SchoolRisk News |
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Corporate Partners |
Munich RE
Arthur J. Gallagher
SchoolDude
CBIZ
JDI Data Corp.
Markel Underwriting Mgt.
PublicSchoolWORKS
Holborn
Genesis Underwriting Mgt.
Willis
Company Nurse
Target Safety
Norman Peterson & Assoc.
Selective Insurance
MediCor
to learn more about our sponsors and links to their webpage or to find information about the corporate partner program please go to
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Founding
School Risk Groups |
Florida School Boards Insurance Trust Minnesota School Boards Insurance Trust New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal Schools of Ohio Risk Sharing Authority Pennsylvania School Boards Association Insurance Trust
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Founding
School Districts |
City of Atlanta City of Chicago Clark County
City of Cleveland
Dekalb County Fairfax County
Francis Howell Fulton County Miami-Dade Rockdale County San Francisco USD
Wake County
Other districts that are direct or associate members now number more than 350 and the total number represented by school risk groups is nearly 1,000.
To find out how to join, click here!
www.schoolrisk.org/join
School leaders who are members can search the directory and find districts with similar risk management interests
If you are a member of PSRI, remember to use the Institute's
Fast Answer
for access to top risk management professionals. Reports are compiled, distributed and archived to save time and money.
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Risk management is... a vital business process. |
Measuring Performance for Continuous Improvement
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School districts are making efforts to measure risk management performance. The New Jersey School Boards Association Insurance Group created an instrument for its member school districts to use each year to evaluate their risk management progress. The scores from the evaluation effort provide a means for comparison and guides for improvement. This 8-part instrument illustrates one version of a "balance scorecard" for risk management. The NSJBAIG document is now available from the Institute. Bickmore Risk Services based in Sacramento, CA is helping some of its school clients with a performance measurement system that rolls up data electronically on key performance measures. Bickmore's Risk Management Analytics program helps generate meaningful recommendations for continuous improvement. The May 2000 Colorado PRIMA publication, " Benchmarking, Best Practices and Performance Measurements for Public Entity Risk Management" is still an excellent introductory resource for school districts. It is available at no cost from the Institute. The Institute is gathering information related to individual and group projects that help performance and improvement efforts. Please contact the Institute Executive Director to share your experience or to obtain further information. |
Springtime and the Challenges for Risk Managers |
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School business officers are trying to finish budgets for a new year, forecast results for the year ending June 30, and keep an eye on the expanding list of school activities that come with warmer weather.
Many athletes face the dilemma of choosing a single sport for concentration in the spring. The same kind of dilemma usually occurs in professional work and school risk management.
A look at some recent and upcoming seminars topics shows a wide range of items for the risk management agenda.
When asked to name an area of their work in which they have the greatest strength, many risk managers will say it's managing property and liability risks. Others will contend that mastery of workers' compensation has been the key to their success or their strength comes from excellence in employee benefit programs.
School business administrators and risk group leaders are seeking ways to balance their offensive strategies with appropriate defensive measures to control the total cost of risk.
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New Bus Driver Training Course - "Making Kids Safer" |
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Earlier this month, school transportation directors started hearing about a new company dedicated to school bus safety. From its home office near Cleveland, OH, School Bus Safety Company is reaching out nationwide to introduce The Driver Training Course. This is a newly developed product that features " a comprehensive, systematic curriculum based on experience with more than 30,000 bus drivers across North America." The course materials are divided into 15 modules with a DVD for each subject, together with classroom and behind-wheel-trainer's guides and a study guide for the driver's themselves. School Bus Safety Company offers an approach to driver training and accident prevention that starts with the premise that "safety is freedom from risk." With this idea in mind, the creators of the curriculum offer a complete set of instructional and learning tools to dramatically lower the frequency of driver error and raise the level of driver performance. Each program within the course teaches drivers how to avoid unsafe behaviors. They have integrated high quality video and advanced behavior-modification theory that is universally applicable. The Driver Training Course helps school districts follow a successful model that previously only a large organization could afford. You can obtain more information from Mr. Jeff Cassell at 800 728-2827 and at www.schoolbussafetyco.com |
Scorecards and Dashboards |
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Examples of scorecard reports were showcased in a presentation at last summer's conference of the Public Risk Management Association. A white paper on Dashboards and Scorecards produced by Shelter Island Risk Services in New York discusses many of the issues that arise in creating operational scorecards. The Institute Topical Library now makes it easy to find presentations and white papers related to performance assessment. |
CA Business Officers Conference Offers Numerous Risk Management Sessions |
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Business Officers who attend the April 6-9 CA ASBO Conference will have opportunities to learn about a wide variety of risk management strategies and find ways to control costs in workers' compensation and liability. Thirteen sessions are grouped in the category of risk management. A closer look at the entire 3-day program shows that there are many more sessions that also fit within the broad definition of risk management. |
Staff Wellness Program Planning Guide Available
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District wide employee wellness programs exist in about 42% of the school districts across the country, according School Employee Wellness: A Guide for Protecting the Assets of Our Nation's Schools. This 54 page publication funded by the Center for Disease Control describes efforts by numerous school districts and offers how-to information for lowering healthcare and workers' compensation costs.
