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                    ENGROSSED SENATE BILL 5109

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State of Washington      56th Legislature     1999 Regular Session

By Senators Patterson, McAuliffe, Prentice, Johnson, Hochstatter, Brown, Heavey, Kline, Finkbeiner, Benton, Winsley, Oke and Kohl‑Welles

Read first time 01/13/1999.  Referred to Committee on Education.

Creating limited immunity for school districts.

    AN ACT Relating to immunity for school districts that make their facilities available to certain private nonprofit groups serving youth; adding a new section to chapter 28A.335 RCW; adding a new section to chapter 4.24 RCW; creating a new section; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  The legislature intends to expand the opportunities of children to take advantage of services of private nonprofit groups by encouraging the groups' use of public school district facilities to provide programs to serve youth in the facilities.  The legislature intends the very limited grant of immunity provided in this act to encourage such use, but only under the circumstances set forth in this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  A new section is added to chapter 28A.335 RCW to read as follows:

    In order to facilitate school districts permitting the use of school buildings for use by private nonprofit groups operating youth programs, school districts shall have a limited immunity in accordance with section 3 of this act.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  A new section is added to chapter 4.24 RCW to read as follows:

    (1) A school district shall not be liable for an injury to or the death of a person due to action or inaction of persons employed by, or under contract with, a youth program if:

    (a) The action or inaction takes place on school property and during the delivery of services of the youth program;

    (b) The private nonprofit group provides proof of being insured, under an accident and liability policy issued by an insurance company authorized to do business in this state, that covers any injury or damage arising from delivery of its services.  Coverage for a policy meeting the requirements of this section must be at least fifty thousand dollars due to bodily injury or death of one person, or at least one hundred thousand dollars due to bodily injury or death of two or more persons in any incident; and

    (c) The group provides proof of such insurance before the first use of the school facilities.  The immunity granted shall last only as long as the insurance remains in effect.

    (2) Immunity under this section does not apply to any school district before January 1, 2000.

    (3) As used in this section, "youth programs" means any program or service, offered by a private nonprofit group, that is operated primarily to provide persons under the age of eighteen with opportunities to participate in services or programs.

    (4) This section does not impair or change the ability of any person to recover damages for harm done by:  (a) Any contractor or employee of a school district acting in his or her capacity as a contractor or employee; or (b) the existence of unsafe facilities or structures or programs of any school district.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.  This act takes effect January 1, 2000.

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