Class 6A programs required to report all concussions

The University Interscholastic League’s legislative council voted Monday to require Class 6A athletic teams to report any and all concussions.

It’s an extension of the league’s concussion tracking program that was started in 2016 in conjunction with the O’Donnell Brain Institute at UT Southwestern in Dallas. Previously, schools participated on a voluntary basis.

It will now be mandatory for schools in the state’s largest classification (252 schools in football) to answer a dozen questions about each concussion, including when it occurred and how it came about.

Schools in the state’s other five classifications can still report voluntarily.

This already was described as the most comprehensive program in the country on concussions. But the mandate, which starts for the 2019-20 school year, furthers UT Southwestern and the UIL’s efforts.

“This is the first of its kind quality-improvement program in the country, certainly the largest,” UIL deputy director Jamey Harrison said Tuesday.

Michigan also requires mandatory reporting in a program that started in 2015. All 50 states by 2014 had passed rules or laws to address concussions in youth athletics, with all including some provision that an athlete suspected of having a concussion be removed from play.

A goal of the program is to determine the frequency of concussions, said Dr. Munro Cullum, a professor at the institute.