AB 2300 revises the California Youth Football Act to expand the ability of an emergency medical technician, paramedic, or higher-level licensed medical professional to “evaluate” student-athletes participating in tackle football games provided by a “youth sports organization,” and instead, specifies that a “certified emergency medical technician, state-licensed paramedic or higher-level licensed medical professional” may provide prehospital emergency care or rescue services consistent with their certification or license.
The California Youth Football Act defines a youth sports organization broadly as “an organization, business, or nonprofit entity that sponsors or conducts amateur sports competition, training, camps, clinics, practices, or clubs.” This bill applies to a school district, charter school, private school, or any organization or nonprofit entity that sponsors or conducts amateur youth tackle football competitions, training, camps, clinics, practices, or clubs or participate in a youth football league.
In 2019, the Legislature passed AB 1, which required youth sports organizations to put in place a number of safety measures by January 1, 2021, such as limiting full-contact portions of practice to 30 minutes in a day; annual training coaches on tackling and blocking; regular safety inspections of equipment; dissemination of information to parents about concussions and opioid use; and a number of other program requirements.
One of these safety measures was a requirement that at least one state-licensed emergency medical technician, paramedic, or higher-level licensed medical professional must be present during all preseason, regular season, and postseason games. AB 2300 modifies this requirement slightly to state that at least one certified emergency medical technician, state-licensed paramedic, or higher-level licensed medical professional (Professional) shall be present during all preseason, regular season, and postseason games.
Further, AB 2300 gives the Professional the authority to not only “evaluate and remove any youth tackle football participant from the game who exhibits an injury,” but expands this authority to provide “prehospital emergency medical care or rescue services consistent with their certification or license.”
(AB 2300 amends Section 124241 of the Health and Safety Code.)
