General liability and campus premises
Review visitor injuries, parent events, field trips, classroom incidents, playground exposure, gym or athletic areas, vendors, volunteers, certificates, and additional insured wording.
Florida school renewal checklist
Florida Private School Insurance Checklist Before Renewal
Before renewal, a Florida private school should review the whole account: student injuries, general liability, student accident, abuse/molestation wording, cyber, property, workers comp, vehicles, athletics, board liability, employment practices, and the documents carriers need before they will quote cleanly.
Florida private school insurance checklist at a glance
- Do not treat student accident, general liability, educators liability, D&O, EPLI, cyber, and abuse/molestation wording as one interchangeable coverage bucket.
- Florida DOE private-school requirements create useful quote context, but DOE also says it does not regulate, control, approve, or accredit private schools like public schools.
- Abuse/molestation coverage needs its own review for limits, sublimits, exclusions, reporting terms, prior acts, and safeguarding procedures.
- FERPA may not apply to many K-12 private/parochial schools, but cyber and student-data risk still belong in the insurance conversation.
- The fastest quote files include enrollment, payroll, campus details, vehicle schedules, athletics, safety procedures, policies, loss runs, and renewal deadlines.
Core renewal review
What insurance should a Florida private school review before renewal?
Start with the coverage lines that usually create the biggest misunderstandings: student injury, campus liability, abuse/molestation wording, cyber, employment practices, vehicles, property, and board liability. A broad school policy can still have narrow exclusions hiding in the places that matter.
Student accident coverage
Confirm whether the school has student accident coverage for medical expenses after injuries at school activities, athletics, clubs, recess, field trips, and supervised events.
Abuse and molestation wording
Do a separate SAM review for limits, sublimits, exclusions, reporting conditions, defense language, retro dates if applicable, and safeguarding controls carriers may ask about.
Property, wind, flood, and business income
Check building values, contents, technology, signs, fences, playground equipment, roof records, wind deductibles, flood exposure, ordinance or law, and downtime after a covered loss.
Workers comp, volunteers, and staff
Review employee count, payroll, teacher and staff roles, coaches, maintenance workers, volunteers, contractors, and whether the file meets Florida workers comp requirements.
Vehicles, field trips, and hired/non-owned auto
List owned buses or vans, employee driving, rentals, borrowed vehicles, field trip transportation, driver screening, MVR review, and hired/non-owned auto exposure.
Cyber and student data
Review tuition payment portals, learning platforms, parent communications, employee data, MFA, backups, vendor contracts, breach response, ransomware, and privacy liability.
Educators, board, and employment liability
Separate educators legal liability, D&O, EPLI, fiduciary, professional liability, claims-made continuity, prior acts, retro dates, and prior-knowledge questions.
State-source context
Florida private school requirements that affect insurance conversations
These requirements are not a substitute for legal advice, and they do not create insurance coverage by themselves. They do, however, tell an underwriter what kind of school file they are looking at: records, inspections, health and safety process, food service, transportation, and operational controls.
Important: this page does not claim Florida requires every private school to buy abuse/molestation insurance. That should be verified against the specific contract, carrier, scholarship-program, accreditation, lender, or board context.
Registration, survey, records, and owner fingerprints
Florida DOE says private schools must register with the Department of Education, complete the annual survey, keep attendance records for compulsory attendance purposes, submit owner fingerprints to FDLE, and transfer permanent records if a school becomes defunct.
DOE oversight is not the same as public-school regulation
The Florida DOE states it does not have jurisdiction over private schools and does not regulate, control, approve, or accredit private educational institutions. That distinction matters when a policy, lease, parent, or board member assumes a public-school style regulatory framework.
Health, safety, food, water, fire, and radon records
The detailed Florida DOE and DOH materials point to school-entry health exams, immunization documentation, sanitation and safety standards, water-system review, food-service inspection where applicable, radon measurement for K-12 buildings, and fire inspection context.
Workers comp depends on employee count and operations
Florida CFO guidance says non-construction employers generally need workers compensation coverage with four or more employees, including business owners who are corporate officers or LLC members. Construction thresholds are different, so unusual maintenance, project, or contracting operations should be reviewed separately.
