Developing School Environmental Health and Safety Policies

Every year, school districts across the country are faced with the daunting task of providing competitive and safe athletic programs for their students, staff and fans while operating on limited budgets. When there are activities that require outdoor athletic participation, the environmental health and safety plan should not be handled with a four-leaf clover in one hand and horseshoe in the other while hoping for the best.

It is important to implement best practice environmental health and safety policies to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved. These policies often require little to no budget and reduce the risk of injury to student-athletes.

Proactive planning in prevention is the key to strong policy development. Often the mindset is, “Why do we need a hot or cold weather policy for our school? No one has suffered from a serious injury or died in our school due to playing sports in the heat or cold.”

These are common questions and responses heard from many school districts across the country. Hopefully, all schools adhere to a lightning policy even though there may have never been a catastrophic lightning event during athletic participation at their school. Schools on the Gulf or East Coast may implement a hurricane policy. In the Midwest, schools in line with tornado alley should follow a tornado policy. Wildfires or other events which cause poor air quality should force schools to adhere to air quality policies when faced with outdoor activities. Athletic health and safety policies fall into the category of those things which we should have in place but never hope to need.

It is important for the school district to set the foundation and develop these policies. Heat and cold weather policies should vary between the different regions of the country. While a lightning policy should be a one-size-fits-all plan, heat and cold policies should factor in geographical considerations. Where the school is located should play a major role in developing heat and cold weather policies.

In addition, it is important for school personnel to remember when developing any new policies that they do not need to reinvent the wheel. The individuals who are creating the policy should investigate the best practice policies published and supported by other organizations such as the NFHS, National Athletic Trainers’ Association, Korey Stringer Institute, NCAA, American College of Sports Medicine, and the United States Military, to name a few. They should also consult with the athletic health and safety departments of the colleges and universities in their state or region.

Finally, meteorologists from local news affiliates may be able to assist by providing historical weather data specific to the region where the school is located during any given time of year. It is important to anticipate expected weather conditions, and this can help set the foundation for the development of site-specific environmental policies.

When developing heat and cold guidelines, it is important for the administrator to understand that what is adversely cold for participants in Texas may not be adversely cold for a participant in Minnesota. On the flip side, a school in Florida should have a different heat policy than a school in one of the New England states. As previously stated, policies such as lightning or air quality do not have a regional factor that applies for some parts of the country but not others.

School districts should be able to defend their environmental policies, and health and safety policies should never be based on opinion. Comments such us “our kids are different” or “we use common sense and don’t need a policy for that” are not best practices and will not hold up in a court of law. The most effective policies use evidence-based practice and research published in peer-reviewed journals as guidance. Using scientifically supported data ensures that policy contains the best available, current, valid and reliable information. Each policy should include properly placed footnotes after the appropriate text and corresponding references at the end of the policy. This permits the reader to visit the specific reference site if more information is desired.

The most comprehensive environmental athletic health and safety policies serve no purpose if only left in a binder untouched on an administrator’s desk. They should be developed with input and approved by the Athletic Health Care Team (AHCT). This group should include an athletic administrator, athletic trainer, school nurse, a coach and anyone else deemed essential by the district. These policies should be reviewed and practiced yearly, at a minimum.

The AHCT will help ensure that all members of this team move into action without missing a beat. From a legal perspective, documentation of review and practice is equally important. Following the practice, the AHCT should meet and discuss any points of issue with the dry run of the specific policy. During this time, appropriate adjustments addressing the issues with the policy should be confirmed, documented and sent to all members of the AHCT. If the emergency response and care of an injured student-athlete were to reach litigation, the court will request both the written policies and documentation showing proof of review and practice to maintain proficiency of the actions described in the specific policy.

When the time comes to introduce the new environmental policies, agree on three milestone dates over the span of the school year. The first date serves as a soft implementation at the beginning of the school year. Schools should test run the policies and make notes of any issues. The second date falls in spring of the school year and marks the deadline in which schools can submit to their state athletic/activities association all issues with implementation. This provides time for the state association’s sports medicine committee to review all submissions and make any appropriate policy adjustments. The third date serves as the hard implementation by all member schools of the state association.

Since the operations of state associations and school districts vary across the country, there can be no cookbook answer to the specific components of their health and safety policies. However, the strategies visited for setting the foundation and effective implementation may be used across the board.