A call from the school nurse's office is one of the worst calls a parent can get, whether it's a fall on the playground, a hard hit during PE, or an injury during football or cheer practice. Once the immediate medical concerns are handled, the questions start: could this have been prevented, was there enough supervision, and who is actually responsible?
Texas law does not treat every school injury the same way. Whether a family has a viable claim often depends on whether the school is public or private, what actually caused the injury, and whose conduct is at issue. Public school districts carry legal protections that surprise most parents, and those protections do not always extend as far as people assume.
At Hilliard Law, we help Texas families sort through these questions and figure out whether an injury to their child supports a legal claim.
Public School Districts Are Shielded by Governmental Immunity
Texas public school districts are government entities, and government entities are generally immune from lawsuits unless a specific law waives that immunity. For school districts, that waiver is narrow. Under the Texas Tort Claims Act, a district's liability is generally limited to injuries arising from the operation or use of a motor vehicle.
That means a claim over a broken piece of playground equipment, an unmaintained field, or a poorly lit hallway usually cannot be brought against the district itself, even when the hazard was foreseeable and preventable. It is one of the more frustrating realities for parents pursuing a school injury claim, and it is also why these cases often have to look beyond the district for a source of recovery.
There is one notable exception. Because the Act's waiver covers motor vehicle use, an injury on a school bus or during a district-operated trip is treated differently than a playground fall, and a claim against the district may be available in that setting where it would not be for an ordinary premises injury.
An Individual Employee's Own Negligence Isn't Automatically Protected
A district's immunity does not automatically extend to every employee. Under Texas Education Code Section 22.0511, a teacher, coach, or other school employee is generally protected from personal liability for judgment calls made within the scope of their duties, with one significant exception: that protection does not apply when the employee's own negligence results in bodily injury to a student.
In practice, this means a teacher who ignores a known hazard on a playground, or a coach whose carelessness directly leads to an injury, is not automatically shielded the way the district is. These claims are narrow and fact-specific, and whether a particular employee's conduct falls within that exception is often the central question in a school injury case.
Private and Parochial Schools Play by Different Rules
Private schools are not government entities, so none of the immunity that protects public districts applies to them.
A private school owes its students the same duty any property owner owes an invitee: to keep the premises reasonably safe and to address or warn of hazards it knew or should have known about. A negligence or premises liability claim against a private school proceeds much like a claim against any other business would.
Playground Injuries Often Come Down to Equipment and Supervision
Playground injuries are common enough that the numbers are worth knowing. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that more than 200,000 children age 14 and younger are treated in emergency rooms each year for playground-related injuries, and roughly 45 percent of those injuries are considered severe, including fractures, internal injuries, dislocations, concussions, and amputations. About three-quarters of non-fatal playground injuries happen on public equipment, including at schools and daycares.
Because a public district's own premises decisions are usually off-limits for a lawsuit, a playground case often has to look elsewhere. That can include:
- Whether the equipment itself was defectively designed or manufactured
- Whether an installer or maintenance contractor did the work improperly
- Whether protective surfacing under climbers and swings met safety standards
- Whether a staff member's failure to supervise a known hazard directly caused the injury
Sports and Extracurricular Injuries Raise Different Questions
Ordinary contact and the routine risks of a sport aren't grounds for a claim on their own. A few issues come up often enough in these cases to be worth knowing:
- Concussions. Under what's commonly known as Natasha's Law, codified in Texas Education Code Chapter 38, a student showing signs of a concussion must be removed from play immediately, cannot return until evaluated by a physician, and must complete a formal return-to-play protocol. A coach cannot authorize that return alone.
- Heat. Following the heatstroke death of a Lancaster ISD student last year, the UIL made Wet Bulb Globe Temperature monitoring mandatory, rather than merely recommended, for every outdoor practice and marching band rehearsal statewide, effective August 1, 2026. A coach who ignores a required reading and pushes practice forward anyway isn't automatically liable for a resulting injury, but the failure becomes strong evidence of what a reasonable coach should have done.
- Waivers. Permission slips and participation forms come up often, too. Texas courts require a waiver to state clearly and conspicuously that it releases the school for its own negligence, and courts are reluctant to enforce one against gross negligence at all. Whether a parent can even waive a minor child's own claim by signing on the child's behalf remains unsettled in Texas law. A signed form at the start of the season doesn't automatically close off a family's options.
Other Parties Who May Share Responsibility
Depending on how the injury happened, potentially responsible parties can include:
- The manufacturer or installer of defective playground or athletic equipment
- A maintenance or landscaping contractor hired to service school grounds
- A bus company or transportation provider, since motor vehicle claims aren't limited by immunity the way premises claims are
- A before- or after-school program, camp, or outside vendor operating apart from the district's protected activities
- An individual coach, teacher, or staff member whose own negligence caused or worsened the injury
Notice Deadlines Move Faster Than Parents Expect
Claims involving a public school district generally require written notice to the district within a short window, typically six months from the date of the injury, far shorter than the two-year deadline that applies to most Texas personal injury claims. Missing that notice period can close off a claim before it ever gets started, even when the underlying injury would otherwise support one.
Hilliard Law Helps Families Sort Out School Injury Claims
Because Texas law treats public schools, private schools, employees, and outside contractors so differently, many parents are left unsure whether they have a claim at all after their child is hurt at school.
At Hilliard Law, we help families identify who was responsible for a child's injury and what legal options may be available. If your child was seriously hurt at school and you have questions about what happened, call (866) 927-3420 or contact us online for a FREE and confidential consultation.