The State shall appropriate funds to facilitate the training programs of the several junior police organizations, and shall make adequate provisions by procuring insurance and assuming liability on the part of the State therefor, for the medical care and hospitalization of children who may be injured, for the defrayment of funeral expenses and for the death of children dying from injuries received, and for the protection against public liability, while performing duty as junior police officers and in all other activities certified as proper junior police functions by the police departments of the several counties, as follows:

The cost of medical care and hospitalization of any child so injured will be met in a sum not to exceed $20,000 and the funeral expenses of any child dying from injuries received while performing such duty will be met in a sum not to exceed $1,500. A death benefit in the principal sum of $5,000 shall be awarded to the legal guardian, parents, or designated beneficiary or beneficiaries of the child whose death was caused by reason of participation in junior police activities.

The State shall procure insurance to protect any child participating in the junior police program from claims for damages arising or resulting from the child’s activities as a junior officer in an amount not to exceed $100,000 for each claim or cause of action. This protection for legal liability shall inure to the benefit of the legal guardian or parents of the child in the event they are named as parties to the action.

The right of the child or of any other person lawfully claiming damages by reason of injuries to, or death of the child, shall in nowise be affected by this section.