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Parents, As required by law, we need to get the parent
athlete formed about the concussion law and any potential
issues your swimmer has signed and returned to us so that we can
keep it on file. More information is
available below. Please let us know if you have any
questions. we are being directed to do this by Pacific
Northwest Swimming.
Please click here for the form that
must be signed and returned to a coach by Friday, October 23rd.
Pacific
Northwest Swimming
Zackery
Lystedt Law Requirements
The Lystedt Law dealing with concussion
and brain injury in youth sports was passed this spring and became
law in Washington on July 26th. Most of us thought little of it
until three weeks ago when several of our clubs received a surprise
when they went to renew their contracts for pool time with school
districts which owned their pools. These teams asked our LSC office
for help, the problem was given to me to look into, and I found the
following.
Despite the first impression of the
new law, it does not only apply to teams or clubs using public
school facilities, but to all youth sports in the state. The law
sets out certain requirements and gives responsibility for
implementation to the Washington Interscholastic Activities
Association (WIAA), the organization that runs high school and
middle school sports. Normally the WIAA has nothing to do with us,
but in this one narrow area the legislature has given them
authority over us. Note that the legislature and WIAA have gone no
further than to simply make mandatory the recommendations of the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a federal health agency. The
most important requirement of the law is that whenever a youth
athlete suffers any possible concussion that the athlete must be
withheld from all practice or competition until a competent medical
professional has cleared the athlete in writing to return.
“If in doubt, the athlete sits out.”
WIAA (actually, CDC) has developed a
number of materials on this topic, in both English and Spanish.
They require or recommend a series of forms and information sheets
with 5 elements: a statement of compliance form, a parent/athlete
form to be signed by both athlete and parent each year or season
and returned to be kept on file, a coach information packet, an
athlete information packet, and a parent information packet. The
first three of these are required. Because we are a low impact
sport, and because they merely repeat and amplify information
already found in the parent/athlete form, I see no need to send the
athlete information packet or the parent information packet. I have
prepared copies of the three required elements modified for our
use, they are attached.
The above form is probably the key one, it is
the parent/athlete form. This form must be sent or given by
the club to every athlete and their parents. The form contains
important information about concussion that athletes and their
parents should know (satisfying the requirement of the law that
they be informed and educated) and a place for signatures of the
athlete and one of his/her parents. This form must then be returned
to the club (both signatures are required by law for all athletes
under 18, I recommend for the club’s protection that they
also get athlete signatures for athletes over 18) and kept on file.
I would keep these on file (separate file for each year) for at
least 5 years to guard against future legal action. The letter of
the law requires that this form with both signatures be on file
before the athlete is allowed to practice or compete, but since
this is new to everyone I would not pull the kids out of the water.
I would strongly urge clubs however to get this done and on file as
quickly as possible, and certainly before their first meet. Next
year clubs must plan for full compliance prior to the season start
of practice.
All three of these forms are to be used annually for a single
season (Sep. to Aug.).
For your information, all youth sports in
the state are scrambling to catch up with the new requirements.
Soccer is probably doing the best job, they use all 5 elements and
require the parent/athlete form with both signatures as part of
their registration process through their central office. No one
gets on a field for practice unless all requirements are met in
advance.
The
law applies to all athletes younger than 18 competing in the state,
no matter where they live. For hosting swim meets with teams or
swimmers from outside Washington, host teams will have to get
parent/athlete forms with both signatures from each athlete. I
expect this could best be done as part of the meet entry. Again, I
would save these forms for at least 5 years, filed by meet. The
host team would have to provide a coach information packet to each
out of state coach at the meet.
For further information please see the
following websites:
http://wiaa.com/ConcussionManagement/default.htm
www.cdc.gov/ConcussionInYouthSports
Kevin Fraley
PNS Safety Chair
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