Administrative Letters
A155 - Risk and Liability Audits
Approved by Superintendent Larry Bergeson - 12/20
Risk and Liability Audits
This letter is drafted to clearly define the Washington County School District’s (WCSD) procedure pertaining to the execution and administration of risk and liability audits performed in its schools. Among other things, the Risk Management and Training Coordinator (Risk) is responsible to administer mandatory training, and to verify compliance with its contents. Verification is accomplished through routine auditing of WCSD schools and facilities. The following procedures outline how training, auditing, reporting, and verification of compliance are executed in our schools.
TRAINING
- Before the commencement of each school year, Risk will provide every administrator and supervisor an outline of the required staff and faculty training for that school year.
- A portion of the training will be accomplished by way of the SafeSchools online training program.
- The remainder of the training will be administered before the completion of the school year by the administrator, supervisor, or their designee.
- Administrators or supervisors will document training compliance on Form 157: Staff Training Tracker, and will maintain copies of these documents in a secure location.
AUDITING
- In an effort to provide additional support to supervisors and administrators and to mitigate undue liability exposure, Risk routinely audits all WCSD buildings and facilities.
- Routine auditing helps to ensure compliance with the Fire Code, OSHA, FDA, ADA, building codes, District policy, and other state and federal compliance entities. Auditing also improves compliance by identifying areas where the training provided to staff and faculty may have been either insufficient or misunderstood.
- Formal audits will be scheduled annually. A general timeframe will be provided to relevant cone sites.
- Informal audits will generally be performed without notice, and may include specific areas, buildings, or the entire campus. Informal auditing may also be performed by Utah School Boards Insurance Association, Utah State Risk Management, the Utah State Fire Marshal, or other state and federal compliance agencies.
- Risk will submit a final audit report to the building manager or school administrator.
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR / BUILDING MANAGER RESPONSIBILITY
- School administrators or building managers will receive a final audit report to review. Within 10 days of receiving the report, please identify the actions you are able to take to correct problems, deficiencies and/or the support needed to help you be in compliance.
- When immediate corrective action is not possible, Risk Management will work with all appropriate departments, administrators and supervisors to establish a timeline to help correct those issues. The length and duration of the timeline will be based on the significance and potential liability exposure of the actionable compliance concern.
- If the school administrator or building manager has further information or disagrees with a portion or all of the report, please submit a letter outlining the specific questions or disagreements to Risk so we can work together to resolve any issues.
VERIFICATION
- Risk will use appropriate channels to ensure timely correction of non-compliance items based upon the significance of all observed actionable concerns.
- Risk will monitor the correction of all actionable compliance matters based on the agreed upon timeline and complete follow-up audits as necessary.
- Failure to correct actionable items within the agreed upon timeframe will result in corrective action.
Employees who willfully disregard established safety policies and procedures have no guarantee of liability coverage. Prompt supervisory or administrative correction of compliance and liability issues must be a priority for all personnel.
Dated: 12/14/2020
Superintendent Larry Bergeson
Washington County School District
Elementary Safety Audit Checklist
Secondary Safety Audit Checklist