Risk Management for Booster Clubs: Safety, Waivers, and Incidents

Four Ways to Handle a Risk

The Annual Risk Review

1. List every activity the club runs or plans: events, concessions, travel, camps, fundraisers, banquets, and money handling.
2. For each, ask what could go wrong: injury, abuse, illness, theft, property damage, vehicle accident, or harm to the club’s reputation.
3. Rate each risk by how likely and how severe it is.
4. Assign a control for each significant risk and an owner responsible for it.
5. Check the district’s rules for each activity, including facility use, volunteer clearance, and transportation.
6. Confirm insurance covers what remains, and ask the insurer about any activity it excludes.
7. Record the review in the board minutes and repeat it each year.

Background Checks and Volunteer Screening

Many districts require volunteers who work with students to complete the district’s volunteer application and background check. Some require checks only for certain tiers of volunteers, such as coach volunteers, and some cover the cost. Requirements, costs, and which roles need clearance vary by district and state.

The club’s screening policy should:

• Follow the district’s rules for every volunteer working on campus or with students.
• Require clearance for anyone who supervises students, chaperones overnight or off-campus trips, or drives students, even if the district does not.
• Track clearance status and expiration dates for each volunteer (volunteer coordinator).
• Keep background check results confidential and limited to the people who need them.
• Remove a volunteer from student-facing roles until clearance is complete.

See Recruiting and Managing Booster Club Volunteers.

Youth Protection

Child abuse prevention guidance for youth-serving organizations commonly names six key components: screening and selecting employees and volunteers; guidelines on interactions between individuals; monitoring behavior; ensuring safe environments; responding to inappropriate behavior, breaches in policy, and allegations or suspicions of abuse; and training.

Applied to a booster club:

1. Screening. As above.
2. Interaction guidelines. No adult volunteer is alone with a student out of view of others. No private messaging between adult volunteers and students; communication goes through parents or group channels that include another adult.
3. Monitoring. Event chairs know which volunteers are present and where.
4. Safe environments. Two adults present in vehicles, rooms, and storage areas where students are present; trip room assignments follow school rules.
5. Responding. Any volunteer who sees a policy breach reports it to the president and the school administrator the same day.
6. Training. Volunteers who work with students complete the district’s training, or a short club orientation where the district has none.

The school, not the booster club, supervises students at school activities. Booster volunteers support that supervision and follow staff direction.

Mandated Reporting

Every state requires certain people to report suspected child abuse or neglect, and some states require every adult to report. As of 2023, approximately 17 states and Puerto Rico required any person who suspects abuse or neglect to report it, and in all states any person is permitted to report. Whether booster volunteers are mandated reporters varies by state; see the club’s state page.

The club’s rule should be the same everywhere: a volunteer who suspects abuse reports it to child protective services or law enforcement as state law provides, notifies the school administrator, and does not investigate or confront anyone.

Waivers, Releases, and Permission Forms

• Waiver or release. A signed agreement giving up the right to sue for certain injuries. Whether a waiver is enforceable, and especially whether a parent can waive a minor child’s claims, varies by state. This page does not attempt a state-by-state summary.
• Permission and medical form. A parent’s consent for a student to participate, with emergency contacts, allergies, and authorization for emergency treatment. Useful in every state regardless of how waivers are treated.
• Photo release. Permission to use a student’s image in club communications.

For school-sponsored activities, the school’s own forms usually govern, and the club should not substitute its own. For club-run activities, the club’s forms should be reviewed by the club’s insurer or a lawyer licensed in the state before use, and kept under the club’s retention schedule.

Transportation

The federal Volunteer Protection Act does not protect a volunteer for harm caused while operating a motor vehicle that requires a license or insurance. A vehicle accident is therefore one of the largest exposures a booster club has.

1. Use district transportation or licensed commercial carriers for student travel wherever possible. Some districts, for example, arrange transportation through the district, invoice the booster club, and do not allow clubs to contract for student transportation directly.
2. Follow the district’s rules on whether parents may drive other people’s children.
3. Volunteers driving for club errands use their own insured vehicles and must hold a valid license.
4. Carry hired and non-owned auto coverage if volunteers drive on club business.

Events

• Get facility use approval before advertising the event. See School District Fundraising Policies and MOUs.
• Require certificates of insurance from high-risk vendors.
• Get temporary food permits where required. See Running a Booster Club Fundraising Event.
• Assign a person responsible for first aid and emergency calls, and know where the nearest automated external defibrillator (AED) is.
• Plan for weather, crowd flow, and cash. See Handling Cash at Booster Club Events.

Incident Reports

An incident report is a written record of an injury, accident, allegation, property damage, or theft, made as soon as possible after it happens. Reports protect the injured person (by getting facts to the insurer) and the club (by recording what happened before memories change).

When to write one: any injury needing more than basic first aid, any vehicle accident on club business, any allegation of misconduct, any theft or missing money, and any property damage.

What it records:

1. Date, time, and exact location.
2. Names and contact information of the people involved and witnesses.
3. What happened, in factual terms, without opinions or admissions of fault.
4. What care was given and by whom, and whether emergency services were called.
5. Who was notified (parent, school administrator, police, insurer) and when.
6. The name and signature of the person completing the report.

The event chair completes the report within 24 hours, gives it to the president, and the president notifies the school and the insurer as the policy requires. Policies set notice requirements for incidents and claims, so the president reads them in advance.