You Stand In Loco Parentis — and Nothing Carries More Weight Than That.
Protecting schools, boards, and the students in their care
Charter schools and private, independent, and religious K-12 schools, including Montessori and similar programs, take on the full responsibility of educating and supervising children — and that responsibility defines their risk. The signature exposure is abuse and molestation of students, the catastrophic claim that drives this entire class, paired with educators legal liability and E&O over the academic, disciplinary, special-education, and discrimination decisions a school makes every day. On top of both sits charter-board and governance exposure, because a charter school's board can be sued like any other board for how it runs the organization. This is a specialized corner of school insurance built around the duty a school owes to every child on campus.
Properly structured coverage protects the school, its board, its educators, and above all its students.
The School's Signature Exposures
Abuse and molestation is the first and defining exposure — a school has unsupervised adult access to children across classrooms, athletics, transportation, and aftercare, and an allegation against an employee, coach, or volunteer is both the most severe and the most scrutinized claim a school faces, with reviver-window legislation extending liability for conduct years in the past. The second is educators legal liability: discipline and expulsion, special-education placement and IDEA obligations, failure-to-educate claims, bullying response, and discrimination decisions generate E&O suits unique to education. Charter and independent boards carry D&O exposure for governance, authorizer compliance, and finances; campus, athletics, and playground injuries, plus bus and activity-transport accidents, drive bodily-injury claims; and student records, employment practices, and the rising threat of an active-shooter event round out a risk profile broader than most small organizations carry.
Key Risks for Charter & Private Schools
Charter and private schools face exposure related to:
Abuse or molestation of a student by an employee, coach, or volunteer
An educators-legal-liability claim over discipline, special-education, or discrimination decisions
D&O and charter-governance exposure, including authorizer and compliance disputes
Campus, athletics, and playground injuries to students and visitors
Bus and activity-transport accidents involving students
Employment-practices claims by teachers and staff
A breach of student records protected under FERPA
An active-shooter or violent-intruder event on campus
The abuse and molestation claim and the educators-legal-liability suit are what most define the school.
Core Coverages for Charter & Private Schools
A properly built school program typically includes:
Educators Legal Liability / Professional Liability — Responds to claims over discipline, expulsion, special-education and IDEA decisions, failure to educate, and discrimination.
Abuse & Molestation — Covers allegations of abuse by employees, coaches, and volunteers, including defense and third-party liability.
Directors & Officers Liability — Protects the charter or independent board for governance, authorizer-compliance, and financial decisions.
General Liability — Responds to bodily injury and property damage on campus, at athletics, and on the playground.
Commercial Property — Covers school buildings, equipment, technology, and contents against covered physical loss.
Commercial Auto — Covers owned and hired buses and vehicles used for activity and field-trip transport.
Employment Practices Liability — Provides defense and damages for wrongful-termination, discrimination, and harassment claims by staff.
Cyber — Responds to a breach of student and family data, including FERPA notification and liability.
Active Shooter / Violence Response — Pays for liability, victim support, counseling, and crisis response after a violent-intruder event.
Workers' Compensation — Provides legally required coverage for teacher and staff injuries.
Umbrella / Excess Liability — Adds higher limits above the primary program given abuse and transport severity.
What's Commonly Overlooked
School programs are most often weakened by:
Abuse and molestation limits too low for a reviver-window or multi-claimant matter
Educators legal liability omitted or confused with general liability
Charter-board D&O left out of a program built only for the operating entity
No active-shooter or violence-response coverage despite the exposure
Volunteers and contracted coaches left outside abuse and liability coverage
The gap that hurts most is an abuse limit too small for a claim that can define the school's survival.
Real-World Claim Examples
A coach or staff member faces an abuse allegation, including conduct from years past under a reviver window
Parents sue over a special-education placement or an expulsion decision
A student is seriously injured at athletics, on the playground, or on a field trip
A school bus is involved in an accident during an activity transport
The charter board is sued over an authorizer, compliance, or financial dispute
A breach exposes student records and triggers FERPA notification obligations
Any one of these can be severe, and an abuse claim can reach well into seven figures.
