Preparing for an emergency should be the top priority for schools to ensure the safety of their athletes. Through the implementation of required policies and procedures, schools can be well prepared in the unfortunate event of a catastrophic injury.
At the Korey Stringer Institute, we have utilized best practice documents related to the top causes of sudden death in high school athletes to compile a group of policies that represent these best practices. These polices are relevant to the best practices developed for the top causes of sudden death in sport. Based off the “Inter-Association Task Force Document Preventing Sudden Death in Secondary School Athletics” document, the policies outlined on this website were evaluated directly from publicly available resources such as state high school associations and legislative websites.
Ranking of states regarding the implementation of evidence-based best practices for preventing and managing the leading causes of sudden death in secondary school athletics. State-Level Implementation of Health and Safety Policies to Prevent Sudden Death and Catastrophic Injuries Within Secondary School Athletics, the study which details the results, is publish in The Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine. A full recording of the press conference announcing the results is available.
2020 High School Sports Safety Policy Rankings
Rank |
State |
Score (%) |
| 1 | New Jersey | 83.40 |
| 2 | Massachusetts | 79.4 |
| 3 | North Carolina | 79.38 |
| 4 | Kentucky | 71.13 |
| 5 | Hawaii | 70.33 |
| 6 | Georgia | 70.2 |
| 7 | Oregon | 66.59 |
| 8 | Illinois | 63 |
| 8 | Missouri | 63 |
| 10 | Florida | 62.45 |
| 11 | South Dakota | 60.58 |
| 12 | Washington | 60 |
| 13 | Delaware | 59.35 |
| 14 | West Virginia | 59.33 |
| 15 | Wisconsin | 59.13 |
| 16 | District of Columbia | 58.55 |
| 17 | Arkansas | 56.83 |
| 18 | Mississippi | 55.25 |
| 19 | Tennessee | 54.73 |
| 20 | Utah | 54 |
| 20 | Arizona | 54 |
| 22 | Texas | 53.6 |
| 23 | Virginia | 53.4 |
| 24 | Alabama | 51.7 |
| 25 | New York | 50.75 |
| 26 | Pennsylvania | 49 |
| 27 | New Mexico | 48.7 |
| 28 | Vermont | 47.8 |
| 29 | Nebraska | 47.75 |
| 30 | Alaska | 47.4 |
| 31 | Maine | 47.1 |
| 32 | Nevada | 47 |
| 33 | South Carolina | 46.8 |
| 34 | Rhode Island | 46.73 |
| 35 | Kansas | 46.35 |
| 36 | Idaho | 46 |
| 36 | Indiana | 46 |
| 38 | Connecticut | 44.80 |
| 39 | Ohio | 43.93 |
| 40 | Maryland | 42.63 |
| 41 | New Hampshire | 42 |
| 42 | Louisiana | 41.8 |
| 43 | Oklahoma | 41.3 |
| 44 | Michigan | 39.73 |
| 45 | Iowa | 39 |
| 46 | Minnesota | 38.98 |
| 47 | North Dakota | 38 |
| 48 | Wyoming | 37 |
| 49 | Colorado | 34.4 |
| 50 | Montana | 33.25 |
| 51 | California | 30.8 |
updated 2.28.2020