School negligence cases commonly involve breaches of the professional standard of care that result in playground or other student injuries.
Parents, plaintiff and defendant attorneys, schools, and other child-oriented agencies can enlist the student injury expert team at School Liability Expert Group to assist in negligence in sports cases and other educational negligence matters.
Expert Witness Services For Attorneys
Our expert team can assist plaintiff or defendant attorneys from case inception to resolution, providing consultation, trial and deposition testimonies, and comprehensive reports. We conduct a case analysis of the professional standard of care and the proximate cause of the student’s injury.
Services For Schools
School Liability Expert Group helps schools and agencies minimize the risks of playground injuries and other student injuries and avoid costly agency and school negligence cases.
We review the safety measures in place, the appropriateness and implementation of policies and procedures, staff hiring and supervision protocols, compliance with applicable standards, and the overall quality of program administration and management.
Our experts also make recommendations to help institutions operate more effectively and reduce the risks, such as negligence in sports cases.
Services for Parents
Parents and their legal teams can engage our personal injury liability expert team when navigating school negligence cases and when seeking the appropriate school placement for their child, based on our assessment of a school’s past and current child custody issues and special education matters.
The Professional Standard of Care in Schools
The professional standard of care refers to the actions a reasonably prudent educational institution or an experienced individual with a similar background and environment would take under the same circumstances to prevent student injuries, including playground injuries and other foreseeable risks.
Schools and campuses must maintain a reasonably safe environment for students. The obligation includes providing proper supervision, keeping facilities and equipment, and responding appropriately to known hazards in on-campus and external school-affiliated activities.
When a school fails to meet this professional standard of care, it may be exposed to negligence in sports cases and personal injury liability, particularly when risks were foreseeable and preventable.
Court-qualified experts at the School Liability Expert Group can assist in evaluating whether a school’s conduct met the required standard during school negligence cases.
What is Education Negligence?
Education negligence, also known as school negligence, occurs when an educational institution breaches its duty of care through the actions or inaction of administrators, teachers, coaches, or other staff, resulting in significant harm to a student.
The breach may involve failing to provide reasonable supervision in classrooms, dormitories, laboratories, and during class trips, denial of disability accommodations, ignoring reports of harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB), negligent screening, hiring, supervision, and retention of school employees, lack of effective policies for preventing risks, ignoring safety measures, and more.
These failures frequently result in student injuries, including physical injury, emotional harm, or, in severe cases, death, and may form the basis of school negligence cases and liability issues.
The School Liability Expert Group can help identify these failures and link them to actionable legal claims.
Many parents ask, “Do schools have insurance for injuries?” To answer this question, we will first discuss the aspects of school injury liability.
Personal Injury Liability in Schools
Personal injury liability in schools arises when an educational institution is held legally responsible for injuries sustained by a student on school premises or during school-sponsored off-campus activities.
Liability may exist when an injury was foreseeable and resulted from a school’s failure to act reasonably. Liability rules can vary between public and private schools, but while public schools enjoy sovereign immunity, they can still be held liable under specific conditions.
Many parents ask, “Do schools have insurance for injuries?” particularly in school negligence cases involving playground injuries and sports-related incidents. Understanding how liability is assessed helps families and legal teams evaluate potential claims and outcomes.
To establish personal injury liability in negligence in sports cases and other educational negligence cases, it must generally be established that:
- The school owed a legal duty to protect the student in the given situation
- The school breached that duty by acting or failing to act reasonably
- The breach was the proximate cause of the injury
- The student suffered actual damages, including physical, emotional, and financial harm
Experts at the School Liability Expert Group provide expert insights to prove negligence in student injury cases, helping establish causation and liability exposure.
Let’s explore in detail some examples of negligence in schools, colleges, and other child-oriented agencies that can attract agency or school negligence cases, along with aspects of liability in these situations.
College and University Campus Injuries
Colleges and universities may not be held accountable for all student injuries sustained on their campuses, as students are over 18 and many accidents occur off campus or are not directly caused by aspects under the university’s control.
Examples of Negligence in Higher Education
Some examples of education negligence that a university or a college may be held liable for include:
- Inadequate safety and security policies and safeguards
- Unmarked hazards
- Crumbling pavement
- Broken handrails
- Broken furniture
- Bad locks
- Faulty alarm systems
- Unsecured buildings, and
- Failure to address known and established risks, such as excessive and underage alcohol consumption or high crime rates on campus
As a student injury expert would note, many incidents involving student injury stem from activities related to Greek life and alcohol culture on campus.
Personal Injury Liability in Higher Education
If the university administration fails to establish proper rules and oversight of fraternities and sororities on campus, then the university could be found liable for student injuries sustained from activities like hazing, underage drinking, and sexual harassment and assault.
Moreover, inadequate policies and procedures, and insufficient supervision and security during campus-sanctioned activities, could lead to school negligence cases.
Higher education institutions can rely on our student injury expert at the School Liability Expert Group to determine whether their programs have gaps that could lead to negligence in sports cases or other personal injury liability issues.
Primary and Secondary School Injuries
School Playground Injuries
In addition to safety issues posed by hazardous and improperly maintained school premises and buildings, playground injuries are prevalent in primary and secondary schools.
