Education Law

Would you pay $700,000 to chaperone your child?s field trip?

Parent chaperones generally have enough to worry about on a field trip, from maintaining basic order to keeping kids safe. A recent trend of court decisions may add personal liability to the list of chaperones? concerns?and may come at such an outrageous price tag as to deter many parents from volunteering. The Associated Press reported a recent court decision ordering a parent chaperone to pay $690,000 to the parents of an 18-year-old high school student, Lauren Crossan, who died from falling off a balcony on a cheerleading trip to Hawaii.

In another case, a parent chaperoning a dance was sued when a student broke his nose while dancing. Luckily, the PTA had liability insurance. Such liability insurance is increasingly common, since, like most things schools do, chaperoning comes with some amount of risk. But there also seems to be an undertone of a litigious American society.

James Krueger, who represented the student?s family and has handled many other cases of children injured while under someone else?s supervision, stated: ?If you?re a good parent, you?re not going to have problems. If you?re a crappy parent, you are.? But sometimes even being the best parent is not enough to stop a child from making a poor decision or prevent every possible injury a child may receive. Most parents have probably been in the emergency room with a child with a broken bone at least once?that doesn?t make them bad parents.

NSBA's own Lisa Soronen weighed in as well.

Sometimes it takes an event like the Crossan lawsuit draw attention to a potential risk, said Lisa Soronen, a senior staff attorney with National School Board Association in Alexandria, Va.

"Many parents do chaperone and don't think a think about it for a second," she said. "Almost everything a school does involves some amount of risk."

The key is to work with the school or sponsoring organization to reduce the risks, Soronen said. Students and chaperones should be made aware of the expectations while on a trip, she said.

How does your school district handle chaperones? Leave us a comment and tell us what you think.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on June 19, 2008 (boomark / email).