You sent your child to school expecting them to come home the same way they left. Instead, you got a phone call that changed everything. Maybe your child fell from playground equipment that should have been repaired months ago. Maybe a coach sent them back into a game after a head impact and now they cannot think clearly. Maybe another student attacked them in a hallway that everyone knew was unsupervised. Maybe a science experiment went wrong because nobody thought to hand out safety goggles. Whatever happened, someone who was supposed to protect your child failed to do it, and now your child is hurt.
I’m Scott DeSalvo. I have been a personal injury attorney in Chicago for over 27 years. I became a lawyer because I watched my father, a Teamster truck driver, suffer a devastating work injury when I was nine years old and then spend 17 years fighting through the legal system. That experience taught me what it feels like when the people and institutions that were supposed to protect you let you down. If your child has been injured because a school, teacher, coach, or administrator failed in their duty to keep your child safe, I want to help. Call me at 312-500-4500. The consultation is free, available 24/7/365, and we speak Spanish.
The scope of childhood injuries at school is far larger than most parents realize. Nearly 50 million children are enrolled in K-12 schools in the United States. In Illinois alone, more than 1.85 million children attend prekindergarten through twelfth grade across nearly 4,000 schools in 853 districts. Each year, children in the United States under the age of 15 sustain more than 14 million unintentional injuries, and an estimated 10 to 25 percent of those occur in and around schools. That means somewhere between 1.4 million and 3.5 million children are injured at school or during school activities every single year. One in 14 students suffers a medically attended or temporarily disabling injury while at school.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that over 200,000 children aged 14 and younger receive emergency treatment for playground-related injuries each year, and 46 percent of those injuries occur at schools. Sports and recreational activities account for 55 percent of all school-related injuries. Seventy percent of all school injuries occur during recess or physical education. High school sports alone account for an estimated 2 million injuries, 500,000 doctor visits, and 30,000 hospitalizations every year. And here is the statistic that matters most for legal purposes: research shows that school-aged children are nine times more likely to sustain an injury linked to negligent supervision or environmental hazards than to be the victim of an intentional act of violence.
These are not freak accidents that nobody could have prevented. The lack of proper supervision is a contributing factor in playground injuries over 40 percent of the time. That means adults who were responsible for watching children were not doing their jobs, and kids got hurt because of it.
Negligent supervision is the most common basis for school injury claims. Schools stand in loco parentis to their students, meaning they assume the role and responsibility of a parent during school hours and school-sponsored activities. That responsibility requires active, attentive supervision appropriate to the age of the children and the risk level of the activity. When a school fails to provide adequate supervision and a child is injured as a result, the school may be liable.
Negligent supervision takes many forms. It includes failing to assign enough adults to monitor a playground during recess. It includes leaving a gymnasium full of students unsupervised while the teacher steps out. It includes failing to watch hallways and stairwells during passing periods. It includes allowing students to engage in rough or dangerous play without intervention. It includes failing to monitor a field trip adequately. And it includes the failure to intervene when a supervisor sees or should see a dangerous situation developing. The law does not require a teacher to keep eyes on every child at every moment. But it does require a level of supervision that a reasonably prudent person would exercise under the same circumstances, and the standard increases as the risk increases.
Schools have a duty to maintain their buildings, grounds, and equipment in safe condition. When they fail to do so and a child is injured, the school may be liable under a premises liability theory. Common premises hazards in schools include broken or poorly maintained playground equipment, inadequate safety surfacing under playground structures, wet or slippery floors without warning signs, broken stairs or handrails, exposed wiring or electrical hazards, improperly maintained heating or cooling systems, toxic substances such as mold or lead paint, unsecured furniture or fixtures that can tip or fall, and broken doors or windows. Playground injuries are the leading cause of school injuries among elementary-age children, comprising one-third of all elementary school injuries. Research consistently shows that head and neck injuries are the most commonly injured body region on the playground, while upper extremity injuries, including fractures, are the most likely to require outside medical attention.