According to the Children’s Safety Network, well over 200,000 playground-related injuries are treated in an emergency department annually.
Examples of education negligence that can cause student injuries and attract school negligence cases include:
- Failure to plan correctly
- Failure to provide appropriate levels of supervision for students
- Failure to ensure that staff are adequately trained to ensure student safety on school playgrounds
- Poorly maintained or defective playground equipment
- A lack of response to bullying and harassment taking place
School Sports Injuries
While school sports carry an inherent risk of injury, proper safety, supervision, and prevention practices, as part of the established professional standard of care, can significantly reduce the risk of student injuries and negligence in sports cases.
Coaches and other school staff tasked with supervising school sports must take reasonable precautions to properly plan athletic activities and supervise students to ensure their safety. Like on-campus facilities, sports premises and equipment must be regularly inspected and well-maintained, and faulty athletic equipment should be immediately replaced or removed.
Additionally, school athletic and recreational programs must comply with concussion prevention and response protocols.
Student injury in school sports can also stem from bullying or harassment, as interscholastic competitions can invoke these negative behaviors in students. School negligence cases in this situation can stem from a coach or other supervisor deliberately paying no heed to bullying, harassment, hazing, and student-on-student fights.
School Bus Transportation Injuries
Any school or educational institution may be held liable for student injuries sustained on its school transportation system, depending on the direct cause of the injury. For example, if a student is injured directly due to a broken seat belt or reckless driving by a campus employee, the institution may find itself entangled in school negligence cases.
Other examples of education negligence in this scenario include:
- Inadequate bus maintenance
- Failure to hire qualified and safe bus drivers
- Allowing students to be transported in personal vehicles instead of providing chartered transportation for school-sponsored trips and activities
- Failure to accommodate and provide additional supervision and training of staff transporting and supervising students with disabilities
In school negligence cases, a student injury expert can determine whether the school may be held liable for breaches of the professional standard of care, including negligent hiring, training, and supervision of school bus drivers and other personnel.
Other Child- and Youth-Serving Agencies
The standard of care owed to children when away from their parents’ supervision is not limited to educational institutions.
Other agencies charged with child supervision, such as daycares and summer camps, are also expected to fulfill their in loco parentis duties and maintain a professional standard of care to prevent playground injuries and other liability issues.
Given the activities available at summer camps, camp administrators must uphold sufficient risk management procedures to avoid personal injury liability in negligence cases.
For example, if a camp offers swimming activities, it could be held liable for injuries to children if the lifeguard failed to perform their duties adequately and the camp failed to supervise the lifeguard properly.
A student injury expert will note that if a school’s responsibility extends to external activities like camps, field trips, or other partnerships with child-oriented agencies, the school should exercise its policies reasonably to prevent injuries and negligence cases.
Do Schools Have Insurance For Injuries?
One question that usually arises is, “Do schools have insurance for injuries?” Indeed, schools typically insure students against injuries on school grounds and school-supervised off-campus activities, including sports, school transportation, camps, and more, covering medical bills and other damage claims made by parents.
However, the extent of the insurance coverage varies based on the school’s insurance policy, whether the injury resulted from educational negligence or an unfortunate accident, where the injury occurred, any third-party involvement, the school’s legal responsibility in a specific scenario, and more.
As a result, insurance claims disputes are common in playground-related and other student injuries. In school negligence cases, a student injury expert team can be sought to clarify whether a negligence claim is valid and the appropriate compensation the insurer should provide.
Experts will evaluate the school’s management and supervision systems, the expected legal and professional standard of care in a specific scenario, whether the school acted negligently in supervising and protecting the child, and whether this breach was the proximate cause of student injury.
Expert testimonies are therefore pivotal in negligence cases in sports and other matters, helping determine whether the injury was outside the school’s scope of liability or whether the school should be held liable for the injury and the accompanying damages.
Student Injury Expert Witness Services
School Liability Expert Group is an education expert witness firm with the capacity to promptly and effectively handle complex school negligence cases and claims, assisting plaintiff or defendant attorneys, parents, schools, or other child-oriented agencies from case inception to resolution.
Hundreds of law firms across the United States and Canada have engaged our firm for expert witness services and consultation, including expert testimonies and expert reports.
Our education expert witnesses can advise your school or organization on meeting the standard of care or evaluate your case for possible breaches of the professional standard of care that resulted in student injuries and damages.
School negligence cases and cases against other child- and youth-oriented organizations require a thorough analysis of specific policies, practices, and professional standards of care, as well as student and employee records, to determine what caused the harm or injury.
Our team has diverse, unparalleled experience across all areas of school liability and education law. We are firmly committed to the individualized, prompt, and reliable processes we have developed, and our client testimonials attest to our specialized knowledge and extensive experience.
Examples of negligence in schools and agency cases we can help with include, but are not limited to, sports and playground injuries, transportation injuries, bullying, harassment and intimidation, sexual abuse, and discrimination.
Talk to a personal injury liability expert today at the School Liability Expert Group and find out how we can assist you at any point during school negligence cases.
