PTA Insurance For Special Events?

If you are in charge of organizing your PTA’s special events, then you are probably going to have to learn how to keep a lot of different irons in the fire at once. After all, putting together such events takes time, money and a level head. 

Still, hosting any type of special event for your school means doing everything you can to ensure the event goes off without a hitch. You will have to bring in a lot of special materials, keep the proceedings moving and do everything you can to keep everyone safe. Clearly, it is going to be a big undertaking. 

Yet, even with all the preparations, you cannot prevent every accident. To be prepared for any eventuality, you must have a quality insurance benefits in the background, ready to help you out if a problem ever arises unexpectedly. Make sure your benefits are optimized for your company’s optimized needs.

Determine How To Structure Your Benefits to Your Advantage 

In schools across the country, PTAs are among the primary advocates for both students and teachers. They play vital roles in supporting the school as it works to engage with its community, raise money and provide a quality educational experience for all students. By hosting special events throughout the school year, many PTAs create fundraising and engagement benefits for schools and students. 

Many people mistakenly think that schools themselves are obligated to provide a PTA with the necessary asset and liability insurance benefits. While in some cases, schools do insure their PTAs and organizers under their own property and liability coverage,  

Many people think of PTAs as organizations within schools. Therefore, they assume that the school should provide any necessary asset and liability insurance for the group and its organizers. However, this might not always be the case.  

PTAs usually function as separate organizations, even though they are closely connected with the school itself. Therefore, you can think of the PTA as something of a hybrid organization. Yes, the PTA represents the students’ best interests. However, it might not necessarily represent the views of the school or district. Most don’t even receive any funding from the school, and most organizers are not school district employees. Therefore, while reflective of the school and its values, PTAs are not official representatives of the school. 

Therefore, the PTA will likely operate completely independently of a school in a business sense. As a result, the school’s insurance might not apply to it. PTA organizers therefore are usually responsible for enrolling in and paying for their own insurance benefits. In many cases, the PTA will be required by the school to obtain insurance before they receive permission to operate. 

Plus, even if the school offers coverage, it is never a bad idea to invest in organization-specific coverage anyway. If you carry a targeted policy specifically for your PTA, then you’ll have more of a guarantee that accidents occurring at special events will have appropriate coverage. 

What Protection Do I Need? 

PTA insurance usually provides specific benefits. These will often apply to the organization’s leaders, volunteers, its property and risks present during special events. The coverage that you are most likely to need includes: 

• General Liability Insurance covers the damage other people (such as students or parents) might sustain during PTA events. Usually they apply to injuries. In some cases, they can apply to property damage as well. Because the accidents occurred at the PTA event, then the PTA might have a responsibility to pay for the losses. Coverage can also apply in the event the affected party sues the PTA. 
• Property Insurance covers the hard assets that belong to the PTA itself. For example, materials you plan to sell during the event might have coverage. Office supplies the PTA uses might also be covered.  

• Directors & Officers Liability Insurance can apply to the PTA’s president and other leaders in case they become the personal targets of a lawsuit. It will help them in the event their decisions face legal scrutiny. Many policies also offer crime insurance that can apply in case a director or leader faces an accusation of theft or embezzlement. 
• Medical Payments Coverage applies in the event someone gets hurt at the event, regardless of whether the PTA was at fault for the accident. It can compensate them for their losses above the limits of their own health insurance. It therefore might greatly reduce the risks of liability lawsuits. 

Additionally, when you plan a special event you must account for the risks faced and posed by volunteers. They pose specific liabilities to your event’s operations because of they are not full representatives of the PTA, despite being responsible for the conduct of the event. Verify first that volunteers have protection in case they make decisions in the name of the organization.