Professional indemnity insurance (BAV) for a self-employed remedial teacher
You support one child at a time, but a missed sign only becomes visible years later. The discussion is then about a lost school year and about costs the parents have paid themselves.
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In brief
Professional indemnity insurance covers financial detriment arising from a mistake in your support work, with no injury or damaged property involved. In remedial teaching that means the costs parents or a school incur to put right what was left undone: an external assessment, prolonged tutoring, repeating a year or a move to another type of school. If a pupil trips in your practice room, that is injury and the claim belongs on a public and employers' liability insurance.
The allegation in this profession is rarely that you taught badly. It is that you did not pass signs on: persistent reading and spelling problems you did see but did not refer on, a support plan that continued unchanged after two evaluations, or a statement about dyslexia or a learning disorder made without any assessment behind it. That last is the most dangerous point: establishing a disorder and issuing a statement is for a suitably qualified behavioural specialist. If you do it anyway, you are working outside the stated professional capacity on your policy schedule and there is no cover.
You also work with pupil files, and those are sensitive personal data. If a file is lost or ends up with the wrong parent, an administrative fine from the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch data protection authority) and any other fine or penalty payment are excluded on this policy. The cost of investigation, recovery and notification after a data breach can be placed on a cyber insurance.
This page deals with one situation. The full overview is on Compare professional indemnity insurance (BAV).
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What to look out for
Four subjects that determine whether a complaint from parents or a school falls within your cover.
Stay within your professional capacity
Support, screening and advice to a school are different activities from assessment, treatment or therapy. Insurers describe that precisely. If you also offer child coaching, homework support or parent training, have that stated on the policy schedule. An activity that is not stated there is not a point of argument when a claim arises but simply not covered.
Who is your client: the school or the parent?
If you work directly for parents, they claim against you. If a school hires you, parents usually turn to the school board, which then seeks recovery from you. Record in writing for each engagement who the client is, what the engagement involves and where your task ends. Without that boundary, every allegation is your allegation.
Your file is your evidence
The court judges your work against Article 7:401 of the Dutch Civil Code: were you as careful as a competent remedial teacher would have been in the same situation? You show that with the starting position, the goals, the evaluation points and the moment at which you advised a referral. Without a record, the discussion becomes one person's word against another's, and you rarely win that.
What the policy does not pay
Excluded are intent and wilful recklessness (Article 7:952 of the Dutch Civil Code), fines and penalty payments, and refunding your fee or redoing the support work: that is your own performance and not the other party's loss. Circumstances you already knew about when you applied also fall outside; failing to disclose them affects the duty of disclosure in Article 7:928 DCC.
What does your premium depend on?
- Annual turnover of the practice: in a one-person practice often the only basis
- Nature of the work: support, screening or advice to school boards
- Workplace: your own practice room, at parents' homes or at school
- Sum insured: limited per claim and per insurance year
- Retroactive cover required: for pupils you supported before the commencement date
- Excess: applies per claim, not per insurance year
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is where your saving is.
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV |
|---|---|---|
| Parents pay for an external assessment because you did not pass on the reading signs for two years | No | Yes |
| A support plan continues unchanged and the school hires a second specialist to make up the shortfall | No | Yes |
| A school is sued by parents and then recovers the costs from you | No | Provided that |
| During support at a family's home you knock a vase off the cupboard | Yes | No |
| A school ends the collaboration after a complaint and you lose a regular engagement | No | No |
| A pupil is still behind after a year of support without anything having gone wrong | No | No |
A result that fails to materialise is not a mistake. Only a missed sign or a plan never adjusted produces an insured claim.
Frequently asked questions
This is what people ask us most.
Parents demand their money back because their child made no progress. Is that covered?
No, not where it is only about refunding your fee. The insurance pays the loss the other party suffers through your professional error, not the payment for your own work. If parents also demonstrably incur extra costs they would not have had without the mistake, that part can be an insured claim. Support work is also an obligation to use best efforts, not a guarantee of results.
I work on site at a school. Am I covered by the school?
Usually not. A school's liability policy covers its own staff; as a self-employed professional you are an external party and precisely the person the board wants to recover its loss from. When you are hired, ask for clarity in writing and keep your own policy in any event. Many boards now make that a condition in the engagement agreement.
Does the policy cover a complaint to my professional association?
A complaint to a professional association or a register is not a claim for damages and therefore falls outside the standard cover. Some insurers offer an additional module for defending disciplinary or complaints proceedings. Ask about it when you apply. Afterwards the subject is closed once the complaint is already there.
When do I have to report a claim that is looming?
As soon as you can reasonably suspect that a parent or school will bring a claim against you. Article 7:941 of the Dutch Civil Code requires prompt notification, and on a claims-made policy notifying a circumstance fixes the insurance year. If you only send a message when the parents' lawyer writes, you run the risk that your policy is by then with another insurer.
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