Cheers to Peers

Welcome back to our Cheers to Peers column – a space to recognize some of the excellent work being done in our member districts. Today we are saying “cheers” to Issaquah School District’s Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Group.

This group has worked for years to build a high-functioning team consisting of staff, administrators and unions with consistent roles and responsibilities.

In terms of IAQ, they have incorporated all best practices, including school-board-approved policies and procedures. And they can address IAQ concerns in-house. Even more impressive is the guidance poster they have developed which will be adopted by the Department of Health.

Our hats off to Issaquah for tackling such a big project with so much success!

Return-to-Work Corner

An RTW Kudo Award goes to Mukilteo School District. They created three light duty positions that support the entire district!

• Touch Point Cleaning – allowing flexibility, duties can be as broad or as detailed as the worker’s restrictions require.
• Print Shop Helper – supporting the in-house publications department with a variety of stationary work.
• Science Kit Position – creating counting and other science-oriented packets to support K-8 science and math curriculum.

These positions allow 5 – 10 people to return to work in a light duty capacity and the district can meet injured workers where they are in their recovery.

This is good for the district and great motivation for the injured worker because it acknowledges their importance and value to the district.

Click the here for our flyer for how to avoid injuries during end-of-year clean-up. You can find an accessible version here.

Our highest incidence of on-the-job injuries occur due to trips, slips, and falls, and the end of the school year is a peak period for these types of injuries due to the increase in cleanup and furniture relocation tasks.

Careful thought and planning are needed to develop safe and efficient ways to perform these activities.

Garbage Disposal
Overloading of garbage cans during the end-of-year cleanup presents a major risk of strain and sprain injury for staff moving the bins. Back and shoulder injuries are common due to pushing, pulling, and emptying of heavy wheeled bins.

Here are some strategies to minimize the risk of injury to custodial staff:

• Spread heavy loads equally between bins.
• Consider other waste disposal strategies such as taking garbage directly to industrial bins in manageable loads.

Classroom teachers can play a role in keeping custodians safe during end-of-year cleanup by remembering a few simple tips:

• Undertake a progressive cleanup over the last few weeks of school rather than leaving it to the final days of the school year.
• Do not overfill waste paper bins—remember small baskets are expected to be light when lifted. Placing heavy books or items in these bins increases the risk of injury for the person emptying the bin.
• Place waste paper bins on chairs or desks at the end of each day—this saves the custodian from repetitive bending.

Relocation of Furniture and Equipment
At the end of the school year teachers are frequently asked to ‘relocate’ classroom furniture. Teachers are not furniture movers and often do not have appropriate equipment, assistance, time, or training to complete these tasks safely.

Any tasks involving heavy or awkward loads should only be carried out after thoughtful planning and assessment of risks.  The risk of injury can be minimized by:

• Eliminating movement of furniture and equipment when possible.
• Leaving full filing cabinets where they are – only move files in small bundles.
• Moving personal items with the assistance of others. Think about moving only personal items rather than desks and filing cabinets.
• Using professionals to move heavy items.  This is efficient and inexpensive when compared to the human and financial costs of an injury to a staff member.
• Planning moving activities like any other major project. The people involved such as the school officer and custodian, need to be consulted.

It is important to ensure an adequate number of staff are available to assist on moving days.  Necessary moving equipment must be available and staff must be trained on how to use it.

Simple Safety Tips
Staff should be reminded that their own safety is important, especially toward the end of the school year when there is an even greater temptation to rush to achieve deadlines.

• Work with colleagues and administrators whenever possible to manage major tasks such as relocation of classrooms.
• Plan the task.  Take five minutes to think about the best and safest way to do the job:  organize assistance, get the right equipment, and clear pathways.
• Ask for help; there is a big difference between what you can lift and what you can safely lift.
• Use the right equipment for the job.  This equipment must be easily accessible and in good working order. For example: use a small step ladder to reach items, do not stand on a chair or desk.
• Spread physical tasks over a number of days and allow your body to “warm up” in the morning before starting any heavy lifting tasks.
• Wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the job: bring spare “work” clothes and suitable footwear for moving or “cleanup” days.
• Don’t rush; spending the school holidays recovering from an injury will not be worth the five minutes you might save.

Follow these tips to ensure a safe end to your year!

