Schools are responsible for ensuring the safety and well-being of all students and are required to anticipate foreseeable harm. School administrators and educators have a legal obligation, through a ‘Duty, or Standard, of Care,’ to protect students from all reasonable and foreseeable risks of injury or harm while in their care. Failure to perform any duty of care may result in a finding that an administrator, educator, or both are liable for damages.
In other words, while children are in school and during school hours, the school stands in the role of the child's parent and is charged with the responsibility (or, in legalese, the "duty") to "exercise such care of them as a parent of ordinary prudence would.”
According to Collins Bigger and Paisley, student injuries typically fall into one of two categories: 1) situations where the unsafe condition of the school causes injury or 2) where the conduct of another student, teacher, or third party causes harm.