Regulatory & Compliance Context
Charter and private schools operate under their state education department's rules and, for charters, the terms of a charter authorizer that can suspend or revoke the charter for noncompliance. Federal law governs core exposures — Title IX on sex discrimination and harassment, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 on special education, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) on student records — while state mandatory-reporting laws require staff to report suspected abuse and many states impose background-check and child-safety requirements. Religious schools carry additional governance and employment considerations, and most nonprofit schools hold 501(c)(3) status.
Why Proper Placement Matters
Underwriters weigh abuse-prevention controls above all — background checks, two-adult rules, training, and reporting protocols — alongside enrollment, grade span, athletics and transportation, special-education population, charter-authorizer standing, campus security, and loss history. A small established private school with strong child-safety controls can place largely on the admitted market, while abuse history, heavy transport, charter-governance disputes, or active-shooter exposure routinely push abuse, EPL, and educators coverage into the excess and surplus market with manuscripted terms and sublimits. Placing the account well, and presenting child-safety and governance controls, is what keeps the catastrophic coverage intact.
Our Approach
At Cory Washington & Co., we build school programs around the claims that threaten a school's existence — abuse and molestation sized to today's reviver-window reality, educators legal liability for the decisions teachers and administrators make, and charter-board D&O layered on top. We coordinate property, auto, cyber, active-shooter, and workers' compensation around how a real campus operates, and we help you present the child-safety controls underwriters reward. We also protect the wider education sector, the abuse exposure that defines it through sexual abuse and molestation insurance, and the boards that govern these schools through directors and officers insurance.
Every family trusts you with their child — we build the coverage that stands behind that trust.
All insurance descriptions on this website are provided by Cory Washington & Co. LLC strictly for general informational purposes. They are not intended to be, and should not be relied upon as, legal, financial, or insurance advice. The information presented is general in nature and does not guarantee the availability, terms, conditions, or scope of any insurance coverage. Actual coverage is determined solely by the specific policy language issued by the insurer and remains subject to underwriting approval. Nothing on this website creates or implies an agent-client relationship, binds coverage, or alters any existing policy. Cory Washington & Co. LLC expressly disclaims any liability for actions taken, or not taken, based on the content provided here. For advice regarding your particular situation, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional at Cory Washington & Co. LLC or another qualified insurance professional, and always review your policy documents in full.
See the coverages a charter & private school business may carry — core, prevalent, and situational — plus the gap most often missed, in the Charter & Private School Coverage Checklist.
Complete the Charter & Private School Supplemental online in a few guided steps, download the fillable PDF, or browse all applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get charter & private school insurance through Cory Washington & Co.?
Request a quote or contact our team. We start with a short conversation about your operations, analyze your exposures, then negotiate charter & private school insurance across multiple carriers that compete for your account and present options with the trade-offs explained. Cory Washington & Co. LLC is licensed in all 50 states.
How much does charter & private school insurance cost?
It depends on your exposure. Charter & private school insurance is priced on factors like your industry, size, prior claims, and the limits and deductibles you select — so two businesses rarely pay the same. We shop your account across competing carriers and present the trade-offs in plain English.
Who needs charter & private school insurance?
It depends on your situation. Some coverage is required by law; more often, charter & private school insurance is required by a contract, lease, lender, or client before they will do business with you — and even when it is not mandated, it guards against exposures that can be severe. We review your operations and obligations and tell you plainly what you need and why.
What if another agency has already declined or non-renewed my coverage?
Difficult, specialty, and previously-declined placements are a core part of our work. We access excess & surplus (E&S) and specialty markets that many generalist agencies cannot, and we explain the trade-offs clearly so you can decide with confidence.
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