OUCH! The Most Common School-Employee Accidents — and How You Can Prevent Them

You obviously want to keep your employees safe and injury-free because you care about their health and well-being. That said, minimizing employees’ injury risk also reduces costs associated with workers’ compensation claims, health insurance, substitute teachers and temporary staff members. Of further benefit, keeping employees safe and working results in better, more consistent academic instruction and facility maintenance.

What Staff Injuries Most Frequently Require Emergency-Department Care

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) analyzed National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS-Work) data and learned that 46.7 million employees worked in U.S. primary and secondary schools between 2015 and 2020.

NIOSH also discovered that, during that time, school staffers’ most common injuries requiring emergency-department care were:

• Head and face injuries (69,000);
• Arm, wrist and hand injuries (59,800); and
• Leg, ankle and foot injuries (58,700).

Workers’ compensation information provides additional insight into the types of injuries school employees sustain. According to SFM Companies:

• 59% of workers’ comp claims are for contusions and fractures;
• 23% are for sprains and strains; and
• 11% are for punctures and lacerations.

Of note, SFM reports that concussion-related workers’ compensation claims are on the rise; in 2010, they comprised just 5% of lost-time claims, but in a decade, they increased five-fold.

The Top-Two Causes of Staff Injuries Requiring Emergency-Department Care

During the six years that NIOSH studied, the top-two causes of employee injuries were: (1) slips, trips and falls and (2) “violence and other injuries by persons or animals.”

Slips, trips and falls caused 67,700 injuries, while violence was to blame for 65,600 injuries. Disturbingly, 57% (37,400) of the violence-related injuries were caused intentionally. Students inflicted 83% (31,200) of the intentional injuries to employees; many of these injuries happened when staff members were trying to restrain a student or break up a fight. (Unintentional student-caused injuries typically occur when staff members are assisting, transferring or playing with a student.)

According to SFM, workers’ compensation claims are fairly consistent with NIOSH’s findings:

• 34% of workers’ comp claims are for employees who have been struck;
• 27% are for employees who have slipped, tripped or fallen;
• 23% are for employees who have strained themselves;
• 4% are for employees who have sustained a cut, puncture or scrape; and
• 4% are for employees who have been injured by a hazardous substance.

How You Can Prevent Employee Injuries Related to Slips, Trips and Falls

Here are practical tips you can employ to prevent slip-, trip- and fall-related injuries:

1. Make sure all employees:

• Wear footwear appropriate for the task they’re performing and the weather at-hand.
• Keep electrical cords out of areas where people will be walking. If a cord must be in a walkway, an employee should install a cord cover.
• Clean up spills and litter immediately.
• Safely use stepladders and ladders. NIOSH offers a free ladder-safety app that can help them do so. If an employee doesn’t feel comfortable using a stepladder or ladder, they should find a staff member who can do so on their behalf. Also, an employee should never stand atop a chair or desk to reach something.

2. Be sure your custodial and maintenance staff members:

• Promptly repair any uneven walkways, torn carpet, and broken or missing stair treads. Also, they should make certain floor mats are flat (not curled up on the edges) and in good condition.
• Clear debris (e.g., spills, litter, leaves, etc.) from walking surfaces. During inclement weather, they should promptly remove ice and snow from sidewalks, parking lots and driveways.
• Use “slippery when wet” and other warning signs when appropriate.
• Install handrails where needed (e.g., beside stairways, on bleachers, etc.).
• Repair potholes in parking lots and driveways.
• Promptly replace burnt-out light bulbs; also, they should install additional lighting where it’s needed.
• Perform regular inspections and maintenance. A compliance-task management system can help ensure that inspections, maintenance and other necessary safety tasks are automatically scheduled, tracked and completed in a timely fashion. A quality compliance-task system includes templates, plans, checklists and other helpful documents.

3. Ensure that food-service personnel:

• Use floor mats where appropriate.
• Use edged work surfaces to contain spills.
• Use ventilation devices to avoid smoke, steam and condensation.

4. Make sure transportation employees:

• Exercise caution in the bus garage and parking areas, where there may be oil and other slippery substances.
• Make sure that bus steps have an appropriate handrail, and make sure the steps are free of snow and ice.
• Make sure the bus aisle and stairwell are free of student belongings.

5.  Budget Accordingly

Work with board members, administrators and department heads to ensure all departments have sufficient budgets to cover necessary safety-related equipment and repairs.