School-sponsored sports present some of the highest risk activities for student injuries. The CDC reports that the rate of sports, recreation, and leisure injuries among children and adolescents is 82.9 per 1,000 population, increasing to 117.1 per 1,000 for children aged 12 to 17. Sixty-two percent of organized sports injuries occur during practice, not games. The five most common causes of sports and recreational injuries in children are basketball, football, bicycling, playground activities, and soccer.
Schools and coaches have specific duties when it comes to athletic activities. They must provide appropriate safety equipment. They must teach proper technique and enforce safety rules. They must match competition by size, age, and skill level when appropriate. They must have emergency action plans and access to first aid. And they must follow concussion protocols. Illinois has specific concussion legislation requiring schools to remove a student from play if a concussion is suspected and prohibiting return to play until cleared by a licensed healthcare provider. When coaches and trainers ignore these protocols, the consequences can be catastrophic. A former Illinois high school linebacker received a $4.4 million settlement after coaches and athletic trainers allowed him to play despite concussion symptoms, leading to a brain bleed that left him permanently disabled, unable to walk or speak.
When a school knows or should know that a student is being bullied or threatened and fails to take reasonable steps to protect that student, the school can be held liable if the student is injured. This does not mean schools are liable every time one student hurts another. But when there is a pattern of known harassment, when prior incidents have been reported, when teachers or administrators have been made aware of the threat and failed to act, the school’s inaction can rise to the level of willful and wanton disregard for the student’s safety. Illinois law specifically addresses bullying through the School Code, which requires every school district to have a bullying prevention policy. When a school fails to follow its own policies, that failure becomes powerful evidence in a negligence case.
Laboratories, workshops, and certain classroom activities present elevated risks that demand elevated precautions. When a teacher fails to provide safety goggles during a chemistry experiment, or does not explain proper procedures for using power tools in a shop class, or allows students to handle chemicals without protective equipment, and a student is injured, the teacher and school may be liable. These cases frequently involve both a failure to provide appropriate safety equipment and a failure to properly instruct and supervise students during inherently dangerous activities.
When a child is injured in a school bus accident, the potential defendants may include the school district, the bus driver, the bus company if the route is contracted out, other drivers involved in the accident, and the bus manufacturer if a mechanical defect contributed to the crash. Bus drivers are held to a common carrier standard of care, which is the highest standard of care in transportation law. They are responsible for the safe transport of every child on their bus, and their negligence is imputed to the entity that employs them.
Schools have a duty to plan field trips with safety in mind, to provide adequate supervision during the trip, and to ensure that the destination is reasonably safe for students. When a child is injured on a school field trip, the school may be liable if it failed to adequately assess the risks of the activity, failed to provide enough chaperones, failed to establish and enforce safety rules, or failed to respond appropriately to an emergency.
This is the single most important legal concept for any parent considering a lawsuit against a public school district in Illinois, and it is the one that makes these cases fundamentally different from almost every other type of personal injury claim.
Under the Illinois Tort Immunity Act, specifically Section 3-106, public school districts and their employees are immune from liability for ordinary negligence. To hold a public school district liable for a student’s injuries, you must prove that the school’s conduct was willful and wanton. This is a higher legal standard than simple negligence, and it is the reason that many attorneys will not take school injury cases: they do not understand how to meet this threshold.
Willful and wanton conduct is defined under the Tort Immunity Act as a course of action which shows an actual or deliberate intention to cause harm, or which, if not intentional, shows an utter indifference to or conscious disregard for the safety of others. The Illinois Supreme Court has described it as a hybrid between negligent acts and intentionally tortious behavior. Under the facts of one case, willful and wanton misconduct may be only degrees more than ordinary negligence, while under the facts of another case it may be only degrees less than intentional wrongdoing.
What does this mean in practice? It means that proving a school merely made a mistake is not enough. You must prove that the school knew or should have known about a specific danger and consciously disregarded it. Evidence that elevates a claim from ordinary negligence to willful and wanton conduct includes prior incidents of the same type of injury in the same location or activity, prior complaints or reports about a hazardous condition that went unaddressed, violation of specific safety rules, standards, or protocols that the school had adopted, knowledge of a specific threat to a specific student that was ignored, failure to follow the school’s own policies, and continuation of a dangerous activity or condition after being put on notice of the risk.
