The final step in the implementation of Rowan’s Law will come into effect on July 1, 2020.
The implementation of Rowan’s Law began as a result of the death of Rowan Stringer, a 17-year-old girl from Ottawa who passed away after suffering multiple concussions in 2013.
The private members bill received royal assent at the Ontario Legislature on March 7,2018 and since then many regulations and protocols have been put into place to keep athletes at risk of concussions safe. The legislature opted for a phased in approach to the implementation of the Rowan’s Law recommendations which made it mandatory for sports organizations to:
- Ensure that athletes under the age of 26, parents of athletes under 18, coaches, team trainers and officials confirm every year that they have reviewed Ontario’s Concussion Awareness Resources
- Establish a Concussion Code of Conduct that sets out rules of behaviour to support concussion prevention
- Establish a Removal-from-Sport and Return-to-Sport protocol
The requirement for Ontario sport organizations to implement a Concussion Code of Conduct came into effect on July 1, 2019. Both the Removal-from-Sport and Return-to-Sport protocol are required to be implemented by July 1 2020.
All sport organizations in Ontario are required to have a Removal-from-Sport document that outlines a specific process to implement the immediate removal of an athlete who is expected to have sustained a concussion. The document will also outline a person within the organization who is responsible for ensuring that the athlete is immediately removed from the practice, training or competition, a parent/guardian is informed of the removal if the athlete is under the age of 18, and that the athlete is not permitted to return to the sport unless the requirements outlined by the Return-to-Sport protocol are met.
The Return-to-Sport protocol document will establish a specific process to implement the return to training, practice or competition after an athlete has sustained or is expected to have sustained a concussion. One person in the organization must be deemed responsible for ensuring that the athlete does not return to the sport until all the requirements under the organization’s Return-to-Sport protocol are met.
Templates for creating the Removal-from-Sport and Return-to-Sport protocols can be found here .
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