6.  Hazard and Near-Miss Reporting

Implement a district-wide hazard and near-miss reporting system. Such a system automates the management, notification, tracking and documentation of hazards, near-misses, pest sightings, staff misconduct and other safety concerns before injuries or significant property damage occur. When an employee submits a report in the system, administrators and key staff are notified. Then, the system tracks the report until the safety concern is resolved and messages appropriate parties. (A hazard-reporting system can reduce your district’s workers’ compensation, healthcare and liability-insurance costs.)

7. Accident-Reporting System

Implement an employee accident-reporting system. Such a system allows an employee to detail their accident and/or injury. Then, the report is sent to key administrators, supervisors and accident investigators for follow-up. Additionally, the system provides your district’s claims-management partners First Reports of Injury (FROI) and claim forms.

8. Employee Training

Make sure your employees are trained how to prevent slips, trips and falls and make sure they’re trained how to use ladders safely. Also, if an employee is involved in a slip, trip or fall, be sure they receive follow-up training to avoid a similar incident in the future.

9. Tips for PSW Users

If your district currently uses PublicSchoolWORKS (PSW) products, you have access to an online compliance-task management system, an online hazard-reporting system, an online employee accident-reporting system and an automated, web-based, staff-training system. For more information, please contact your assigned PSW safety advisor. If you’re not yet a PSW customer and would like to learn more, call (513) 631-6111.

Preventing Injuries Related to Student Violence and Students Behavior

Unfortunately, preventing student violence against staff members isn’t quite as straightforward as preventing injuries from slips, trips and falls. As such, it’s best that your district implement a multi-systems approach:

1. At the student level, implement positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS):

• For the 80% of students in your district who don’t have serious behavior issues, implement primary intervention strategies, such as skills training.
• For the 5-15% of students in your district who are beginning to display behavior and/or academic issues, implement secondary intervention strategies, such as mentoring.
• For the 1-7% of students in your district who have chronic behavior and/or academic issues, implement tertiary strategies, such as functional behavioral assessments (FBAs). FBAs are frequently effective because they target not only the problem behavior, but the reason for the problem behavior.

2. At the teacher level, training is key. Teach staff members:

• How to implement evidence-based classroom-management strategies;
• How to identify early warning signs of aggression and violence;
• How to de-escalate and resolve conflict;
• What the five tenets of social-emotional learning are (i.e., self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making) and how to help students master them;
• How to encourage students’ academic engagement, which mitigates the risk of poor behavior; and
• What’s included in your district’s crisis-management plan, so they know how to respond appropriately if and when violence occurs.

3. At the school-leadership level, you and your administrative team should:

• Attend school events. Be a visible, welcoming presence to staff members, students and community members.
• Lead, encourage and support the previously described violence-prevention strategies.
• Develop threat-and risk-assessment procedures. Create and train teams to conduct the assessments.
• Track safety issues and student behavior. Regularly analyze the data you’ve tracked and figure out ways to prevent similar incidents in the future.
• Conduct regular school-preparedness drills.
• Develop a crisis-management plan; follow the plan if violence occurs.
• Collaborate with community leaders and community organizations to ensure that youth can engage in positive activities outside of school.
• Make sure the district can offer appropriate mental healthcare, when necessary, via school counselors, school psychologists or outside mental-health professionals.
• Ensure your district has adequate security. Have staff members monitor parking lots and common areas. Also, hire school resource officers or security guards (and/or partner with local law enforcement), and install security systems.
• Annually review all safety policies and procedures. Also review all internal and external communication systems (e.g., how you communicate with first responders). Make any improvements necessary.
• If violence does occur, conduct a thorough investigation into the incident. Also, you and our leadership team should privately and publicly support the impacted educator(s). Furthermore, you must address larger school, district and community needs to curb such violence in the future. According to the American Psychological Association, “These steps are pivotal in preventive efforts and far-reaching with respect to teacher recruitment and retention. Research clearly indicates that teachers’ perceptions of support from their school administrators are strong predictors of whether teachers choose to stay in their present school or seek to move to another site.”

4. If your district currently uses PSW products, you have access to an automated, web-based, staff-training system, as well as an online repository where staff members can easily access your district policies, procedures and plans. Further, you may have access to PSW’s online student behavior-management system and online student accident-management system. The student-behavior system allows staff to submit positive behavior reports, documentation reports for minor infractions and office referrals for major infractions. The system also allows administrators to analyze behavioral data, process referrals, automatically generate notices, manage consequences and analyze trends. The student accident-management system allows online reporting of student, visitor, volunteer and contractor accidents; the system then automates the reporting, tracking and management of those incidents. For more information, please contact your assigned PSW safety advisor. If you’re not yet a PSW customer and would like to learn more, call (513) 631-6111.