Travel Insurance: What's Right for Your Child?

When your child is going to be away from home, you, as a parent, want to do everything possible to ensure that they have a safe trip. Choosing the best travel insurance for your student is an important step in the process of preparing them to leave on an educational trip.

Travel insurance can help ease your anxiety about a number of possible mishaps, from helping to cover costs if your child has to return home early, covering cost of medical emergencies and helping get your child home safely in case of a dangerous weather event or political instability overseas.

Not every travel insurance policy will cover the eventualities. Many won’t work well for student trips; they may not account for important details of student travel, like coverage for tuition costs. Here are some steps you can take to make sure you chose the best insurance for your child.

Contact the school. Administrators and study-abroad program organizers typically carry some sort of insurance policy for the students in their care. You’ll want to ask about what type of insurance coverage the school has for students, and whether there is additional travel insurance coverage they recommend.

If the sponsored trip has a group policy available for student enrollment, they should provide you with that information so you can sign your child up to take part in the group plan. Doing so will ensure that your child has the same level of protection as every other student in his or her group. This will help the school and insurance company to smoothly handle any emergencies that arise.

Get answers about medical insurance. Make sure that you find out whether or not your school is handling emergency medical care for traveling students as part of their own liability insurance, or whether you’re responsible for your child’s medical insurance during travel.

If the responsibility sits with you, a phone call to your family’s medical insurance provider may be necessary. Ask whether or not they extend your usual benefits while your student is traveling, especially if they will be out of the country.

Some medical insurance providers will not offer coverage during overseas travel or will only cover a certain portion of costs. If that’s the case, then you’ll need to make sure any travel insurance you choose for your student contains medical coverage.

Look into coverage that will help your child get home safely. In general, most student travel experiences will go as expected; students will return home safely and on schedule. However, it’s possible that in a rare circumstance, your child’s trip will be disrupted.

Whether the problem is as simple as homesickness or as urgent as a civil/political uprising in the city where your child is studying, they may want, or need, to get home unexpectedly. Look into the coverages the school provides for trip interruption. Be sure your child is fully covered in case they do return home early.

Written by on 4/24/15.
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