CHAPTER 50
FORMERLY
SENATE BILL NO. 69
AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LICENSED ATHLETIC TRAINERS.
WHEREAS, in 2009-10, 28,458 student athletes participated in interscholastic athletics at the high school level in Delaware; and
WHEREAS, athletic trainers work to improve health care for student athletes by providing prevention, management, and rehabilitation of athletic injuries.
WHEREAS, in lower socio-economic student athletes this may be their only form of care for an athletic injury; and
WHEREAS, students are most active and most at risk after school hours when physical activity is occurring and appropriate healthcare is not always present; and
WHEREAS, research has shown a reduction in injury rates among high school athletes where an athletic trainer is present during physical activity; and
WHEREAS, research has shown that student athletes have higher school attendance, higher grades and higher standardized test scores, higher rates of college admittance, lower obesity, lower teen pregnancy and increased parental participation; and
WHEREAS, the Delaware Athletic Trainers Association wishes the recognition of the job title ‘athletic trainer’ in the Delaware Code so that schools may, if they have state funds available and not by mandate, directly employ a full time athletic trainer by matching local funds with state funds; and
WHEREAS, the Delaware School Nurses Association, Delaware Academy of Family Physicians, and Medical Society of Delaware – School Health Committee have provided letters of support for such a recognition of the athletic trainer;
NOW THEREFORE:
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:
Section 1. AMEND §1716(c), Title 14 of the Delaware Code by adding at the end of the subsection the following:
"Provided further, a unit for academic excellence may be used to hire a school employed athletic trainer licensed by the Delaware Board of Physical Therapists and Athletic Trainers in a school that is a member of the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association and that offers interscholastic contact or collision sports."
Section 2. Amend §1716(d), Title 14 of the Delaware Code by adding the following at the end of the sentence:
"; except that a school district shall not be permitted to use pupil units provided under §1703 of this title to employ a licensed athletic trainer."
Approved June 22, 2011