Workers’ compensation costs have gone down for St. Charles Parish Schools in recent years, but the nature of the claims may surprise some parishioners.
Cause for the claims range from lifting heavy equipment and touching hot surfaces to sprains, strains and vehicle accidents. But a large number of claims are for employees who are bitten or struck by a child while working.
About 16 percent of claims are from bites and 25 percent are from being struck by a student, collectively accounting for about 41 percent of all claims. Slips, trips and falls account for another large chunk of claims at 24 percent.
The percentages are an average from the last five years.
Workers’ compensation is a form of insurance that provides wage replacement and medical benefits for employees who are injured in the course of employment, in exchange for the employee giving up his or her right to sue their employer for negligence.
Joey Page, risk manager for the district, said that the schools always take every precaution possible when an accident occurs. He said that when the accident involves a child, such as biting and hitting, the district makes sure that the situation is handled properly and that everyone involved learns from it.
In the last five years, about 33 percent of claims have come from teachers, 18 percent from food services staff and 11 percent from special education employees.
The remaining claims were filed by custodians, maintenance workers, bus drivers, administration and other employees.
The number and cost of claims has gone down drastically in the last five years. In 2006-2007, 154 claims were filed and a total of $925,000 was paid. Since then, the numbers have steadily dropped. Last year only 76 claims were filed totaling $129,776 paid.
“It’s just the nature of the job that we have,” Page said. “There are so many different exposures from coaches on the field to people driving heavy equipment to injuries in the classroom.”
In 2008, the district’s risk manager raised some concerns about people who might have been taking advantage of the system by earning overtime while also being paid for workers’ compensation claims. Since then, Page said that the school system has changed its policy so that the school district cannot be taken advantage of as easily. As a result, he said it seems like employees are coming back to work more quickly.
Four years ago, the schools also had a possible problem with the number of workers’ compensation claims jumping just before the summer, meaning that the employee could theoretically claim for work that they might have performed over the break. But since then, the average number of claims each month is fairly even throughout the year.
“We’re doing what we can to protect the district,” said Rochelle Cancienne-Touchard, director of public information for the schools.
Cancienne-Touchard said that the district has never had to hire a private investigator to look into workers’ compensation claims and that the district has not really had any problems with employees trying to take advantage of workers’ compensation.
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