Florida Senate - 2019                                    SB 1696
       
       
        
       By Senator Broxson
       
       
       
       
       
       1-01954-19                                            20191696__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to youth athletic activity; creating
    3         s. 381.796, F.S.; defining the terms “athletics
    4         personnel” and “high-risk youth athletic activity”;
    5         requiring an entity that administers or conducts a
    6         high-risk youth athletic activity or training related
    7         to such activity on certain property to require
    8         certain unpaid or volunteer personnel to complete a
    9         specified course; requiring such personnel to complete
   10         the course within a specified number of days and then
   11         annually thereafter; authorizing the course to be
   12         offered online or in person; prohibiting personnel
   13         from being charged a fee for the course; requiring the
   14         course to include specified information; exempting
   15         licensed athletic trainers from being required to take
   16         the course; requiring the Department of Health to
   17         adopt rules to implement the act; providing an
   18         effective date.
   19          
   20  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   21  
   22         Section 1. Section 381.796, Florida Statutes, is created to
   23  read:
   24         381.796 High-risk youth athletic activities.—
   25         (1) For the purposes of this section, the term:
   26         (a) “Athletics personnel” means an individual who is
   27  actively involved in organizing, conducting, or coaching a high
   28  risk youth athletic activity or an individual involved with
   29  training a child for participation in a high-risk youth athletic
   30  activity.
   31         (b) “High-risk youth athletic activity” means any organized
   32  sport for children 14 years of age or younger in which there is
   33  a significant possibility for the child to sustain a serious
   34  physical injury. The term includes, but is not limited to, the
   35  sports of football, basketball, baseball, volleyball, soccer,
   36  ice or field hockey, cheerleading, and lacrosse.
   37         (2) Any entity that administers or conducts a high-risk
   38  youth athletic activity, or training for such activity, on land
   39  owned, leased, operated, or maintained by the state or a
   40  political subdivision of the state must require any unpaid or
   41  volunteer athletics personnel to complete a Department of Health
   42  approved course that provides him or her with information on how
   43  to prevent or decrease the chances of a participant in a high
   44  risk youth athletic activity from sustaining a serious injury.
   45         (a) The course must be completed within 30 days of such
   46  athletics personnel’s initial involvement with the high-risk
   47  youth athletic activity and must be completed annually
   48  thereafter.
   49         (b) The course may be offered online or in person, and the
   50  athletics personnel may not be charged any fee relating to the
   51  course.
   52         (c) The course must include information on:
   53         1. Emergency preparedness, planning, and rehearsal in
   54  relation to traumatic injuries;
   55         2. Concussions and head trauma;
   56         3. Injuries resulting from heat or extreme weather; and
   57         4. Physical conditioning and the proper use of training
   58  equipment.
   59         (d) Such entity must maintain a record of each athletics
   60  personnel who completes the course for the entirety of his or
   61  her service as an unpaid or volunteer athletics personnel.
   62         (3) An athletic trainer licensed under chapter 468 is
   63  exempt from the course requirements in this section.
   64         (4) The department shall adopt rules to implement this
   65  section.
   66         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2019.