What to do if an Injury Occurs at School

Posted Friday, July 19, 2019 by Chris Thayer

No one wants to think about the summertime being over, but it is nearly time for children to go back to school. Every child in the state of Washington is required to attend school; this requirement comes from both federal and state law. When you send your child to school, you expect that the school is looking out for the welfare and overall well-being of your child. This includes making sure that a child is safe, supervised appropriately, and otherwise being safeguarded from harm.

Children are not immune to injuries or accidents – especially if they are at school around their friends and play equipment. Accidents and injuries happen, but when an injury to a child occurs at school, parents should seek the advice of a personal injury attorney to determine what steps they should take to address the situation. If the school or staff was negligent in their duties to your child while at school, there may be potential to recover damages for injuries sustained.

A school’s duty to keep your child safe is not limited to school hours. If a child is part of extracurricular activities sponsored by the school, the school’s responsibility for safety also extends to these situations. However, there are certain instances when the school might not be responsible for a child’s injuries. An example of this is a parent signing a waiver of liability for the child to participate in a sport. If any waivers have been signed, it is important to keep a record because they could be important in a personal injury suit. The signing of a waiver does not necessarily preclude any recovery of damages for injuries, so it is important to bring it to your attorney’s attention as soon as possible.

Schools are required to abide by a variety of rules and regulations to keep your child and others safe:

• Safety planning: Schools are required to plan for safety or emergency situations. Emergency response systems, school mapping, emergency planning, and emergency preparedness are just a few ways in which schools must abide by the law to keep kids safe.
• Bullying: Schools are also subject to laws regarding bullying and keeping their school free of individuals who harass, intimidate, or injure other students.

Three are a variety of ways that schools demonstrate their compliance with federal and state laws to keep students safe. School districts are different in their approach to complying with various laws. The personal injury attorneys at Pivotal Law Group are here to help dissect these laws and the ways in which a school complies with them. If a school is not acting in accordance with the law or otherwise acting in a manner that causes your child injury, we are here to help determine what avenues of legal recovery there might be. We know it can be stressful and painful to see your child injured and suffering. Let up take some of that burden off of you by helping you obtain damages for injuries sustained. Contact us today for a consultation.

(image courtesy of Celia Ortega)