Paul Blume's Columns - Insurance made less scary (February 2010) ASBA policy can insure out-of-state school trips Okay. There have been a couple of times in the last couple of years that I wrote to you about the prospects of your school district’s exposure to potential legal liability for negligence when you, your students and your staff cross state lines for school-related business or, for that matter, field trips and senior trips. In my previous columns, I advised that you get insurance for those excursions. Caused much waving of hands and gnashing of teeth. That insurance was hard to come by. As it turns out, if you purchase an errors and omissions insurance policy through the Arkansas School Boards Association, you have the option to purchase that coverage as what the insurance folk here call an added endorsement to the E&O policy. Costs a little extra, but the peace of mind would, it seems to me, be worth it. And you have that coverage through the term of the E&O policy. In other words, you don’t have to go looking for a policy and pay a separate premium every time someone wants to leave the safe haven of our beautiful and beloved home state. Let’s review: You have immunity from liability for negligence as long as you stay within the confines of the Great State of Arkansas. Over those boundaries, if one of your students or staff causes someone harm, your district might be liable for that harm. Possibility of big bucks. No insurance for that. Well. If you purchase an E&O policy through the ASBA (i.e., Ms. Shannon Moore), you can obtain that coverage without having to pay for a one-time policy every time your district has someone over the state line on school-related or -sponsored business. You still can get the one-time-only policies, but that’s usually a lot of trouble for, maybe, a one-day trip. This way, you buy a policy, and you don’t have to worry about buying a separate policy every time or, perhaps, even forgetting to get a policy. And the good part is that, in addition to the “special events” policy, you’re getting coverage for all of those other types of lawsuits that people are filing these days. (And, no, just because you haven’t done anything wrong does NOT mean that you won’t get sued). In addition, since these special events policies don’t cover negligence within the state, you’re not waiving your in-state statutory immunity. You’re just getting covered for the run-of-the-mill illegal discharge, discrimination and-so-forth lawsuits. Win, win. See? Insurance – not to mention the thought of getting sued – can be not so scary anymore. I feel better already. |
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