Student injury, student accident, and school liability are not the same thing
This is where many renewal conversations get sloppy. Student accident coverage and general liability may both involve an injury, but they answer different insurance questions.
When student accident coverage helps
Student accident coverage can help with covered medical expenses after a student injury at a school activity, athletic event, field trip, recess, or supervised program. It can reduce friction with parents after an accident even when the school is not clearly negligent.
When general liability depends on negligence
General liability is a legal liability coverage lane. It may respond when the school is alleged to be responsible for bodily injury or property damage, subject to the policy's terms, exclusions, limits, and defense provisions.
Separate wording review
Abuse and molestation coverage for Florida private schools needs a separate review
The phrase "abuse coverage" is not enough. A school renewal should look at how the policy handles allegations, defense, reporting, prior acts, volunteers, student-on-student allegations, sublimits, and excluded conduct.
Send the school file for reviewWhat SAM limit applies per claim and aggregate?
Is there a separate sublimit or defense-inside-limits issue?
Does wording include exclusions tied to prior knowledge or reporting timing?
Are volunteers, coaches, contractors, and student-on-student allegations addressed?
Does the carrier ask for written safeguarding, supervision, and background-screening procedures?
Is the school relying on a general liability form that excludes or sharply limits SAM claims?
Cyber and leadership liability
FERPA applicability is not the whole cyber question
U.S. DOE guidance says K-12 private and parochial schools generally are not subject to FERPA when they do not receive U.S. Department of Education funding. That narrow legal point does not make tuition portals, payroll systems, student records, learning apps, email accounts, or vendor platforms harmless.
Cyber underwriters may still ask about MFA, backups, endpoint security, vendor access, incident response, payment controls, and staff training. Board and administrator coverage can raise a different set of D&O, EPLI, fiduciary, educators liability, claims-made, retro-date, and prior-knowledge questions.
Management liability items to pull out of the school package
D&O for school board and leadership decisions
EPLI for employment practices allegations
Fiduciary questions for benefit-plan duties
Educators legal liability and professional services wording
Claims-made continuity, retro dates, and prior acts
Cyber overlap with privacy, funds transfer, and ransomware
Quote packet
Documents to send Greene for a private school insurance review
Underwriting gets cleaner when the school sends one organized packet instead of answering every carrier request from scratch. These are the practical file sections we would rather see before renewal pressure starts.
School profile
- Legal entity name, DBA, FEIN, address, website, school type, religious affiliation if applicable, and years in operation
- Enrollment by grade, staff count, payroll, volunteers, contractors, and seasonal or summer programs
- Campus buildings, square footage, year built, construction type, roof age, security, alarms, sprinklers, and playground details
Programs and student activities
- Athletics, clubs, field trips, after-school care, summer camp, tutoring, special events, fundraising, and rentals of school facilities
- Student accident policy if any, athletic participation forms, parent waivers, handbook language, and incident reporting process
- Owned buses or vans, driver roster, vehicle schedule, MVR process, rentals, borrowed vehicles, and employee personal vehicle use
Safeguarding and compliance records
- Background screening process, volunteer controls, staff training, supervision rules, visitor procedures, and abuse reporting procedures
- Annual survey confirmation, attendance record process, owner fingerprinting context, health/immunization record handling, and inspection documents
- Food service, water, fire, radon, sanitation, and local approval documents when those apply to the campus
Insurance and loss history
- Current policies, declarations, endorsements, exclusions, SAM wording, cyber wording, D&O/EPLI wording, and umbrella limits
- Five years of loss runs when available, open claims, incident explanations, repair documentation, and changes made after losses
- Contracts, lender or landlord requirements, certificate wording, additional insured requests, and renewal deadline
Underwriting friction
What makes a private school harder to quote?
Weak answers do not just slow the quote. They make the account look less controlled than it may actually be. Clean documentation gives the agent and underwriter a better file to defend.
