State School Children no cover for serious injury
Friday, 13 August 2010 14:34
It continues to be a concern to me as LNP Shadow Minister for Education and Training that children in State schools do not have any form of insurance cover in the event of serious injury such as spinal injury or brain injury.
These sort of catastrophic injuries do occur occasionally in contact sports, rope and rock climbing activities as well as falls and the like.
Private schools by and large ensure children are insured for catastrophic injury as do private sports clubs. Cover for catastrophic injury is available at very modest cost. Many parents of State school students would not even be aware that their children are going on to the football field or the school camp with nothing in the event that they were seriously injured and this would not be accepted in almost any other childhood program.I have called on the government to ensure that each child particularly those engaging in contact sports and school camps is at the very least offered an insurance policy. The government’s ability to negotiate a corporate rate would ensure that parents had easy access to cheap insurance that would cover them in the event of catastrophic injury.
These types of injuries would typically be associated by lengthy hospitalisation, expensive rehabilitation, home modifications, special needs and care, as well as possibly lifelong loss of income. It is just not acceptable that the only avenue of support available is to sue the Department of Education and be dragged through the courts for years trying to prove negligence. A simple and cheap insurance policy would ensure there was something there to help families in this setting.
Click here to read the speech I delivered in Parliament and I do encourage you to read it because I do think it is an important issue.