At home learning insurance issues. What are they?
Are you a parent or guardian of a child that is having to do virtual schooling this fall due to the Coronavirus?
Did you know that there are some at home learning scenarios that can cause a major issue when it comes to insurance?
Have you hired someone to come to your home to school your children so you can still go to work?
If you have hired someone to come to your house for at home learning assistance, you need to make sure they have the proper insurance an/or review your insurance.
At the very least, you want to make sure that they have workers compensation insurance. That way, if they get hurt while teaching your child, they will have their own insurance. So they will not have come after yours.
What if you are their only client and they are not in business with their own insurance? You will want to get a workers compensation policy to cover them while they are working in your home.
You can also review your homeowners insurance policy to see if provides coverage for a domestic employee who may get injured on your property.
Here’s another at home learning scenario that could cause insurance issues.
Let’s say you and your neighbors create a learning pod.
But instead of a volunteer parent leading the at home learning sessions, you all pitch in and hire someone to monitor and guide the kids through the virtual learning sessions.
Who is responsible if the person hired gets injured while leading the learning pod? Say they slip and fall on a wet floor and wrench their back.
We have worked with a group of parents who have done this. You want to make sure that the tutor has workers compensation insurance. If the parents are providing the workers compensation insurance, then each parent needs to buy a separate workers comp policy for their portion of the amount paid to the tutor.
This may sound strange, but this is how our companies have said the case has to be written in order to provide the proper workers compensation coverage for the paid tutor.
A way around this is to ask the tutor or teacher to buy their own workers compensation policy. It will add a cost for them, so the group of parents can choose to pitch in and cover that cost for them in the form of an increased teaching fee.
Now what are the insurance issues if you are getting paid to have kids come to your home for at home learning sessions?
If you decide that you will open your home up to to create a learning pod for a fee, you need to call your homeowners insurance agent.
Business activities are typically excluded on the standard homeowners insurance policy. So if you have a standard home insurance policy, and a kid slips and falls while attending class in your home, you will not have coverage.
You can check out our blog on the implication of a home based business on your insurance here:
What are the insurance implications of a home based business?
How can you get the home based business insurance coverage?
You can get the liability coverage for your business in one of the following ways.
- Home based business endorsement – Call your home insurance agent to see if your company offers a home based business endorsement. If so, they can add it for a few dollars per month.
- Separate home based business insurance policy – Typically, for less than $200, you can purchase a separate home based business insurance policy. This is a great way to go because it separates the business insurance from your home insurance. So if you have a claim from your business, it will not affect your home insurance rates or eligibility.
So, if any of the above scenarios applies to you or your family, please reach out to your insurance agent. At home learning is tough enough. So we do not want an unforeseen circumstance to cause even more stress for you or your family.
Huff Insurance ins a full service Trusted Choice Independent Agency. We can handle all of your insurance needs, including the above scenarios.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us at 410-647-1111.