88R14265 PRL-D
By: Martinez Fischer H.B. No. 4223
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to youth injury mitigation and information training for
coaches and youth athletics personnel.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subtitle B, Title 13, Occupations Code, is
amended by adding Chapter 2053 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 2053. COACHES AND ATHLETICS PERSONNEL
Sec. 2053.001. SHORT TITLE. This chapter may be cited as
the Coach Safely Act.
Sec. 2053.002. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
(1) "Association" means an organization that
administers or conducts high-risk youth athletics activities on
property owned, leased, managed, or maintained by this state, an
agent of this state, or a state agency or political subdivision of
this state.
(2) "Athletics personnel" means athletic directors
and other persons actively involved in organizing, training, or
coaching sports activities for youth who are 14 years of age or
younger.
(3) "Coach" means any individual, whether paid,
unpaid, volunteer, or interim, who an association has approved to
organize, train, or supervise a youth athlete or team of youth
athletes. If an individual approved by the association is
unavailable, the term may include an individual selected by a youth
athlete or a team of youth athletes who has not been approved by the
association.
(4) "High-risk youth athletics activities" means any
organized sport with a significant possibility for a youth athlete
participating in the sport to sustain a serious physical injury,
including:
(A) baseball;
(B) basketball;
(C) cheerleading;
(D) field hockey;
(E) football;
(F) ice hockey;
(G) lacrosse;
(H) soccer; and
(I) volleyball.
(5) "Youth athlete" means an individual younger than
15 years of age that participates in an organized sport.
Sec. 2053.003. APPLICABILITY AND CONSTRUCTION OF CHAPTER.
(a) This chapter does not apply to:
(1) athletic trainers;
(2) physicians licensed to practice medicine in this
state;
(3) nurses licensed to practice nursing in this state;
(4) first responders; and
(5) any other health care professionals with acute
traumatic life support training.
(b) This chapter does not:
(1) eliminate the involvement of athletic trainers at
youth athletic events; or
(2) impose any additional liability on political
subdivisions of this state.
Sec. 2053.004. TRAINING POLICY; YOUTH INJURY MITIGATION AND
INFORMATION COURSE. (a) A youth athletics association that
sponsors or conducts sports training or high-risk youth athletic
activities for youth athletes shall adopt a policy to require all
the association's coaches and athletics personnel to complete, if
available at no cost, a youth injury mitigation and information
course that provides information on and awareness of actions and
measures that may be used to decrease the likelihood of a youth
athlete sustaining a serious injury while engaged or participating
in a high-risk youth athletic activity. The course may be online or
in person and must be approved by the Department of State Health
Services.
(b) A youth injury mitigation and information course must
provide information on:
(1) emergency preparedness, planning, and rehearsal
for traumatic injuries;
(2) concussions and head trauma;
(3) heat and extreme weather-related injury
familiarization;
(4) physical conditioning and training equipment
usage; and
(5) heart defects and abnormalities leading to sudden
cardiac arrest and death.
(c) A person required to complete a youth injury mitigation
and information course under this section must complete the course
not later than the 30th day following the date the person becomes
actively engaged in or serves as a coach or member of the athletic
personnel for an association.
(d) A person required to take a youth injury mitigation and
information course under this section shall annually complete the
course not later than the anniversary of the date the person became
actively engaged in serving as a coach or member of the athletics
personnel for an association.
Sec. 2053.005. RECORDS OF COURSE COMPLETION. An
association that conducts a high-risk youth athletic activity or
event that requires a coach or a member of the athletics personnel
to complete a youth injury mitigation and information course under
Section 2053.004 shall maintain a record of the individual's course
completion during the period the person serves as a coach or member
of the athletics personnel for that association.
Sec. 2053.006. IMMUNITY FROM LIABILITY. A coach or member
of the athletics personnel of an association is immune from civil
liability for any injury sustained by a youth athlete as a result of
participation in a high-risk youth athletic activity on
establishing that the coach or member:
(1) completed the injury mitigation and information
course required under Section 2053.004; and
(2) reasonably conformed their conduct to the safety
techniques and methods identified in the course.
SECTION 2. As soon as practicable after the effective date
of this Act, the executive commissioner of the Health and Human
Services Commission shall adopt the rules necessary to implement
Chapter 2053, Occupations Code, as added by this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.