Violence insurance claims among students down 39%

With the school season in full swing, concerns about classroom violence are at the fore, especially considering this month's shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia.

Amid ongoing discussions about creating safer schools and strong efforts from presidential candidates – such as Vice President Kamala Harris' recent announcement of two new gun safety measures – Gallagher Bassett's latest analysis reveals a positive trend: insurance claims related to student-on-teacher violence are decreasing.

A declining trend in school violence

According to Gallagher Bassett, claims of violence between students and teachers – including incidents where physical harm such as biting, hitting, and other aggressive behavior occurred – decreased by 39% this year compared to the 2022-2023 school year. Additionally, the total cost of these claims has decreased by approximately 50%.

“We did group research using a large portion of our academic claims data,” said Greg McKenna, national exercise leader, public sector at Gallagher Bassett. “By analyzing data from our nearly 2,000 client schools in all urban and rural areas, we examined incidents of violence between students and teachers in the years before and after the pandemic.”

The study shows that although claims increased significantly in the 2017-2018 school year with 1,349 incidents, violence between students and teachers decreased in the years following the epidemic.

The 2023-2024 school year saw 868 assault claims at a total cost of $4.9 million. This is a significant decrease from the 2022-2023 school year, which recorded 1,426 claims worth $9.7 million.

The need for improved labor mobilization policies

While pinpointing the exact cause of the drop in student-teacher violence is challenging, McKenna suggested it could be linked to a new emphasis on mental health and student support services following the resurgence of personalized education after the pandemic.

“I hope that we will see progress in reducing the number of these requests, because let's face it, it's not the kind of requests that people want to see,” he said.

However, when these incidents occur, the trauma often goes beyond physical injury, highlighting the need for insurance companies and state legislatures to consider improving workers' compensation policies to place greater emphasis on PTSD and mental health support for teachers.

“While I would not say that you will see a decrease in all work-related injuries to teachers, we are happy to see this episode of violence between students and teachers decrease,” McKenna said. “It's something we're looking forward to.”