When is Rowan’s Law Day?
Each year Rowan’s Law Day occurs on the last Wednesday of September. This year the province of Ontario is honouring Rowan’s Law Day on September 27th, 2023.
The intention of Rowan’s Law Day is to help raise awareness about concussions and head injuries. School educators, coaches and all those involved in sports are encouraged to share information about concussion prevention, identifying concussions, post-concussion syndrome, and second impact syndrome.
Does your club use Uplifter’s software? For general guidance on setting up a Rowan’s Law policy using Uplifter, click here.
Who was Rowan Stringer?
Rowan Stringer was a 17-year-old high school athlete who passed away from Second Impact Syndrome – severe swelling of the brain brought on by trauma experienced while an injured brain is still healing from a previous trauma. Stringer was the captain of her high school rugby team and attempted to play through two concussions suffered in a one-week period.
According to text messages with friends, Rowan was experiencing post-concussion symptoms but kept her injuries from her parents and coach, and avoided going to see a medical professional. She chose to play-through her injuries – something that is not uncommon in sports – and tragically suffered another head injury during play, which ended her life.
For more about Rowan Stringer’s story, you can read features by the National Post and CBC.
What is Rowan’s Law?
In 2018, five years after Rowan’s passing, the Ontario Provincial government introduced Rowan’s Law to raise awareness about concussions, and ultimately build a framework to help guide concussion intervention for athletes, parents, coaches and all those involved in sport.
The intention of Rowan’s Law is perhaps best summarized by her father, Gordan Stringer, who has said, “we need to have the educators, the parents, the athletes, the administrators, all talking the same language, and intervening when someone may not be able to declare [a concussion] on their own.” By working together as a sports community, we can create an informed environment for athletes to safely enjoy sport.
Concussion Safety and the Impact of Rowan’s Law for Sports Clubs
Sports clubs, schools, and organizations across the province of Ontario are now required to create a series of policies that address concussions. In addition to a Concussion Code of Conduct, the Ontario government requires clubs to have documents that record confirmation from athletes, parents or guardians that they have reviewed this Code of Conduct and any other concussion awareness resources a sports club provides.
IMPORTANT REQUIREMENTS FOR SPORT CLUBS & ORGANIZATIONS
1) Rowan’s Law and Sports Club Registration
As set out by Rowan’s Law (Concussion Safety), 2018, S.O. 2018, c. 1, sports clubs and organizations must not register individuals for their club unless the individual has confirmed that they have reviewed the club’s approved Concussion Code of Conduct.
If the individual registering for your sports club is under the age of 18, their parent or guardian must also provide confirmation that they have reviewed your club’s Concussion Code of Conduct.
For athletes under the age of 18, it’s very important that a sports club obtains confirmation from both the athlete and the parent or guardian. It is not sufficient to obtain confirmation from parents on behalf of their athlete.
2) A Sports Club’s Concussion Code of Conduct must be frequently reviewed
Rowan’s Law outlines that concussion awareness resources such as your club’s Concussion Code of Conduct, must be reviewed every 12 months by each athlete, parent or guardian, coach, official, volunteer, and administrator. This requirement helps ensure that everyone is kept up-to-date about concussion risks, safety, and club processes surrounding head injuries.
In accordance with this measure, each of these individuals must also submit an explicit confirmation indicating that they have reviewed your Code of Conduct.
3) Rowan’s Law Audit for Sports Clubs, Schools, and Organizations
The Government of Ontario intends to audit sports clubs, schools, and organizations to ensure that they are operating in accordance with Rowan’s Law. This means that a sports club, school, or organization must be able to produce concise records illustrating that each of their athletes, parents or guardians, coaches, officials, volunteers, and administrators have explicitly confirmed that they have reviewed the Concussion Code of Conduct within the past 12 months.
Therefore, it is in the best interest of clubs, schools and associations to keep a clear, date-stamped, record of these confirmations.
4) Continued Concussion Education for Clubs
Additional or continued concussion education is welcomed in Rowan’s Law. Rowan’s Law (Concussion Safety), 2018, S.O. 2018, c. 1 states that “Nothing in [the law as it currently exists] prevents a sport organization from offering additional resources or information relating to concussions to any individuals.” Clubs, schools, and organizations are therefore free to offer additional resources or information relating to concussions in their effort to educate athletes, parents, coaches, volunteers and administrators.
How Uplifter’s Software Supports Rowan’s Law
Uplifter fully supports having your parents and athletes complete their Rowan’s Law acknowledgements through the online checkout process. By seamlessly presenting your Rowan’s Law policy during the checkout process, you can ensure your participants and their legal guardians can review and respond to these policies and that your club can collect all acknowledgments at the beginning of the season. Read more about how Uplifter’s software supports Rowan’s Law.
Making Rowan’s Law Visible at Sports Clubs, Schools and Organizations
As Gordon Stringer has stated, the intention of Rowan’s Law and Rowan’s Law Day, is to create a “cultural change” around concussions. The risk of injury is common at all levels of sport and Rowan Stringer’s desire to play through the symptoms of her injuries is not unusual among athletes. Therefore, changing the culture around concussions, must include changing the culture around injury.
As part of the concussion awareness materials shared by the government of Ontario, a simple poster summarizes this cultural change best. The poster features a football player in the fog with three simple words: “Hit. Stop. Sit.” The message is easy to follow. If an athlete takes a hard hit, they should be removed from the game and sit. By removing players from the game, it creates the opportunity for trainers, coaches, volunteers or even administrators to intervene.
This intervention is crucial for concussion safety. Whether it be from a desire to play through an injury or in the case of concussions, from a temporary cognitive inability to properly recognize an injury, intervention can be the difference between a short-term injury or lasting trauma.
To help promote concussion safety and concussion awareness at your club, you can download a copy of the “Hit. Stop. Sit” poster from the government of Ontario at this address: https://files.ontario.ca/mtcs-rowans-law-hit-stop-sit-poster-en-2019-05-14.pdf
Summary: Support Concussion Safety and Awareness All Year
In summary, sports clubs, schools and organizations must provide all parties involved in sports with concussion awareness resources that include a Concussion Code of Conduct. Each individual, including athletes, parents, coaches, volunteers, officials, administrators and more, are required to sign or explicitly confirm that they have reviewed these concussions awareness resources and Concussion Code of Conduct before they are allowed to register or participate in sports programming. Lastly, confirmations must be recorded and submitted every 12 months by each individual. More information on these requirements can always be found at www.ontario.ca/concussions.
Ultimately, by abiding by Rowan’s Law, Ontario’s sports clubs, schools and organizations can bring about a positive cultural change. By honoring Rowan’s Law Day throughout the year, we can all work together to create informed and aware participants engaging in safe play.
For more information about how your club’s Rowan’s Law policy can be integrated into your Uplifter software, review our Help Center article, see our Rowan’s Law policy structure examples, or contact the Uplifter Support Team.
