Concussions in Youth Athletes - Maryland

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Maryland

Governor O’Malley signed SB 771/HB 858 into law on May 19, 2011. This law can be found at section 7-433 of the Maryland Code, under the education title, in the division related to elementary and secondary education and the chapter devoted to public schools, in the section on the health and safety of students. (Md. Code Ann. Educ. § 7-433).

This law requires the Department of Education to develop policies and a program of concussion awareness for staff, students, coaches and parents/guardians of student athletes. The law requires that before a student participates in any athletic activity, the student and their parents/guardians must sign a concussion information form. A student must be removed from play if they are suspected of sustaining a concussion and may not return to play until cleared in writing by a health care professional.

Before an individual may participate in an authorized athletic activity on school property, the parents of the individual must be given an information form on concussions and sign an acknowledgment of its receipt. Youth sports programs that use public school facilities must annually provide to the county board a statement of their intent to comply with all the requirements of this section.

The entire Maryland Code, including new sections, can currently be found online at:

http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/mdcode/ (search LexisNexis and search terms and connectors and table of contents for 7-433).

On February 3, 2012, Senate Bill 557 was introduced. The bill deals with a significant proposed amendments to many aspects of Maryland Public School Law. If enacted in its present form, it would eliminate a number of elements of the current statute while keeping others intact.

The text of the SB 557 can be viewed online at:

http://mlis.state.md.us/2012rs/billfile/SB0557.htm