Does Our PreK/Mother’s Day Out/Daycare Need An Accident Policy?
If your church has a mid-week childcare program, you first need to determine if the church’s main insurance policy extends coverage for accidental injuries with these programs. Most do not! Some carriers do extend coverage but only if the policy has been specifically endorsed and a premium charged to provide this coverage.
Overall, we generally recommend the church carry a separate Accident Policy for these mid-week childcare policies for the following reasons.
- As noted above, it may simply be a matter of whether coverage is provided or available on the church’s main insurance policy.
- Higher limits of coverage are generally available on an accident policy. Most policies will provide $25,000 of coverage (higher limits up to $100,000 are also available) whereas most church policies only provide $10,000 to $15,000 of coverage, sometimes less.
- Having claims applicable to the separate accident policy will not negatively impact claims against the church’s main policy.
- An injured person is less likely to bring suite against your organization if your accident policy helped them with their medical expenses.
Types of Coverage: Excess or Primary
Excess – This is most affordable pricing option. Any existing insurance carried by the parent or guardian would be primary and the accident policy would pay for coverages not covered by the primary insurance plan.
Primary – The pricing for this program costs significantly more but any accidental injury costs are first dollar paid expenses. Some prefer this option just so the parents are not inconvenienced but you must outweigh that against the differenced in costs.
Deductibles
Policies can be structured with a $0 deductible or often with a nominal deductible like $25. The basis of a small deductible is to offset any “nuisance” claims for minor injuries costing under $25.
Preschool and daycare facilities focus on keeping the children in their care as safe as they can possibly be, however accidents do happen. In the unfortunate event that a child is injured in your program, you will be glad you have an accident policy to help cover those medical expenses. Please let us know if we can help in any way.
