Private Schools Band Together to Save on Workers’ Comp Costs

Facing ever-increasing workers’ compensation costs, a group of Northern California private schools submitted an application to the state to form a self-insurance group and is inviting private and parochial schools throughout the state to join them. Utilizing a little-known law, the group is launching the self-insurance group for workers’ compensation with a goal to control losses and reduce costs. The California Private Schools Worker’s Compensation Self-Insurance Group, or CAPS-SIG as it will be known, will provide the umbrella organization under which the schools will operate.

A law passed in 1993 allows two or more employers with the same industry code to form a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation for the purposes of self- insuring for workers’ compensation. Achievekids, Bellarmine College Preparatory, the Kings Academy, Moreau Catholic, the Pacific Autism Center for Education (PACE) and Valley Christian Schools comprise the formation committee. All are based in the Bay Area, but the self-insurance group is open to private schools throughout the state.

“Rising workers’ compensation costs are seriously impacting the budgets of private and parochial schools,” said Dave Tollner of the Pacific Autism Center for Education of Sunnyvale. “The formation of a self-insurance group only makes sense not only to control costs, but also to take even greater advantage of the recent state worker’s compensation reforms.”

The schools should see a reduction of 20 percent to 30 percent on their worker’s comp insurance costs, which could make the difference in staying afloat in these tough economic times.

The group has appointed Bickmore Risk Services as administrator of the self-insurance group and Driver-Alliant as broker.