Protection of Students- When Learning Takes Place Outside of The Classroom

Experienced teachers realize that some students absorb more information, when it gets presented to them outside of the classroom. For that reason, a year’s schedule for any class might include 2 to 3 field trips. Unfortunately, injuries can occur during any such outing.

Who gets held liable for such injuries?

In some states, school have been made immune from liability for any injury sustained during a field trip. In other locations, students have their parents sign a liability release form. That prevents recovery of money for most injuries. Still, it does not prevent recovery of compensation in cases involving gross negligence, with the help of a personal injury lawyer in Oakville.

Factors that determine whether or not a school might be held liable:

• What was the age of the students?
• What was the location of the trip?
• Who caused the injury? Was it a school employee, or someone that was present at the trip’s location?
• Did the student contribute in some way to the injury-causing accident?
• Were the students supervised and directed throughout the trip? Did the supervision remain in place at the time when the student got injured?

Challenges to the assessment of any injury:

In a younger person, the injury’s developmental impact can prove hard to determine, but specific emotional, cognitive or behavioral issues might arise. However, the child’s future needs to remain protected. That future could work to shape the child’s education or career.

Another activity that some parents have come to see as a source of possible harm to students:

That is a service-learning activity. When participating in such an activity, a student might be performing a specific service, for the purpose of learning more about the benefits offered by such a service. How are schools coping with the recognition of parents’ concerns, regarding service-learning activities?

One approach has involved including parents in the planning of such out-of-classroom experiences. Some of the planning can take place in a type of workshop. Any such workshop can get structured to include the participation of one or more parents. How can the parents get recruited? A school has the ability to invite any involved parent to a scheduled workshop. The parent’s presence at such a workshop demonstrates the school’s eagerness to address the problem. The school’s demonstration of that eagerness reduces the chances that the same school might be held liable for harm to a student during a service-learning activity.

Parents should also know that the liability for injuries could extend beyond the school. Schools may get help from a company that coordinates service-learning activities. Such companies send representatives to workshops at various schools. Sometimes, that same representative refuses to attend a workshop, unless there will be at least one parent in the audience.