No clear student count, staff count, payroll, grade range, or program schedule
Unclear abuse/molestation limits, sublimits, exclusions, or prior-acts wording
Athletics, camps, field trips, transportation, or overnight activities not described before quoting
Old roof, weak property values, missing inspection records, or unclear wind/flood deductibles
No loss runs, unresolved claim history, or incidents explained only after markets ask
Employee, volunteer, and contractor roles blurred together in one vague answer
Cyber controls unknown even though the school uses online portals, learning platforms, or tuition payment systems
Board, D&O, EPLI, educators liability, and fiduciary questions lumped into general liability
Official sources
Source links behind this checklist
We used official state and federal sources for regulatory context, then kept the insurance guidance practical and non-guaranteed.
Florida DOE private school general requirements
Florida DOE explains that private schools register annually, submit the annual survey, keep attendance records, submit owner fingerprints, and meet health and safety requirements.
Florida DOE detailed private school requirements
Detailed state checklist covering health exams, immunizations, sanitation and safety standards, water, food service, radon, fire inspections, and records.
Florida Department of Health school facility guidance
Florida DOH guidance on county health department contact, fire approval, local building approvals, food service approval, and inspection topics.
Florida CFO workers compensation coverage requirements
Florida CFO guidance on workers compensation thresholds, including the general non-construction rule for employers with four or more employees.
U.S. DOE FERPA applicability FAQ
U.S. DOE student privacy guidance noting FERPA applies to institutions receiving U.S. Department of Education funds and that K-12 private/parochial schools generally are not subject to FERPA.
U.S. DOE data security guidance for education
U.S. DOE guidance explaining that student-data breaches are common and can create identity theft, fraud, and extortion risk.
Related Private School Insurance Resources
Private School Insurance
Greene's main Florida private school insurance page for the whole account: campus, students, staff, property, vehicles, cyber, and leadership exposures.
Private School Quote Route
Start the private school quote path when you have enrollment, staff, campus, vehicle, coverage, and renewal details ready.
Management Liability
Use this when board, D&O, EPLI, fiduciary, educators liability, claims-made, or prior-acts wording is driving the school conversation.
Cyber Liability
Review breach response, ransomware, student and employee data, vendor platforms, notification costs, and privacy liability.
General Liability
See the baseline CGL coverage lane for third-party injury, property damage, certificates, and additional insured requirements.
Workers Compensation
Review Florida workers comp thresholds, payroll, employee roles, exemptions, and contract requirements before renewal.
Florida private school insurance FAQs
Quick answers for administrators, board members, church-school leaders, and campus operators trying to get renewal-ready.
A Florida private school should review general liability, student accident, abuse and molestation wording, commercial property, wind and flood exposure, business income, workers compensation, commercial auto, hired and non-owned auto, cyber liability, educators legal liability, D&O, EPLI, fiduciary, and umbrella coverage before renewal.
No. Student accident coverage can help pay covered medical expenses after a student injury, often without needing to prove negligence. General liability is different and responds to covered third-party claims when the school is alleged to be legally responsible. A school may need both.
Do not assume a statewide insurance requirement without confirming the specific program, contract, carrier, lender, scholarship, or accrediting context. For insurance planning, abuse and molestation wording still needs a separate review because limits, sublimits, exclusions, reporting terms, and safeguarding controls can vary widely.
U.S. DOE guidance says FERPA applies to educational agencies or institutions that receive funds from U.S. Department of Education programs, and that K-12 private and parochial schools generally do not receive that funding and are generally not subject to FERPA. That does not remove cyber or student-data risk.
Useful documents include current policies, loss runs, enrollment by grade, payroll, staff and volunteer details, campus schedule, building and roof records, vehicle and driver schedules, athletics and field trip details, safeguarding procedures, inspection records, contracts, certificate requirements, and renewal deadlines.
Yes. Church schools and religious academies can use the same starting checklist, but church ownership, shared facilities, ministries, volunteers, daycare or preschool operations, vehicle use, contracts, and abuse/molestation wording may change the insurance review.
Renewal getting close? Send the school file before the carrier asks twice.
Greene & Associates can help organize the account around students, staff, campus property, vehicles, safeguarding, cyber, board liability, and the documents carriers actually need to quote.