Private School Insurance — Coverage, Cost & Requirements

Insurance for private schools — including charter schools, religious schools, independent academies, and Montessori programs — must address risks that public schools never face, because private schools operate without government immunity protections and are fully exposed to civil liability from students, parents, employees, and board members. The most critical and most misunderstood coverage gap in private school insurance is abuse and molestation: standard general liability policies routinely exclude sexual misconduct claims entirely, or sublimit them to as little as $25,000 — an amount that covers approximately two hours of legal defense in a serious case. Private schools serving children must carry standalone abuse and molestation coverage with meaningful limits ($1M+), written as a separate policy or as a named endorsement that explicitly overrides standard GL exclusions. Beyond abuse coverage, private school liability insurance needs to cover educators' legal liability (ELL) for instruction decisions, discipline actions, special education failures, and academic misrepresentation claims; directors & officers (D&O) liability for board decisions on admissions, tuition, employment, and program changes; employment practices liability (EPLI) for wrongful termination, discrimination, and harassment claims against faculty; workers' comp for all teachers, administrators, aides, coaches, and grounds staff; commercial property for buildings, classroom equipment, athletic facilities, and technology; and cyber liability for student data records protected under FERPA and state privacy laws. Charter school insurance has an additional layer: charter authorizers frequently specify minimum insurance requirements in the charter agreement, and failure to maintain those limits can trigger a charter revocation proceeding. Workers' comp is required in most states for private school employees regardless of school type. Coverage is available through carriers including The Hartford and others in IPA's national carrier network.