Defend & Cover: Safety, Cyber Top Concerns for School Risk Managers

Over the years, schools have conducted endless fire drills, tornado drills and even—in the heyday of nuclear threat—“duck and cover” bomb drills in an ongoing effort to make the learning environment safer. Today, in the wake of school shootings, a growing number of schools are conducting “active shooter” drills in connection with law enforcement.

In states such as Illinois and New Jersey, drills are required by law—and several more states are considering similar legislation. Even when not legally required, many school districts are mandating active shooter drills as a best practice in school safety and risk management.

“It's definitely been a changing legal landscape” since last December when the Sandy Hook shooting occurred, says Robert Groff, Philadelphia Insurance Cos. assistant vice president. “We're monitoring the actions taken by the states and school districts and continue to refine our underwriting approach.”

Another key concern related to the issue is an increase in the number of schools with armed staffers. Several states allow or are considering allowing faculty members to carry firearms. “Needless to say, that has really concerned a lot of people,” says Groff. “We're getting a lot of questions from schools, teachers, and agents regarding what our position would be if they purchased a firearm to defend students.”

Before this year, those questions had been raised primarily by colleges; today, more inquiries are coming from public schools. Some carriers have strict “no armed faculty” policies. For instance, in July, EMC Insurance Cos.—the largest insurance provider for schools in Kansas—announced that it would not provide coverage to schools that allow teachers to possess firearms.

Groff says that Philadelphia has “very stringent” underwriting criteria and evaluates the armed security exposure on a risk-by-risk basis. “We are definitely recommending to schools that it's a much better solution to contract a reputable security service with appropriate indemnification provisions, obtain a certificate of insurance and be added as an additional insured to that service's policy.”

From a risk management perspective, schools need to establish protocols and procedures for assessing and dealing with threats at school. “How easy is it for intruders to gain access to your facilities?” Groff asks. “How are vehicle and pedestrian access controlled?”

Traditional Concerns Still Linger

The issue of guns in schools isn't the only one on risk managers' minds. Philadelphia fields an increasing number of questions regarding policies and procedures around abuse, molestation and bullying.

“Risk management around abuse or molestation really breaks down to fundamentals,” says Groff. “Are schools doing background checks not only on everybody who works there, but everybody who volunteers there? Are they providing the right training and education to those staff and volunteers?”

Philadelphia offers its school clients reduced-cost background checks, as well as an online abuse prevention training program that includes sexual abuse awareness training, policies and procedures, screening resources and systems for tracking compliance.

Bullying claims—including traditional bullying and cyber-bulling—can fall under GL coverage if there is bodily injury involved, or under educator's liability or directors & officers coverage for failing to prevent bullying. Increased awareness resulting from anti-bullying campaigns has served to increase the number of claims in recent years and heightened the urgency to clearly address the situation in schools' risk management programs.

“Schools must establish and enforce policies and rules that clearly outline how students are expected to treat each other to help prevent bullying and cyber-bullying,” says Groff. “The policy should also define the consequences for violations of the policy.”

And exposure to cyber claims, whether caused by hacking, fraud or even inadvertent release of private information via cyber sources, is a growing concern.

“Schools have more exposure to cyber claims than they realize,” says Groff, referencing one well-publicized incident involving the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania. The school paid more than $600,000 to settle lawsuits for remotely activating webcams on school-provided laptops while the computers were in students' homes.

“There is a real need to get the IT person or staff in a school more involved in assessing the school's vulnerability to cyber breaches,” he adds. Philadelphia offers its policyholders access to online tools and resources to help understand the exposures, establish a response plan and minimize the effects of a breach.

One thing is certain: the need for schools to be vigilant in their quest to provide a safe learning environment will only become more complex in months ahead. Adds Groff, “The exposures schools face continue to evolve.”