Clairmonte Cappelle
Executive Director

Last month I had the opportunity to meet with many of our school district partners at PSWCT’s Annual Trustee Meeting to discuss how to best position our members to achieve sustainably excellent workers’ compensation program performance. As an organization that focuses on risk reduction, we are constantly working to reduce our member districts’ exposure to costly workers’ compensation claims, and the impact that exposure has on your budgets and staff stability.

When we look at program performance, we look at our trends in terms of exposure, frequency, and severity. Our exposure is measured by worker hours, meaning that as your staff increases, so does your exposure to risk. Total worker hours have steadily increased over the past six fiscal years by 15%, and claim counts have followed more dramatically by 21%.

To help reduce your exposure, we look at causation trends. Recent data tells us that the highest incidence of claims occurs with injuries due to falls, slips, and trips, followed by injuries caused by strains. With this information in hand, we will be working to provide school district-specific advice on how to reduce your risk for these types of injuries.

In addition to providing good opportunities for meaningful conversations between our claims staff and their district counterparts, our Annual Meeting is also an opportunity for our Trustees to gather and make decisions that impact the direction of our collective work. At this year’s meeting, our Trustees voted to approve the Executive Advisory Board’s recommendation to increase base rates by 2%. These small, gradual increases in rates help to build a buffer in our fund balance against potential catastrophic claims or economic downturns.

Our Trustees also voted on expiring and vacant positions on our Executive Advisory Board. We are excited to welcome new Board member Tyrell Bergstrom of Mercer Island School District and returning Board member Joanne Dickinson of Monroe School District, as well as continuing Board members Kathy Kemp of Bethel School District and Tammy Bigelow of Franklin Pierce School District.

As an additional resource for members at our Annual Trustee meeting, we were pleased to offer our first panel discussion on the topic of minimizing exposure, featuring some of our valued external business partners, such as Ed Davis of Arthur Gallagher & Co., Kevin Wick of PwC, and Kelly Woolhouse of Absentia Solutions. The theme of this panel was, “Small Actions for Big Impact: Minimize Your Exposure.” In addition to our external partners, this panel also featured the expertise of two new PSWCT staff members – Bradley Jones, Claims Attorney, and Aliza Hauser, our Return-to-Work Manager. School district staff in attendance were invited to submit questions to our panel, so that our experts could provide guidance that directly addressed our members’ needs.

Questions raised by our members addressed topics such as progressive discipline for employees who do not follow safety procedures on a repeated basis, and the benefits of reporting incidents early. Panelists also focused in on small actions that can have a big impact. Aliza Hauser, our Return-to-Work Manager, highlighted how something as seemingly insignificant as a phone call to an injured worker to check in can have a big impact on that worker’s perception of their importance to the district, and have long-term impacts on claim outcomes. It is easy to become focused on policies and paperwork and lose sight of the importance of personal connections that help our employees feel connected to their work.

I encourage all our members to think about what small steps you can take towards risk reduction in your respective school districts, including participation in our Return-to-Work Incentive Program, where school districts can be reimbursed anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 for bringing injured workers back to work on transitional duty.  I hope that you reach out to our experienced staff for support in your efforts towards risk reduction.

We typically receive workers’ compensation claims via an injured worker completing our online SIF-2 form.

However, sometimes we are first notified of a workers’ compensation claim when we receive a document from the injured worker’s medical provider called the Provider’s Initial Report (PIR).

We are required to open a claim using the information on this form within 3 business days of receiving a PIR, even if the injured worker has not yet completed the SIF-2 online. While it is our practice to attempt to get in touch with the worker to have them file a claim, sometimes they are not responsive, even after we have made multiple attempts to contact them by phone.

The PIR form does not contain all the information we need to open a claim and does not provide the worker with a claim number for billing purposes. This is an area where we need help from our school district counterparts to enable the worker to file a claim in a timely manner.

If the worker has not filed a claim after 3 business days, we will need to file a dummy claim. This is a claim completed with basic information by one of our claims specialists to get the claim set up in our system. To file a dummy claim we require the worker’s email address, job title, and job location. We may also need other information from you if the PIR is missing information such as the worker’s Social Security Number, date of birth, or mailing address.

It is important that you respond to requests for this type of information within 24 hours, so that we can ensure your injured workers’ claims are filed within the required timeframe. Not doing so can result in penalties being assessed by LNI.

We appreciate your assistance. Please reach out to us if you have any questions by emailing pswct@psesd.org or calling (425) 917-7638.