For many years now, GSRMA has relied on Schools Excess Liability Fund (SELF) to provide excess general liability coverage for our school district members. As the largest provider of excess coverage to school entities in the State, SELF has historically provided coverage that provides high limits at a competitive cost.

AB 218 – the California Child Victims Act – went into effect January 1, 2020. Already, the resulting claims are living up to the alarm expressed by every risk pool or carrier that insures entities in our State’s K-12 and community college education systems. You can learn more by visiting the SELF website’s area for additional AB128 resources (https://www.selfjpa.org/ab-218resources).

Risk pools such as SELF are having to quickly adjust to the effect of claims being filed against prior coverage years. The immediate result is a retroactive increase in funding requirements for these unfunded years which will have immediate, though minor, effect on GSRMA’s general liability program costs.

Of greater concern, however, is the fact that this law is very new and additional costs may be incurred depending on the number and size of these claims going forward. We will keep our member school districts apprised as this issue progresses.