EDUCATION SERVICES

Educational providers, whether working in homes or organizational facilities, face potentially serious financial and reputational risks. Allegations of negligence, student injury or victimization, and professional errors are compounded by exposure to liability for property damage at host facilities, leak of student data and commercial auto risks. 

Educational services can include co-op classes, after-school programs, sole proprietors serving as tutors or academic plan consultants, and continuing education or vocational training providers. These organizations as well as private and charter schools, seminaries, and learning academies — whether religiously affiliated or secular — all need educational provider insurance. Here are the common insurance and risk management needs of those in the educational services profession.

Liability Insurance for Educational Services Providers

When you have students, you are responsible for not only their education but also their well-being while in your care. This opens you up to numerous aspects of liability for injury, whether physical, mental, or financial. Even though your focus is on teaching, you must also prioritize risk management to protect the longevity of your business and the welfare of your students.

Educators Professional Liability Insurance

Negligence and professional misconduct are likely the two most common liabilities you will face as an educator. These could include accusations of discrimination; failure to supervise; errors in handling grades, an individual education program (IEP) or other crucial paperwork; or leaving out content that was fundamental to passing a test, resulting in a failed exam or lost employment opportunity. Diligence in syllabus formation, recordkeeping, and classroom management can go a long way in reducing your risk in these areas, but when an allegation arises, you can look to professional liability insurance to help pay for claimed damages and legal fees.

Commercial General Liability Insurance for Educational Service Providers

All businesses should have general liability insurance. It steps in if a student or visitor is injured on your premises or if their property is damaged by any of your employees in the course of their work duties. For example, if a teacher accidentally destroys a high-end audio-visual system at a leased facility or a student falls and breaks a bone in your building, you could be held liable for the costs of remediation. A general liability policy would help with such expenses.

Abuse & Molestation Insurance for Educational Service Providers

Youth education programs have extreme risks of sexual and physical abuse allegations. But such criminality is not exclusive to youth services. The risks extend to learning programs for seniors, the disabled, and other adult learners. False allegations can also arise, harming your reputation and financial stability. Abuse and molestation insurance is a must for those operating educational services companies or working as sole proprietors in the tutoring, educational consulting or teaching professions. It can cover not only legal defense costs and settlements or judgments but also crisis response activities, such as media relations and public notifications.

Violent Event Insurance for Educational Services Providers

Teaching involves more than just imparting knowledge. It comprises classroom and facility management as well. But sometimes, despite security and safety protocols, violence occurs. This could be a physical conflict between students or an intrusion by an external perpetrator. In either case, the teacher, instructor, or exam proctor should have the training and materials to effectively respond to the incident and protect those in the classroom or facility. If injuries do occur, violent event insurance (sometimes called active assailant or violent acts coverage) can help with costs of medical care, emotional counseling, media relations, fatalities, emergency transportation, damaged to leased or borrowed property, and cleanup.

Commercial Auto Liability Insurance for Educational Services Providers

Shuttle service is common for after-school, senior and disability programs. If your company owns or operates the bus or van, commercial auto liability insurance can cover an accident that causes injuries for which you are deemed liable. You can also get medical payments insurance, which will help offset the cost of treatment for injured passengers. In most states, you cannot operate commercial transport vehicles without some form of liability insurance, though in some no-fault states, the rules are nuanced. An insurance agent can help you determine your required (and optimal) coverage levels. If you ever provide your students with a ride in your vehicle, it is another reason to have a commercial auto policy.

If you use your own vehicle for business purposes, such as traveling to students’ homes for tutoring or lessons, you need to talk to your insurance agent about coverage for your vehicle, since most personal auto policies restrict or exclude coverage for business purposes. If you are not transporting people, you may be able to get a business use endorsement to your personal auto policy, but often, a business auto policy is required for extensive use of a personal vehicle for work. Your agent will be able to guide you on a coverage selection based on your auto use.

Cyber Liability Insurance for Educational Services Providers

Your computers are likely filled with personally identifiable information—data that hackers continually seek to access and sell. Top-line cyber protections are needed to protect that data and your assets from the consequences of a breach. Training network users to spot and deny system entry to unauthorized admittance is a priority, and using multifactor authentication to permit network access is almost uniformly required by insurers. More advanced cyber controls include monitoring your systems for attempts at intrusion and exfiltration of data (which includes external and internal data transfer). When cybersecurity fails, cyber liability insurance can help cover the costs of financial damage done to victims. It will not, however, cover damage to your systems or data, such as ransomware or revenue lost due to downtime. For those, you would need first-party cyber insurance.

Employment Practices Liability Insurance for Educational Service Providers

Educational organizations that have employees should be aware that complaints about workplace discrimination, harassment and hostile environments are growing. These can be financially draining without EPLI (employment practices liability insurance).

Umbrella or Excess Liability Insurance for Educational Service Providers

Liability lawsuits are unpredictable, though one thing is known: They are highly dependent on the venue and the accusation. Abuse, molestation, and auto liability claims can run into the millions of dollars if you live in a plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction. Judgments may far exceed your primary liability insurance policies. That is why many educational service providers enhance their underlying coverage with commercial umbrella insurance or an excess liability policy. Both extend the dollar amount provided under the primary policy. Umbrella covers multiple policies at once, and excess liability builds out a single policy at a time.

Property Insurance for Educational Service Providers

If you own the facility from which you operate, you need to protect that investment from the costs of damage from fire, broken pipes, storm damage, vandalism, and theft of contents. A commercial property insurance policy for educational organizations will do just that. 

Your property will be covered based on the total insurable value, which may require a professional assessment. Often, insurers require information like the age of the roof and the construction materials of the frame. Newer buildings are typically looked upon with greater favor since building codes have been updated to require hardening of structures against storm damage. If you have an older building, you should consider ordinance and law insurance, which covers the expense of upgrading the undamaged portion of your building when major repair or reconstruction is needed to the other portion. In some high-risk regions, you may find larger required deductibles or separate limits of coverage for wind or wildfire damage.

Another policy enhancement that is typically suggested is sewer and drain backup. This, applies whether you own the building or not. Damage to building contents and built-in features (such as carpeting) from a sewer or drain backup is excluded unless you add it to your commercial property policy, so talk to your agent and look at your landlord’s insurance policy if you are leasing your space.

Some tutors may have a separate office in their home to see their students. It is very likely that your homeowners policy excludes coverage for “business pursuits,” so you will likely need to have your home added under your general liability policy in case a student is injured at your home, or added under your commercial general liability policy.

If you rent the facility you use for educational services, your landlord will insure the building, but you are responsible for covering the building contents (like computers, furniture, play equipment, books, supplies, and appliances) and any betterments you make to the space (such as walls, kitchens, bathrooms, and technology wiring).

For flood and earthquake (and in some regions wildfire), you will need a separate policy. 

Any business that owns commercial vehicles, like buses, vans or shuttles, should carry commercial auto property and comprehensive insurance. These coverages will help with the cost of repair or replacement if your vehicle is damaged in a collision or non-collision event (non-collision could include theft, vandalism or damage from wind-thrown objects or hail). You may also wish to include uninsured motorist coverage in case someone without insurance crashes into your vehicle.