36 states require sport-specific emergency actions plans. But not Ohio or Indiana. Why?

by Stephanie Kuzydym, Chris Renkel, WKRCFriday, October 29th 2021

https://local12.com/news/investigates/athletes-at-risk/36-states-require-sport-specific-emergency-actions-plans-but-not-ohio-or-indiana-why-cincinnati-eap-athletic-trainers

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - As part of our ongoing series, Athletes AT Risk, Local 12 made a commitment last November to educate more about emergency action plans for sports.

During that time, two states passed legislation surrounding emergency action plans.

You probably know what to do when a fire alarm rings. But how about handling a 9-1-1 call during an emergency response situation?

"In an emergency, you don’t have time to look at the plan, you don’t have time to stop and think," Ky. state representative Joni Jenkins told Local 12 Investigates last year. "You need to react very quickly."

Jenkins created the law in Kentucky that mandates that schools practice their sport-specific emergency action plans.

That's because when an emergency happens after the school bell rings, athletic departments refer to an EAP or emergency action plan – for situations like when an athlete has to be carted off a field on a spine board.

Local 12 Investigates reported last year that a Kentucky law mandates schools adopt and implement sport-specific emergency action plans.

"Just as we practice fire drills and other things, so when that happens, there’s no running back to look at the plan, it’s like we know exactly what we’re going to do," Jenkins said.

But on an Ohio or Indiana sideline, the same practices aren't in place.

For athletic trainers like April Gutbier, emergency response is about knowing the plan ahead of time.

"That’s a big thing is making sure we're doing exactly what is needed as quickly as possible to make sure that athlete is safe," Gutbier said.

During the last year, we’ve asked legislators and state agencies why Ohio or Indiana don’t mandate sport EAPs, nobody could give us a clear answer, including OHSAA executive director Doug Ute.

"Well I think that the awareness piece to our member school is certainly out there," Ute said during a Zoom call with Local 12.

Instead, local athletic trainers and athletic departments have moved forward on their own without guidance from the state.

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine did sign a law Wednesday for athlete health and safety. It updated a 30-year old law that governs the care an athletic trainer can provide on the sidelines.

In the last year, though, two states did what Ohio and Indiana haven’t.

Connecticut and New Hampshire mandated sport-specific EAPs.

Both came following a meeting between the Korey Stringer Institute and the state sport association and athletic trainers.

That meeting is called Team Up For Sport Safety.

Christianne Eason is the president of sport safety for the Institute.

"But in both of these situations, it was really the state that was propelling it and KSI was able to come in in a supporting role," Eason said. "There was really recognition that these bills would be very impactful to the safety and well-being of their student-athletes."

Now, 36 states require sport-specific emergency action plans.

Ohio and Indiana are not part of the 36. Kentucky is.

To create and implement a sport-specific EAP, what is the cost to state legislatures, schools and their budgets?

"From an emergency action plan perspective, the only cost is the time that’s associated with drafting them," Eason said, "and I don’t want to minimize that but from a budgetary plan, an emergency action plan does not cost a school anything."

Not only do some require EAPs, some states, like Kentucky, also require them to be venue-specific.

KSI did hold an abbreviated version of the Team Up For Sport Safety meeting with Ohio virtually this summer.