A church in Riverview opens a weekday preschool in its education wing. It starts small, with two classrooms, three teachers and a waiting list of families from the congregation and the neighborhood. Within a few years it has six classrooms, a playground, an aftercare program and a van that picks children up from the elementary school down the road. The church’s insurance has not changed since the first year. When a parent’s complaint about a staff member reaches the church office, the board discovers that nobody is quite sure whether the preschool is covered under the church’s policy, has its own, or falls somewhere in between.
Preschools and daycare programs are among the most valuable ministries a church can offer, and they are also among the most demanding to insure. A child care program is not just another church activity. It is a regulated operation with paid staff, daily care of young children, outside families who are not members, and a set of exposures that most church policies were never designed around. Treating it as its own risk, rather than as part of Sunday morning, is what keeps it properly protected.
Licensing and the Florida Church Exemption
Florida generally requires child care facilities to be licensed through the Department of Children and Families or a local licensing agency. State law provides an exemption for child care facilities that are an integral part of a church or parochial school, provided the school conducts regularly scheduled classes or programs accredited by an organization that publishes and requires compliance with health, safety and sanitation standards. Exempt programs still must meet their local government’s health, sanitation and safety requirements.
The exemption is narrower than many churches assume. It does not exempt the program from Florida’s background screening requirements for child care personnel, and a facility that fails to meet those screening requirements loses its exemption. Exempt programs also must disclose on their website, promotional materials and family-facing forms that they operate under an exemption and are not licensed or regulated by the Department of Children and Families. Some church programs choose to be licensed anyway. Either way, carriers will ask which route the program has taken, how staff are screened and what accrediting body is involved, and the answers affect both eligibility and pricing.
Abuse and Molestation Coverage Is Central
No exposure in a child care program matters more than abuse and molestation. Allegations can arise years after the fact, they can involve staff, volunteers or other children, and they are among the most serious claims any organization can face. Many church policies include abuse and molestation coverage, but often with a separate, lower limit than the general liability policy, and sometimes on a claims-made basis with conditions about screening and supervision.
A church that operates a preschool should know exactly how its abuse coverage applies to the program, what the limit is, whether it covers the preschool’s staff, and what screening, training and supervision practices the policy requires. Policies that tie coverage to documented background checks and two-adult rules are common, and a program that does not follow its own written procedures can find coverage in question. We cover what to look for in detail in abuse and molestation coverage for Florida churches.
Playgrounds, Facilities and Daily Injuries
Young children fall, collide and climb, and most daily injuries in a preschool are minor. The ones that are not tend to involve playground equipment, surfacing and supervision. Carriers will ask about the age and condition of the equipment, the type and depth of surfacing beneath it, fencing, and the ratio of staff to children outdoors. Regular inspections, written logs and prompt repairs both prevent injuries and show an underwriter that the program is managed with care.
Inside, the same attention applies to doors and gates, outlets, cleaning chemicals, food allergies and medication. A child who is released to the wrong adult, wanders out of a building or has an allergic reaction to a snack is a liability claim and potentially a licensing issue at the same time. Written procedures for sign-in and sign-out, allergy plans and medication logs are part of the insurance picture, not just good practice.
Transportation
Many programs eventually start moving children: field trips, pickups from elementary schools for aftercare, or summer camp outings. Transporting young children adds an auto exposure on top of everything else, and it is one carriers look at closely. A van owned by the church needs commercial auto coverage that accounts for that use, approved drivers with checked driving records, and age-appropriate restraints. Field trips in parents’ or staff members’ own cars create a separate exposure that the church’s policy may only address through hired and non-owned auto coverage. Our article on church vans, volunteer drivers and non-owned auto coverage explains how those coverages fit together.
One Entity or Two
Some churches run the preschool as a ministry of the church itself, under the same legal entity and the same insurance program. Others set it up as a separate nonprofit corporation that leases space from the church. Both structures work, but they lead to different insurance arrangements.
When the preschool is part of the church, the church’s policies need to be written with full knowledge of the program, including its enrollment, staff, hours and transportation. When it is a separate entity, it typically needs its own general liability, abuse and molestation, workers’ compensation and professional coverage, with the church named as an additional insured, and a written lease that sets out responsibilities for the space. Many of the coverage disputes we see come from programs that drifted from one structure to the other without anyone updating the insurance.
Staff and Workers’ Compensation
Preschool teachers and aides are employees, and their injuries are real: lifting children, back strains, slips on wet floors and illnesses picked up in the classroom. Florida’s workers’ compensation law generally requires employers outside construction to carry coverage once they have four or more employees, and a growing preschool can cross that line quickly even if the church itself has a small staff. The question of who is an employee and who is a volunteer matters here as well, which we cover in are church volunteers covered by workers’ compensation.
Professional and Educational Liability
Parents can also bring claims that have nothing to do with physical injury, such as allegations of improper discipline, failure to report concerns, failure to follow an individualized plan, or disputes about a child’s care. Some church and child care policies include educators’ or professional liability for these claims, and some do not. It is worth confirming, especially for programs that serve children with special needs.
Worth Confirming With Your Agent
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Whether your preschool operates under the church exemption or a license, and whether the carrier knows which
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How abuse and molestation coverage applies to the program, including its limit and screening conditions
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Whether the preschool is insured under the church’s policy or needs its own, based on how it is structured
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How children are transported and whether the auto coverage reflects it
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Whether workers’ compensation is in place for preschool staff
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Whether professional or educators’ liability is included
This article is general information and is not legal advice.
Talk to Prestige Insurance Group
Prestige Insurance Group works with Florida churches that operate preschools, daycare and aftercare programs, and we help them build coverage that fits how the program actually runs. If your program has grown since the policy was written, or you are not sure whether it is covered under the church or on its own, we can review it with you.
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Orlando: 407-993-2331
Miami: 305-969-8776
Stuart: 772-247-3788
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