The school district will ask for two things your malpractice policy does not have.
Business insurance for speech-language pathology practices contracting with school districts and regional centers — abuse and molestation and hired and non-owned auto included.
Tell us the situation.
A licensed human replies the same business day — not an auto-responder, and not five producers calling at once. We shop it across our carriers and tell you if the policy you already have is the right one.
We use this to quote and service your insurance, and we do not sell it or pass it to lead networks. Privacy policy.
What speech-language pathology businesses actually need.
Sexual abuse & molestation
Covers allegations of abuse by staff or volunteers. General liability usually excludes it outright, and any organisation working with children, patients or vulnerable adults will be asked to carry it by name.
Without it — Districts require it by name from vendors with direct or virtual student contact, and general liability excludes it.
Hired & non-owned auto
Covers vehicles the business does not own but its people drive on the job — rentals, and employees running errands in their own cars. Their personal auto policy will not cover a business trip, and the claim lands on the business.
Without it — Therapists driving their own cars between campuses and homes are on business use their personal insurer did not agree to.
Professional liability
Covers the advice, the drawing, the diagnosis — the work itself, rather than someone getting hurt on your premises.
Without it — Assessment and treatment decisions are professional exposures, and the licensing expectation is that you carry it.
General liability
Third-party bodily injury and property damage — the line nearly every contract names by default.
Without it — The limit the district contract names, before you can be approved as a vendor.
Workers compensation
Required in almost every state the moment you have employees. Priced on payroll and class code, which is why the class code is worth arguing about.
Without it — Required once you have an employee, and verified by most districts.
Cyber & tech E&O
Breach response, ransomware and the notification costs that follow. Technology errors and omissions sits on the same policy and covers the software or service itself failing a client, which is the half most tech companies find out about too late.
Without it — Evaluations and treatment notes on children are health records with notification duties attached.
Kevin Kelsey
Founder | Principal Agent
Owned and ran a home health agency before insurance. That is where the allied health exposures were learned first-hand rather than from a rate manual — the vendor packets, the abuse and molestation requirement, staff driving their own cars to clients, and the he-said/she-said nature of a claim arising from one-to-one direct care where nobody else was in the room.
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A speech therapist took on work with Los Angeles Unified and was sent the district’s insurance requirements. Their practitioner policy carried professional liability and nothing else.
We placed sexual abuse and molestation and hired and non-owned auto to the district’s limits. Districts require abuse cover from anyone with direct or virtual contact with students, and hired and non-owned auto because therapists drive their own cars between campuses. Neither comes with an individual malpractice policy.
What speech-language pathology operators ask us.
What does a school district require from a speech therapist?
Beyond professional liability, expect general liability at a specified limit, abuse and molestation with its own limit for anyone in direct or virtual contact with students, workers compensation where you have staff, and auto coverage covering the driving between sites. Districts also commonly require the district to be named as an additional insured and to be given notice before the policy is cancelled or reduced. Send the packet and we will read it against the policy rather than guess at it.
Does teletherapy remove the abuse exposure?
No, and districts have written their requirements to say so — virtual contact with students is treated the same as in-person for the purposes of abuse coverage. A practice that moved online and assumed the requirement went away is a common gap.
Is this different from ASHA’s recommended coverage?
It sits alongside it. A practitioner policy answers the clinical question and is what a licensing body has in mind. A contract with a district or a regional center is asking about the business — its premises, its vehicles, its employees and its abuse exposure. Practices are usually well covered on the first and uncovered on the second.