Loss Control Services
As consultants to our member school districts, loss control staff focuses their efforts towards building a risk management environment at each one of our member’s facilities. Loss control staff assists member school districts by providing an "outside" evaluation of the district’s programs, activities and facilities for loss control purposes, and by making recommendations for improvement. Loss control services include:
District loss control on-site consultations
The Loss Control Department provides at least one loss control consultation visit each year to each member district; more frequent visits are provided to those districts with the most need. During these visits, loss control staff members provide claims and incident summaries of district losses, as well as general and district-specific loss control recommendations to help the district improve its loss history. Assistance with the development and implementation, as well as assessments of required federal and state mandated safety programs is provided. Loss Control staff conduct surveys of district work areas to identify hazardous conditions and work practices and assist districts attain compliance with applicable safety standards. Risk Assessment Surveys are conducted that center attention on school liability issues.
Telephone consultations
Loss control staff members are available to answer questions related to safety, liability, insurance and risk management for member districts. These questions relate to a variety of topics including: climbing walls, pedestrian concerns, pesticides, playgrounds, construction safety issues, transportation issues, athletics and extracurricular activities.
Incident and claim loss control follow-up
To assist districts, loss control staff reviews all employee and student incident reports, and assists the district with appropriate corrective actions as necessary. Loss control staff periodically accompanies claims staff on claim investigations, to assist the district with prevention of similar incidents.
Loss control newsletters
The Loss Control department publishes a newsletter, Risk Management Matters, which it provides to each school. Risk Management Matters has covered topics in many areas including: staff and student injuries, athletics, emergency preparedness, environmental hazards, facilities, security, ergonomics, field trip loss control, playground safety, school legal issues and transportation. In additional to the newsletter, school staff are provided with informational memos that keep them informed of best practices in risk management. Our monthly “Safety Talks” provide safety and health information to specific groups of school staff such as teachers, bus drivers, custodians, maintenance staff and food service employees.
Loss control seminars and training
The Loss Control department provides risk management seminars and employee safety training on a variety of topics for our member districts. These have included:
- Risk Management for School Business Managers
- Incident Command System Training
- Athletic Liability Seminar
- School Playground Supervision Seminar
- Preventing Injuries in High School Football
- School Safety Patrol
- Boundary Invasion Protocols
- Safe School Laboratories
- Training for administrators in accident investigation
- Emergency preparedness
- On-site and on-line employee safety training in various topics (Fall Protection; Hazard Communication; Slip, Trip and Fall Prevention; Back Safety and Safe Lifting; and Personal Protective Equipment among others)
Loss control outreach to the educational community
Loss control staff members frequently speak at various programs to help integrate a risk management mentality into the larger school community. These have included risk management and safety presentations for WASBO (Washington Association of School Business Officials), WAPT (Washington Association of Pupil Transportation), WAMOA (Washington Association of Maintenance and Operations Administrators), DOH (Washington State Department of Health) and OSPI (Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction) training programs. In addition, loss control staff works with OSPI and DOH on consensus school safety guidelines.