The Barr v. Cunningham case decided by the Illinois Supreme Court illustrates both the difficulty and the nuance of this standard. In that case, a student was hit in the eye by a ball during floor hockey in physical education class, and the teacher had not required students to wear safety goggles. The Supreme Court found that the teacher’s decision not to require goggles was not willful and wanton because there was no evidence of prior injuries during floor hockey and the teacher had implemented other safety modifications. The lesson is clear: to succeed in a school negligence case, you need evidence of prior knowledge of the specific danger. A lawyer who understands how to find and present that evidence is essential.
Private schools are not covered by the Tort Immunity Act because they are not public entities. However, Illinois courts have held that the School Code provision placing schools in loco parentis applies to private schools as well, which means that private schools are also generally held to the willful and wanton standard for claims arising from the supervision and discipline of students. The critical difference is that private schools do not enjoy the other immunities and procedural protections that the Tort Immunity Act provides to public school districts, including certain notice requirements and shortened filing deadlines. Claims against private schools may proceed under a somewhat broader range of theories depending on the specific circumstances.
The filing deadlines for school injury claims in Illinois are shorter and more complicated than for ordinary personal injury claims, and missing them can permanently destroy your case.
For claims against public school districts, the Illinois Tort Liability of Schools Act requires that a written notice be submitted to the school board attorney or school board secretary within six months of the date of injury. This notice must include the injured person’s name, the date and time of the accident, the location of the accident, and the name and address of the treating physician. Failure to provide this notice within six months can bar your claim entirely.
The statute of limitations for tort claims against a public school district under the Tort Immunity Act is one year from the date of injury, not the two years that applies to most personal injury claims in Illinois. This compressed timeline makes it critical to consult an attorney as soon as possible after your child is injured at school. For minors, the statute of limitations is generally tolled, meaning the deadline does not begin running until the child turns 18. However, the six-month notice requirement is not tolled for minors, meaning that even though your child may have years to file a lawsuit, the written notice to the school board must still be provided within six months of the injury.
For claims against private schools, the standard two-year personal injury statute of limitations generally applies, and the six-month notice requirement under the Tort Liability of Schools Act does not apply. However, the specific facts of the case may affect which deadlines apply, so consulting an attorney promptly is always advisable.
When a school’s willful and wanton conduct causes a child’s injury, the parents and child may recover both economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages include all past and future medical expenses related to the injury, including emergency room visits, hospitalization, surgery, physical therapy, occupational therapy, psychological treatment, medications, and any ongoing medical care. They include the cost of any assistive devices, home modifications, or specialized educational services the child may need. In cases involving permanent injury, they include the child’s lost future earning capacity, calculated based on the child’s educational trajectory and the economic impact of the disability over a working lifetime.
Non-economic damages compensate for the child’s pain and suffering, emotional distress, anxiety, depression, and the disruption to their childhood, education, and development. They compensate for disfigurement if the injury left visible scars. They compensate for loss of normal life, meaning the activities and experiences the child can no longer enjoy because of the injury. Parents may also recover damages for loss of the child’s society and companionship, and for the emotional distress of watching their child suffer.
Illinois does not cap non-economic damages in personal injury cases, which means there is no limit on the amount a jury can award for a child’s pain, suffering, and diminished quality of life. Given that children have their entire lives ahead of them, the impact of a serious school injury can be enormous, and juries recognize this.
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The steps you take in the days and weeks after your child is injured at school can make or break a future legal claim. Here is what every parent should do.
Get medical treatment immediately. Even if the school nurse says the injury is minor, have your child evaluated by your own doctor or an emergency room. Some serious injuries, particularly concussions and internal injuries, may not be immediately apparent. Medical documentation created close to the time of injury is also the strongest evidence in any legal case.
Report the injury to the school in writing. Do not rely on a verbal conversation with the teacher or principal. Put it in writing, describe what happened, and keep a copy. If you later need to file a formal notice with the school board, having a contemporaneous written record is invaluable.
Document everything. Photograph the location where the injury occurred, including any hazardous condition. Photograph your child’s injuries. Write down what your child tells you happened while the memory is fresh. Get the names of any witnesses, including other students, teachers, and staff members.
