Sports is a big part of high school life. But it’s not just about fun; there are some risks too. Students and school staff can get hurt, and there can be legal issues, especially during big games or tournaments. High schools, school districts, and sports groups all over the country need to have school sports insurance for these reasons.
You need a provider who has experience with insurance for sports to help your school and sports programs deal with the risks that come with them. This includes protecting athletes, teams, events, coaches, and even sports camps. If your school needs a plan to manage these risks, special insurance for sports, or a benefits plan for employees, this article recommends the best of them that you should go for.
School Sports Insurance
High school sports programs often face risks that need to be managed carefully. You need an insurance provider that specializes in this area with an approach focusing on creating insurance plans that cover various aspects of high school sports. This could include the sports teams, events they participate in, risks such as concussions, and important people involved such as officials and coaches.
Some insurance providers also cover sports camps and clinics. Usually, the target is to find protection that is thorough but also affordable. This way, your high school sports programs can be safe without spending too much money. Well, this post contains some recommendations you will find worthwhile.
Best School Sports Insurance Providers
1. Gallagher Student Health & Special Risk
Gallagher Student Health & Special Risk specializes in providing insurance for school sports, offering a comprehensive range of services. They cater to intercollegiate, club, and intramural athletic programs at colleges and universities of all sizes.
Their school sports insurance coverage includes catastrophic accident medical coverage, which can go up to $5 million per incident.
They also offer insurance for camps, clinics, and events, which is available for instant online enrollment. This is particularly useful for special events, tournaments, teams, and leagues. For situations such as event interruptions, relocations, postponements, or cancellations, their event cancellation insurance provides a safety net.
They also provide accidental death and dismemberment insurance. Gallagher’s services extend beyond just sports insurance and includes a wide range of other insurance products and services for various academic and even non-academic requirements.
2. School Insurance of Florida
School Insurance of Florida provides accident protection for students in over 1000 schools across Florida. On the quote page, all you have to do is select your school district and find the specific insurance plan offered for that district. This includes a wide range of districts from Alachua County Public Schools to Volusia County Schools.
The school sports insurance plans are customized for each school district. With over four decades of experience, School Insurance of Florida has a significant history in providing insurance for school activities.
3. Bene-Marc
Bene-Marc, established in 1973, offers comprehensive insurance plans for K-12 schools, focusing on covering school activities, including sports and extracurricular events. They understand the excitement and risks associated with school activities, ensuring schools and students are protected in case of injuries. The insurance options are tailored to meet the diverse needs of schools in Texas and other states.
Their coverage includes Blanket Mandatory School Coverage, K-12 Voluntary Student Accident Insurance, and Catastrophic Accident Insurance Coverage. Each plan is designed to address different aspects of school life. The Blanket Mandatory School Sponsored Insurance covers both sports and non-sport related activities sanctioned by the school, including drama, debate, and other clubs.
This plan is comprehensive and covers students during school activities, travel in school vehicles, and even includes field trip coverage. For schools looking for more flexible options, the K-12 Student Accident Insurance is voluntary and can be extended to provide 24-hour coverage.
4. A-G Administrators
A-G Administrators specialize in offering customized insurance coverage for K-12 school districts. The protection includes school sports, extracurricular activities, regular school days, and even summer camps.
Their approach is noted for efficient risk and claims management. It helps in reducing paperwork and controlling costs for schools.
A significant aspect of the school sports insurance plans is the protection they offer to families against the financial burden of medical expenses due to accidents. This also helps in reducing the school’s liability exposure. In addition to student accident insurance, A-G Administrators provides other specialized products, including coverage for events, clinics, camps, and tournaments.
5. K & K Insurance
The K-12 Accident Insurance Plan from K&K Insurance offers a range of coverage options for school-age children across America. The plan includes 24-hour Coverage that protects against accidental injuries at any time, including at home, school, and during organized youth sports activities, excluding high school football. This coverage is effective for a year starting from when the application and premium are received.
There’s also At School Coverage. This particular coverage focuses on injuries at school during school hours and in school-sponsored activities. This covers all school sports except high school football and is effective from the application and premium receipt date until the end of the regular school term.
For high school football players, there’s specific High School Football Coverage. It covers accidental injuries during practice and games, including playoffs, from the first day of practice through the football season. You will also get an Extended Dental Coverage for accidental dental injuries under this plan.
Common Insurance Types for Your School
There are many different kinds of coverages, and you want to choose one that is best suitable for your school.
Catastrophic Accident Insurance
State high school associations and individual high schools realize how crucial catastrophic accident insurance is for contact sports and other student activities. They offer two types of this insurance: a mandatory one and a voluntary one.
Catastrophic insurance is:
- High-limit insurance for serious, disabling injuries.
- One that offers benefits for various periods, including lifetime coverage.
- An insurance that protects students who are injured while participating in a covered sport or activity. This includes times of practice, play, and travel for these events.
- The benefits for the injured student start after the catastrophic deductible is met.
- It also includes a benefit for accidental death.
Basic School Accident Insurance
Schools often get a type of insurance called “basic accident insurance” to protect students during school activities. This insurance is for students in all grades, from preschool to high school. Even kids in boarding schools can be covered all day and night.