The guide is now on file in the Institute Topical Reference Library and can also be obtained at the School Employee Wellness website set up by the Directors of Health Promotion and Education.(DHPE) |
Preventing Hazing in Athletics |
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Eight workshops will be offered in late March and early April by the New York Schools Insurance Reciprocal on the subject of hazing in athletics. The featured presenter for these workshops is Don McPherson. Mr. McPherson is a Football College Hall of Famer who led Syracuse to the Sugarbowl in 1987, retired from the pros in 1994 and leads a student mentoring program with an emphasis on civility in sports.
For more information about these workshops, please contact Joe Goncalves, CPCU, Executive Director, NYSIR, 800 476-9747, ext. 1468.
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Look at the Data Differently |
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Looking at performance statistics in an unconventional way may help busy administrators and risk managers. Two companies have been calling attention to a book that offers lessons about information science and risk decision making. Mr. Kevin Hammond of Target Safety, has been promoting the book, Moneyball, which suggests ways that school districts can find solutions to get ahead of risks, even with fewer resources. Mr. Chuck Hall of Siemens Building Technologies used a similar theme in his talk, "Moneyball 101," at a recent School Facility Masters Conference in Little Rock, AR. Finding the information that will change the game is not as easy as it
sounds, however, it can be done. |
Hot Topics Discussed at AGRIP School Pool Breakfast |
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The position of AIG/Lexington Insurance in the school property insurance market was on the minds of many who participated in the facilitated breakfast discussion at the Association of Governmental Risk Pools meeting March 12. There was a lively discussion on several other topics, including the methods being used by pools to quantify the value of risk control services provided to districts.
AGRIP staff worked hard to make the conference program appealing to school pools and the new AGRIP president Cheryle Mangels and board member Donna Abersman both attended the school breakfast, along with representatives from several large school groups. Membership service director, Bill Tackett, served as the breakfast facilitator.
Open exchange at AGRIP meetings, consistent, intentional dialogue and collaboration should help accelerate the risk management efforts of school districts.
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Keeping Up with Federal Regs Related to Risk Management
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Added Tasks Piling Up The latest Federal compliance challenges seem to be stacking higher with very little recognition of their cumulative effect or the disruption
to existing risk management efforts.
Here are just some of the agenda items that are keeping school business officials, administrators, risk managers and school attorneys working longer and harder than ever:
- 403(b) Regulations - Unfinished business
- FACTA - Identity Theft Prevention regulations
- Medicaid Secondary Payer - Claims Data Sharing regulations
- Amendments of the Americans With Disability Act- expanded Section 504 responsibilities
Medicaid Secondary Payer or "MSP" has evolving responsibilities. They arise from Section 111 of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extention Act of 2007 (MMSEA). Essentially, school districts with any form of individual self-insurance plan or third party casualty loss payment program are required to register between May 1 and June 30, 2009 and subject to mandatory reporting starting October 1, 2009 and fines for non-compliance. Reporting may be performed by a claims administrator. School risk groups must also review forthcoming regulations to fully understand their responsibilities. A helpful Q&A document is available through the Institute and readers can tune into to this Federal website: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MSPRGenInfo/
School districts are not the sole target of these new regulations
The Institute is helping locate and interpret information on these issues and others.
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Educational Webinars On the Way
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First Up - "Nurse Triage on Day of Injury" The initial steps have been taken to deliver a national webinar on a service that has been proven to be very cost effective for school districts in some parts of the country. Company Nurse will take the lead in presenting its experience with nurse triage on the first day of employee injury with a school self-insurance fund and large districts. The target date for the webinar is April 24. An ad-hoc task force is being organized to help with the educational objectives and content development.
For more information about this event and other webinars that are under consideration, please contact the Institute Executive Director.
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One Year Milestone for the Institute |
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The Public School Risk Institute was incorporated March 27, 2008 as a Georgia nonprofit association.
The contributions of many people and the continued offers of support have furthered the Institute's mission to promote research,
innovation and the exchange of information concerning the management of
risk in the public school arena. |
Newsletter Development
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Help Us Serve Your Needs We believe our readers want to see us make improvements in the content and format of this newsletter. The Institute has plans to cover more stories and identify individuals and programs that are contributing to the advancement of risk management in public schools.
There are many
examples of school leaders who provide confidence to the district team
and produce lower costs over the long run. The Institute wants to raise awareness of the risk management achievements of school districts.
Our aim is to keep you informed and connected. In future editions, you should notice the influence of Mike Wooten, who adds professional journalism credentials and 10 years experience in school district communications leadership.
Support from members and corporate partners is essential. Please contact the Executive Director to find out how you can take part or try the website and Join Today!
We welcome candidates for our editorial board and invite all our readers to share news and topics of interest.
Thank you for your comments and ideas.
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"The longest way is a shortcut. " |
We hope you find the newly updated website useful. Please visit regularly and let us know how we can support your efforts to advance risk management. Your input and feedback is greatly desired and appreciated.
Sincerely,
Lee Gaby, Executive Director Public School Risk Institute [email protected] NEW Phone (706) 715-3381 |
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