Electronic data protection insurance is one of the most overlooked and vital insurance coverages for a charter school. As it is commonly referred to, EDP coverage protects your school against the loss of electronic data.

What Does Electronic Data Loss Insurance Cover?

1. Lost or damaged electronic data

Electronic Data Protection Insurance provides coverage to replace or restore your lost electronic data as a result of a covered claim. For example, if a fire to your building destroys your computers, your standard property policy would only pay to replace the hardware, and EDP would pay to replace the data stored on those computers. The coverage usually includes reimbursing the time it takes for one of your employees or a 3rd party to restore all of the data physically.

2. Interruption of Computer Operations

Data loss can severely impact a charter school’s operations.   So if you have Interruption of Computer Operations included on your policy, then the insurance company will provide coverage for loss of actual income and extra expenses if you cannot operate your school due to the data loss.

What Doesn’t Electronic Data Loss Insurance Cover:

1. Your liability due to data loss (not a third party)

Most electronic data protection policies do not have any liability coverage. So if an electronic data loss incurs any liability to a third party, you most likely do not have any coverage.

2. Your mistakes

EDP insurance typically will not cover any losses due to errors in processing electronic data or mistakes made in the design, implementation, or support of your computer systems or networks unless those mistakes result in a covered claim that subsequently destroys the data.

3. Employee actions

EDP insurance usually will not provide any coverage for losses to electronic data if those losses result from your employees’ actions, whether intentional or not.

For charter schools, this coverage can be invaluable.   The cost to restore electronic data like employee information, student information, and progress, and any proprietary software can be highly cumbersome and expensive.

Is Electronic Data Protection Insurance Expensive?

For charter schools, EDP coverage is relatively cheap.   The cost of the insurance coverage is based upon a limit you will determine with your agent to deem adequate for restoring any lost data from your machines.   The coverage will usually start at $100 a year and increase slightly depending on how much coverage your charter school needs.   We recommend that any charter school have at least $25,000 in EDP coverage; however, that amount can increase significantly depending upon your school’s specific needs.