Request the school’s incident report. Schools are required to document injuries, and the incident report can contain critical details about how the injury occurred and who was supervising at the time.
Contact an attorney within the first few weeks. The six-month notice requirement for public school claims means that time is extremely limited. An experienced attorney can ensure that the formal notice is properly prepared and timely submitted, and can begin preserving evidence before it disappears.
Do not give recorded statements to the school district’s insurance company or attorney without consulting your own lawyer first. The school district will be represented by counsel whose job is to protect the district, not your child.
You can, but you must prove that the school’s conduct was willful and wanton, not merely negligent. If the school knew about a dangerous condition on the playground, had received prior complaints, or had failed to address a known hazard, and a child was injured because of it, you may have a viable claim. Evidence of prior incidents, deferred maintenance, or violation of safety standards is critical.
Potentially, yes. Illinois law requires schools to remove a student from athletic activity if a concussion is suspected and to prohibit return to play until the student is cleared by a licensed healthcare provider. If a coach or athletic trainer allowed your child to continue playing despite concussion symptoms, that is strong evidence of willful and wanton conduct. A $4.4 million settlement was reached in an Illinois case with very similar facts.
For public school districts, you must provide written notice to the school board within six months of the injury, and you must file a lawsuit within one year. The six-month notice requirement applies even when the injured person is a minor. For private schools, the standard two-year personal injury statute of limitations generally applies. Because the public school deadlines are so short, contacting an attorney within weeks of the injury is strongly recommended.
The school can be liable if it knew or should have known about the danger posed by the other student and failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the harm. A single unexpected altercation between students who have no prior history is difficult to hold the school responsible for. But if there were prior incidents, if the aggressor had a documented history of violence, or if the school failed to follow its own anti-bullying policies after being put on notice, the case becomes much stronger.
Yes. Public schools are protected by the Illinois Tort Immunity Act, which requires proof of willful and wanton conduct and imposes shorter filing deadlines including a six-month notice requirement and a one-year statute of limitations. Private schools are not protected by the Tort Immunity Act but may still benefit from the in loco parentis doctrine under the School Code. The procedural and evidentiary requirements differ, and an experienced school injury attorney can navigate these distinctions.
School bus injury claims may involve the school district, the bus driver, a contracted bus company, other motorists, or the bus manufacturer. Bus drivers are held to the highest standard of care as common carriers. Claims against the school district are subject to the same Tort Immunity Act protections and filing deadlines as other school injury claims.
I handle school injury cases on a contingency fee basis. You pay nothing upfront, and I do not collect a fee unless we recover compensation for your child. All investigation costs, expert fees, and litigation expenses are advanced by the firm and recovered from any settlement or verdict.
A school cannot legally retaliate against a student or family for filing a legitimate legal claim. If you experience any form of retaliation, that itself may give rise to additional legal claims. Your child’s safety and education should not be compromised by the decision to hold a school accountable for its negligence.
School negligence cases are among the most legally complex personal injury claims in Illinois. The willful and wanton standard, the six-month notice requirement, the one-year statute of limitations, and the procedural protections of the Tort Immunity Act all create obstacles that do not exist in ordinary personal injury cases. Many lawyers either do not understand these obstacles or are unwilling to take on the extra work required to overcome them.
I have spent 27 years representing injured people in the Chicago area. I have tried more than 30 cases to jury verdict. I trained at Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyer’s College and Keenan Trial Institute "The Edge" program, two of the most intensive trial advocacy programs in the country. I understand what it takes to build a school injury case that meets the willful and wanton standard, and I am prepared to take the case to trial if the school district will not offer fair compensation.
There is nothing more important to a parent than their child’s safety. When a school fails in its fundamental duty to protect your child, you deserve a lawyer who will fight for your family with the same intensity that you would. That is what I do.
Call DeSalvo Law at 312-500-4500. Available 24/7/365. Hablamos Español.
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Scott DeSalvo founded DeSalvo Law to help injured people throughout Chicago and surrounding suburbs. Licensed to practice law in Illinois since 1998, IARDC #6244452, Scott has represented over 3,000 clients in personal injury, workers compensation, and accident cases.
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