Language trips and student exchanges are often the first trips students take without the protection of their parents. Especially as a parent, you want to have your child well covered when you are travelling and you cannot be there yourself. If your child needs medical attention or hospital treatment, good insurance cover is essential. As a chaperone and supervisor on school trips, you also want to protect your pupils comprehensively. The following travel insurance policies are best suited for school exchanges and school trips.
Travel insurance for school pupils – insured on school trips and student exchanges
Quick access
Is my child insured on school trips within the EU?
Many schools offer exchange programmes for European or international stays. This gives students the chance to live with a foreign host family and improve their language skills. You should also adapt the insurance cover to the respective destination country. If your child needs medical help when ill within the EU, he or she can show the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) on the back of the e-card to the doctor. The card ensures that medical treatment is covered according to the regulations of the destination country. However, if the rate differs from the Austrian regulation, you may have to pay extra for treatment without additional travel health insurance.
Travel insurance for international student travel
Outside the EU, appropriate insurance cover is even more important. A popular destination for student exchanges is Turkey, where the European Health Insurance Card does not apply. Equally favoured among language students are South America or the USA with its comparatively expensive healthcare system.
With private international health insurance, you ensure that the insurer reimburses you for the costs of visits to the doctor or treatment in hospital. Make sure that medically reasonable return transport to the home country is also covered. Compared to a medically necessary return transport, this also applies if you prefer to be treated at home.
Our tip: If students accidentally cause damage to the host family's house or lose the key to the host flat, travel liability insurance is also worthwhile.
How are pupils and teachers protected on school trips?
If you put together a school trip with pupils, this involves a lot of organisation. If you as the accompanying person fall ill at short notice or if several pupils have to cancel the trip, the entire trip is often at stake. For class trips with at least 10 pupils, travel cancellation insurance for groups is, therefore, always suitable. In the event of cancellation, all students are covered and you can make up the trip at a later date without losing large amounts of money.
In order to be covered during the trip as well, it is worthwhile to have travel protection for students, which consists of various insurance policies. At HanseMerkur, travel protection includes important international health insurance, as well as luggage, travel accident and travel curtailment insurance, among other things. In addition to return travel costs, the latter reimburses the entire travel price if the trip is cancelled within the first half of the trip (max. 8 days), should pupils or accompanying persons fall ill while travelling.
Is travel accident insurance worthwhile for school pupils?
When young people travel with their peers, they usually feel more uninhibited than when they travel with their parents. The increased activity on the school trip, language study trip or student exchange is usually accompanied by an increased risk of accidents. In the event of an accident that results in disability, travel accident insurance protects you from high costs.
But accident protection also applies in the event of a torn muscle or ligament – e.g. as a result of a climbing excursion. Benefits for rescue costs are also part of a travel accident insurance policy. This includes, for example, search, rescue or recovery operations by emergency services, transport costs to the nearest hospital or specialist clinic, and additional costs when returning to the place of residence.
Whether you want to cover pupils with additional travel accident insurance depends on your individual safety needs. We recommend accident cover, especially for longer stays abroad and high-intensity leisure activities.
The best travel insurance for school exchanges and school trips
Protection for student exchanges or language trips – international health insurance for young people
Anyone who goes on a language study trip as a school pupil or takes part in a pupil exchange is comprehensively protected with international health insurance for young people. It provides insurance cover for, among other things:
- a stay of up to 364 days
- outpatient and inpatient medical treatment at 100 % (up to € 300,000 in the Carefree plan)
- pain relieving dental treatments
- medications and surgical dressings
- operations
- A medically reasonable return transport of the patient
Especially for longer stays abroad, we recommend an additional package consisting of travel accident, travel liability and travel assistance insurance in case of emergencies.
All the benefits of international health insurance for young people at a glance.
Cancellation and travel protection for club and class trips
For class trips with at least 10 pupils, we recommend our cancellation and travel protection for club and class trips. In addition to travel cancellation insurance, which covers all students and accompanying persons in the event of cancellation, you will be extensively protected during the trip by a travel assistant:
- International health insurance
- Travel curtailment insurance
- Delay, transfer and return travel protection
- Travel accident insurance
- Luggage insurance
- Travel liability insurance
- Emergency travel assistance insurance