State High School Sports Safety Policies

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.

State High School Sports Safety Policies Press Conference

2022 State High School Sports Safety Policy Evaluation

Rank

State 

Score (%)

1 Florida 86.04
2 New Jersey 85.00
3 Georgia 81.67
4 Kentucky 71.75
5 New Hampshire 71.20
6 District of Columbia 71.00
7 Massachusetts 69.40
8 North Carolina 68.58
9 Tennessee 67.35
10 Louisiana 66.00
11 Washington 63.13
12 Arizona 62.20
13 Missouri 62.00
14 Hawaii 61.33
15 Arkansas 61.20
16 Delaware 59.35
17 Wisconsin 58.13
18 Illinois 58.00
19 South Dakota 57.95
20 Texas 57.60
21 Virginia 54.20
22 New Mexico 54.06
23 Utah 54.00
24 Mississippi 52.00
25 New York 51.38
26 Kansas 50.60
26 Vermont 50.60
28 Alabama 49.70
29 Connecticut 48.94
30 Oregon 48.59
31 Indiana 48.00
32 Ohio 47.93
33 Alaska 47.40
34 Nevada 47.00
35 Nebraska 46.50
36 Idaho 46.00
37 Maryland 45.83
38 South Carolina 45.80
39 Pennsylvania 45.00
40 Rhode Island 44.73
41 West Virginia 44.40
42 Michigan 42.73
43 North Dakota 42.00
44 Iowa 41.00
44 Wyoming 41.00
46 Colorado 40.80
47 Oklahoma 38.90
48 Montana 38.25
49 Minnesota 37.55
50 Maine 36.80
51 California 30.80

updated 09.22.2022