Accidents at school, question

scully74

Are school place accidents (if an injury is involved) supposed to be recorded/ reported to the department of education?

lily09

Don't know if this is the same with all schools, but we record everything in an incident notebook which is kept in the school. As far as I know there is no requirement to report to the dept.Usually the Board of Management would be the next stop.

ShamoBuc

lily09 wrote: »

Don't know if this is the same with all schools, but we record everything in an incident notebook which is kept in the school. As far as I know there is no requirement to report to the dept.Usually the Board of Management would be the next stop.

Sounds about right.

Doom

Can a parent request a copy of an incident?

aisher

Normally the incident details will be recorded inhouse but if serious enough the school contacts the Insurance company and fills in an accident report form just in case the school is sued down the line. If you have the Pupil Accident Insurance yourself you should be able to claim any expenses incurred as you dont have to prove the school was responsible - however if you are thinking of taking a claim against the school that they were negligent you would need to take legal advice. As to requesting to see a copy of the report - I think you would be entitled to come to the school and request information as to what happended but not sure the school would give you a written account of the incident.

DGOBS

Surely under 'freedom of information', if the school is holding a record of anything on your child your have rights to receive a copy.

byhookorbycrook

We record more serious incidents, not the "Johnny fell asnd scraped his knee" ones or we'd fill a library!The incident report would be bare bones: x fell and hurt his arm, Y teacher was on yard duty ands sent him in to the office to get looked at and for parent/s to be contacted."There might then be a bit added:Z teacher/School secretary rang home, parent brought child home/dr or whatever.

Doom

What about an injury that a child required medical attention.....cuts....stitches etc?

byhookorbycrook

No onus on a school to record an incident so will depend on the school.

muckisluck

Freedom of Information Act does not currently apply to schools but perhaps depending on how such records are stored the Data Protection Act could be invoked. It isn't always applicable though.

Equality

The Education Act 1998 gives parent/child when over 18 the right to access all of the child's school records.

Simply write /e-mail the school requesting all records in relation to accident on x date.