The education industry has a unique set of risks to protect including its staff, students, reputation, financial assets and educational process. Education institutions must also meet various compliance and regulatory changes, all while balancing costs and maintaining student enrollment and appropriate staffing.

When making any decision, especially insurance purchasing decisions, it is helpful to compare options to other similar institutions. Unison Risk Advisors and Assurex Global are excited to share our fourth-annual benchmarking reports for both higher education and independent K-12 institutions. These comparisons can provide a framework of the decisions peer institutions and colleagues are making but should not be the leading factor in driving decisions.

Overview: Independent K-12 Schools

Cyber extortion has dominated the headlines for the past few years. All schools, no matter the size, need to implement certain risk protocols to qualify for coverage. These include, but are not limited to: multi-factor authentication (MFA), endpoint detection and response, employee training, encrypted backups and more.

Cyber insurance protects against a wide array of technology, privacy and data security risks. Cyber liability policies may provide first-party or third-party coverage. Most often, policies provide a combination of the two. According to the data, 84 percent of independent K-12 schools purchase a $1 million cyber liability limit. Only16 percent of schools in the survey acquire a limit of $2 million or higher.

You can request the complete independent K-12 schools report here.

Overview: Higher Education

Educators’ legal liability (ELL) insurance is designed to cover a broad range of non-bodily injury/non-property damage liability claims made against the board members, administrators, employees, and staff members of higher education institutions. Educators’ legal liability insurance is a hybrid of traditional directors and officers (D&O), employment-related practices liability (EPL), and errors and omissions (E&O) coverages.

Thirty-seven percent of the 4-year colleges in our survey purchase less than $5 million of educators’ legal liability coverage. Thirty-six percent purchase $11 million or more, with 20 percent purchasing educators’ legal liability limits of at least $25 million.  Overall, there was a decrease in the level of ELL coverage compared to last year, suggesting there is a shift in insurance purchasing decisions, reflecting changes in risk perceptions or budget considerations.

Cyber insurance plays a key role in protecting educational institutions against the increasing risks associated with information technology and internet-based activities of exposing data from current and past students, applicants and staff. All survey participants purchased some form of cyber liability insurance, highlighting the importance of protecting their systems and data.

You can request the complete higher education report here.

Learn More

Our 2023 Education Benchmark reports include data for many important lines of coverage. To learn more about how this data impacts your institution, reach out to a trusted advisor today.