This insurance helps when a student gets hurt during school activities, whether they’re in school or somewhere else for a school event. It includes sports too, even tackle football, covering everything from tryouts and practice to regular and playoff games. There are also special plans just for sports.
Schools can choose different plans based on what they need. Bigger school districts might even get custom-made plans to fit their specific requirements.
Concussion Insurance Program
In 2019, about 15% of high school students in the U.S. said they had a concussion from sports or other activities, according to the CDC. Concussions are a big risk in youth sports. It’s important to take care of young athletes’ brains and make sure they are okay to play sports and go to school again.
HeadStrong Concussion is a program that helps pay for concussion treatment for student-athletes. It covers up to $25,000 for medical costs if they get a concussion, including doctor visits later on. It is now used by over 667,000 student-athletes across the U.S. There are some benefits of this program:
- It covers up to $25,000 for concussion treatment, including later doctor visits.
- There’s no deductible or extra fees to pay.
- It offers $5,000 coverage if there’s a serious accident.
- Athletes can talk to doctors online if needed.
- They can go to any doctor they want; they don’t need a special note for treatment.
- There’s no limit on what kinds of treatments they can get.
- The insurance company behind it is very strong and reliable.
- It costs $1.50 per athlete, but there needs to be at least 3,500 athletes to start the program.
- They cover follow-up doctor visits if needed.
When a sports team or league joins the HeadStrong program, all their athletes get this coverage automatically. There’s no extra process. This insurance kicks in after any other insurance the athlete has. But if they don’t have any other insurance, HeadStrong will pay first.
General and excess liability insurance
State high school associations are groups that manage and oversee high school sports events like tournaments and all-star games. They have two main types of insurance policies to protect themselves:
General Liability Policy
This covers them if someone sues them for not doing their job properly (negligence). This policy includes:
- Various aggregate limits, which means there’s a maximum amount the policy will pay for all claims combined.
- Participant legal liability. If a player gets hurt and the association is blamed, this helps cover legal costs.
- Employee benefits liability. It covers issues related to employee benefit plans.
Excess Liability or Umbrella Policy
This is bought along with the General Liability Policy. It’s like an extra layer of protection.
If a claim is really expensive and goes beyond what the General Liability Policy can pay, this policy steps in to cover the extra costs. The association can also add other policies to this one if they need more specific coverage.
Directors and Officers Insurance
Directors and officers liability insurance is a type of coverage that helps protect your association and its leaders from claims made against them. These claims could be about wrong decisions or actions taken while doing their jobs.
The insurance helps cover the costs that your association or its members might have to pay because of these claims. This includes legal fees, whether the case goes to court or is settled outside of court.
What the insurance includes:
- You can choose different amounts for the deductible, which is the part you pay before the insurance starts paying.
- The insurance can cover claims starting at $1 million and can go higher.
- It can pay for legal defense, whether these costs are included within the policy’s maximum limit or outside it.
- It covers actions that happened before you got the insurance.
- Covers claims made by people who are not part of your association.
- Employment practices liability. This includes issues like wrongful firing or discrimination in the workplace.
- Volunteer coverage. Extends protection to volunteers working with your association.
Specialty Insurance Coverage
State high school associations often have distinct requirements and commonly need additional insurance. An insurance provider with an extensive network of insurance specialists is equipped to recommend the appropriate insurance solutions to mitigate various risks. These include:
- Cyber Liability. Protecting against online threats such as data breaches.
- Crime Insurance. Coverage for theft or fraudulent activities.
- Errors and Omissions Liability. Insurance for mistakes or oversights leading to liability.
- Media Liability. Protection against legal issues arising from media-related activities.
- Professional Medical Liability. Covering liabilities from medical professional errors.
- Staff Travel Accident. Insurance for accidents occurring during staff travel.
- Volunteer Accident Medical. Coverage for medical incidents involving volunteers.
Tournament and Post-season Insurance
If an association already has a plan for really big health emergencies but wants to add more protection, this accident medical policy is a good choice. It helps cover costs for students if they get hurt during tournaments or in the games after the regular season. This is also great for associations that don’t have a big emergency health plan yet.
Features
- The amount you pay before the insurance starts paying can be as low as $100.
- The maximum amount the policy will pay for extra medical costs can be adjusted to fit what the association needs.
- You can choose how long the coverage lasts.
- It also has a special benefit if a student dies because of an accident.
Camp and Clinic Program
Some insurance companies offer special insurance programs for people running camps or clinics in various activities like sports and music. These programs are really good at protecting you against legal problems and covering medical costs if someone gets hurt. They’re designed for coaches and instructors and cover many activities, including:
- day camps
- overnight camps
- non-school sports
- teaching clinics
- off-season workouts
- all-star games
- and team leagues
Athletic Trainer Liability Insurance
Being an athletic trainer, you have a big job looking after your student athletes and their teams. Just like you take care of them, it’s important to take care of yourself too, especially when you’re doing different kinds of work.
One way to do this is by having insurance. We offer a special kind of insurance just for athletic trainers and people who work in fitness and rehab.
This insurance is made to fit what you need. It’s really flexible, so it covers you no matter where you’re working. This means you can keep your mind on helping your athletes, while we make sure your own things like money, professional license, and good name are safe and sound.
Read also:Â School Accident Insurance | You Need One
