take a look at our case study of how one K-12 school reduced costs by 25% to see how we work.

Download the K-12 Case Study.

No Claims Management or Red Tape to Worry About

Through EGBAR, our Efficiency Generating Business Automation Resource, we provide industry-leading claims management services that eliminate hassles and mountains of paperwork. You don’t need to worry that bringing in participant accident insurance will increase your department’s workload. It won’t. EGBAR is a critical difference between our programs and those of our competitors.

Partnering with over 675 K-12 School Districts

For nearly 40 years, A-G Administrators has been dedicated to helping school districts like yours transfer their financial risks from accidents, reduce the chance of school board lawsuits, and keep both schools and families fiscally sound.

With no extra work for your department, no- or low-cost options, and increased parent goodwill, A-G’s participant accident insurance is something your school board will be glad to know more about.

• Visit agadministrators.com to read more about the many ways our plans can help your district.
• Or, if you’d like to talk to us personally, contact us.
• And, don’t forget to download the K-12 Case Study.

When you’re ready, you or your insurance agent or broker can request a quote. Then, you can relax knowing you’re prepared for accidents—whenever they happen.