Comprehensive coverage for your towns, schools, and water districts

Depending on your specific school district's needs, you will need a number of coverages to build a strong policy to protect your schools.

Some of these coverages may include: 

• Workers' compensation
• General liability
• Property
• Commercial auto
• Inland marine
• Umbrella
• EPLI
• Student accident
• Educators legal liability/school board
• Cyber liability

To find out what coverages are right for you, you'll need to talk to an agent who can gather details about your town, and suggest the most helpful coverages.

After the initial request for insurance coverage, most agencies will provide numerous forms and paperwork for the school or school district to fill out regarding their budget, assets, population served, and many other important factors. When working with Berry Insurance, we would handle this paperwork for you, as well as setting up an in-person meeting to check out the space and get a better gauge of the school’s expectations from their insurance policy. 

When collecting information for a carrier’s underwriters, we would likely need to record the following information for a school or school district. 

• Budgets
• Claim history/loss runs
• Statement of value - list of all buildings    and locations
• Construction Occupancy Protection Exposure (COPE) - determined risk of the property through square footage, year built, type of construction, safety features (sprinklers, alarms, etc.) and when any updates of major systems took place
• Updated schedules for any vehicles or equipment
• Contents limit
• List of drivers - License numbers, dates of birth, claim history
• Accurate information for all vehicles used by the school 

After gathering all the required information, we would send it to the insurance carrier’s underwriters to review. Once the underwriters have everything in hand, hearing back from them can take anywhere from 2-3 weeks, usually depending on whether they require more information than what we already provided.

Once we get the quote back from the insurance carrier, we would review it before presenting it to the insured, where they can then decide to accept the policy or take some time to compare to other quotes they may have. 

The complete process can take around a month or a month and a half, depending on the time of year and if the underwriters are experiencing any delays at the time the quote request is submitted. Delays tend to be more common the closer we get to the school’s insurance policy expiration time period around June/July, making it better for any renewals or new insurance inquiries to be sent out earlier in the year. 

Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer here, as multiple factors unique to every school and school district will go into determining the overall cost of the policy. 

Price depends largely on the number of students, teachers, past claims history, budget, the value of the building, as well as numerous other contributing factors. 

While the cost for most schools and school districts will have an insurance policy costing them $100,000 - $150,000 a year, that cost can still vary greatly. For example, some schools with much older buildings or in not as densely populated towns will be much cheaper to insure when compared to newer or larger schools in busier towns or cities. 

Of course there are always exceptions, and we would have to work directly with any school or school district to discuss their unique exposures and history to better determine a price range for their policy. 

Like any type of insurance, if you experience a claim situation, you'll need to collect details, decide if you want to file a claim, and reach out to your agent. They can help you reach out to your insurance company and navigate the claims process until settlement.

For more details on how to best manage the claims process, read this article: Guide for Navigating the Insurance Claims Process for Public Entities

In the months prior to renewal, your insurance agent will reach out to you to begin talking about budget projections. They will then gather all the information they need for the underwriting process. After your agent submits that information to the insurance carrier, the carrier will return quotes to your agent for you to review and accept.

Depending on your water/sewer district's needs, you will need a number of coverages to build a strong policy to protect your assets.

Some of these coverages may include: 

• Workers' compensation
• General liability
• Property
• Commercial auto
• Inland marine
• Umbrella
• Public officials
• EPLI
• Pollution liability
• Cyber liability

To find out what coverages are right for you, you'll need to talk to an agent who can gather details about your town, and suggest the most helpful coverages.

After the initial request for insurance coverage, most agencies will provide numerous forms and paperwork for the water and sewer district to fill out regarding their budget, assets, population served, and many other important factors. When working with Berry Insurance, we would handle this paperwork for you, as well as setting up an in-person meeting to check out the space and get a better gauge of the insured’s expectations from their insurance policy. 

When collecting information for a carrier’s underwriters, we would likely need to record the following information for a water or sewer district. 

• Budgets
• Claim history/loss runs
• Statement of value - list of all buildings and locations
• Construction Occupancy Protection -Exposure (COPE) - determined risk of the property through square footage, year built, type of construction, safety features (sprinklers, alarms, etc.) and when any updates of major systems took place
• Updated schedules for any vehicles or equipment
• Contents limit
• List of drivers - License numbers, dates of birth, claim history
• Accurate information for all vehicles used by the insured
• Dam inspection reports (when applicable)
• After gathering all the required information, we would send it to the insurance carrier’s underwriters to review. Once the underwriters have everything in hand, hearing back from them can take anywhere from 2-3 weeks, usually depending on whether they require more information than what we already provided.

Once we get the quote back from the insurance carrier, we would review it before presenting it to the insured, where they can then decide to accept the policy or take some time to compare to other quotes they may have. 

The complete process can take around a month or a month and a half, depending on the time of year and if the underwriters are experiencing any delays at the time the quote request is submitted. Delays tend to be more common the closer we get to the water and sewer district’s insurance policy expiration time period around June/July, making it better for any renewals or new insurance inquiries to be sent out earlier in the year. 

Unfortunately, there is no definitive answer here, as multiple factors unique to each water and sewer district will play a role in determining the overall cost of a given policy. 

Price depends largely on the population size being served, the insured’s current budget, the infrastructure, whether or not the district has employees or subcontractors, as well as numerous other contributing factors. 

Some smaller water and sewer districts can have policies that cost a couple of thousand dollars, while larger districts can have policies starting at $100,000 and more. 

Of course there are always exceptions, and we would have to work directly with any water and sewer district to discuss their unique exposures and history to better determine their personalized price range of their policy. 

Like any type of insurance, if you experience a claim situation, you'll need to collect details, decide if you want to file a claim, and reach out to your agent. They can help you reach out to your insurance company and navigate the claims process until settlement.

For more details on how to best manage the claims process, read this article: Guide for Navigating the Insurance Claims Process for Public Entities

In the months prior to renewal, your insurance agent will reach out to you to begin talking about budget projections. They will then gather all the information they need for the underwriting process. After your agent submits that information to the insurance carrier, the carrier will return quotes to your agent for you to review and accept.