HB45 Alabama 2023 Session

Under existing law, local boards of education and sports organizations are not required to adhere to any protocol if a student athlete exhibits symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest

This bill would create the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention Act and would require the State Board of Education to adopt certain guidelines to inform and educate student athletes, parents, and coaches about the signs and symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest

This bill would require each student athlete and his or her parent or guardian to provide written acknowledgment of receipt of information about sudden cardiac arrest before the student may participate in any athletic activity

This bill would require a student who passes out, faints, or exhibits symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest to be pulled from the athletic activity, and would prohibit the student from returning to the athletic activity until an appropriate medical professional provides written clearance for his or her return

This bill would require each coach of an athletic activity to receive annual training relating to sudden cardiac arrest, and would provide that a HB45 INTRODUCED coach may be suspended if he or she does not complete the necessary training, or if he or she fails to pull a student from an athletic activity for fainting or exhibiting symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest

This bill would protect a coach from liability related to a student who exhibits symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest, unless the coach is reckless or grossly negligent

Relating to public K-12 sports; to create the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention Act; to require the State Board of Education to adopt certain guidelines and information sheets regarding sudden cardiac arrest and distribute those information sheets to students, parents, and coaches; to require coaches to undergo certain training related to sudden cardiac arrest and to remove students who exhibit symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest from play; to require students and parents to acknowledge consent of certain informational materials related to sudden cardiac arrest; to establish certain penalties for coaches and to protect a coach from certain liability related to sudden cardiac arrest.