Rep. George Miller of California, the top Democrat on the House education committee, called today for the Government Accountability Office to investigate the prevalence of sexual and other abuse among student-athletes.

"Recent reports about the abuse of student-athletes participating in public and private swim clubs have raised a number of new concerns about whether we have adequate laws and policies in place to prevent and address such abuse," Miller wrote in his letter to the GAO. "Accordingly, I write today to supplement my July 2012 request to include information about the prevalence of abuse among student-athletes and the manner in which such abuse cases are reported, investigated and resolved."

Fueled by the sex-abuse scandal involving a former Pennsylvania State University assistant football coach, Miller asked the GAO in the summer of 2012 to examine whether existing laws adequately prevent child abuse in K-12 schools or on college campuses. Most states have clear laws requiring K-12 teachers and other school employees to report suspicions of abuse to police, experts told my colleagues Nirvi Shah and Lesli Maxwell in the aftermath of the Penn State scandal, but many suspicions still end up going unreported.

Mary Jo McGrath, an education lawyer in Santa Barbara, Calif., told Nirvi and Lesli that some school personnel go through a period of denial after learning about sex-abuse allegations, because "what they are confronted with is so horrific and so outside their perception of what is possible."

In Miller's latest letter to the GAO, he notes that child-protection laws "are not specifically directed toward student-athletes and their participation in athletic clubs," which raises questions about the situations in which abuse allegations must be reported. He specifically cited Rick Curl, the founder of a Washington-based swim club, who signed a nondisclosure agreement with a youth swimmer back in 1989 after being accused of molesting her. Curl was sentenced last month to seven years in prison for his sexual abuse of that swimmer, according to The Washington Post.

Miller requests that the GAO address five questions in its investigation:

• The prevalence of sexual and other abuse among student-athletes participating in athletic clubs;

• How incidences of abuse that occur on school property are reported, investigated, and resolved;

• How athletic clubs report, investigate, and resolve incidents of alleged sexual or other abuse, including what responsibilities apply to the club's leadership, coaches, and staff;

• What policies and procedures are in place to prevent and deter child-sex abuse among student-atheletes; and

• How conflicts between mandatory child-abuse reporting laws and the rules and regulations governing athletic clubs are identified and resolved.

This new line of investigation would be folded into the GAO's ongoing investigation of child-abuse-reporting laws, according to a statement from Miller.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

South Carolina has become the 49th state with a youth-concussion law on the books.

The legislation, which mirrors many other states' laws, was signed by Gov. Nikki Haley on June 7. It went into effect immediately, which means student-athletes will be subject to the new policy starting in the 2013-14 school year.

The new law requires all school districts to distribute a concussion-information form to all coaches, volunteers, student-athletes, and the parents and guardians of student-athletes. Before a student-athlete is allowed to participate in any school-based sports, he or she must have a parent sign the information sheet and return it to the school.

If a coach, athletic trainer, official, or physician suspects a student-athlete has sustained a concussion either during practice or competition, the student-athlete must be removed from play under the new law. He or she may return to play that day if and only if an athletic trainer, physician, physician's assistant, or nurse practitioner evaluates the athlete and determines that he or she has no signs or symptoms of a concussion.

If a student-athlete who's removed from play does exhibit signs or symptoms of a concussion, he or she must obtain written clearance from a physician before returning to play. The law specifically notes that cheerleaders are included in the definition of "student-athlete" for the purposes of the regulations.

"In the past, a lot of times a coach would say, 'Oh, you just got your bell rung. Get back in there,' " said Craig Clark, president-elect of the South Carolina Athletic Trainers' Association, to the Associated Press. "Now with the education component, we hope coaches and parents have a better understanding of the signs and symptoms and realize it's serious."

One thing the law lacks, however, is any sort of specified mandatory concussion training for coaches, officials, or athletic trainers. Just over half the states with youth-concussion laws include some form of mandatory training for coaches, according to a study published earlier this year, while a handful of states additionally require concussion training for athletic trainers and officials.

With South Carolina's enactment of this legislation, Mississippi is the only state without any form of youth-concussion law. Three youth-concussion bills were introduced during the 2013 legislative session, but none advanced past committees.

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"Angry Birds" isn't the only game with a bevy of underlying mathematical and scientific principles.

A new 10-part online series from NBC Learn (the educational arm of NBC News), the United States Golf Association (USGA), and Chevron Corp. explores the science behind the game of golf.

The videos, available for free online, were made "to provide teachers and students with high-quality engaging stories that demonstrate that STEM is everywhere in the world around us, including our favorite sports," said Mark Miano, senior producer for NBC Learn, via email. Each video tackles a different scientific or mathematical concept, such as friction and spin, the physics of the golf swing, and how to calculate a golfer's handicap.

The National Science Teachers' Association will be releasing lesson plans to go along with all 10 videos within the next week, Miano said. After beginning to watch one of the videos, teachers can access the lessons by clicking the "Lessons" tab on that particular video. All the lesson plans will be aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards, according to Miano.

"The stories can help supplement a lesson, illustrate a science concept, or serve as a simple 'bell-ringer' to engage students," Miano said. "Some teachers use just parts of the stories—often the amazing graphics or slow-motion footage—to review a particular concept or present a problem for the class to work on together."

With the help of the USGA, NBC Learn enlisted a handful of amateur and professional golfers to help demonstrate the concepts discussed in each video. NBC's high-speed "Phantom" camera, which can capture movement at up to 10,000 frames per second, allows for a slow-motion view of the scientific principles at play in golf.

Longtime readers of this blog may remember an interview I conducted with professional golfer Phil Mickelson last summer, in which he also touted the benefits of STEM knowledge in regard to his golfing career.

"Putting has an exponential falloff as you go away from the hole," he explained. "I'll make 100 percent of my shots from 3 feet away from the hole, 90 percent from 4 feet, 70 percent from 5 feet, 63 percent from 6 feet. Every foot away from the hole is critical."

That knowledge inspires Mickelson to spend most of his practice time within 150 feet of the hole, aiming to land his approach shots within a 12-15 foot radius from the hole.

The "Science of Golf" is the fifth series in NBC Learn's "Science of Sports" series. Previous "Science of" series have covered NFL football, NHL hockey, the Summer Olympics (tied the London 2012 Games), and the Winter Olympics. NBC Learn has already started production on "Science of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games," Miano said, in partnership with the National Science Foundation. It's planned to launch in mid-January, right before the Sochi Games begin.

For those who can't get enough of the "Science of Golf" series, 10 more videos will be launched next year, right before the start of the 2014 U.S. Open.

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Within the past week, two 8th graders have been offered college football scholarships by universities in California.

On Tuesday, quarterback Lindell Stone, who just finished 8th grade at Dawson Middle School in Texas, received a scholarship offer from the University of California, Los Angeles, according to ESPN.com.

"I'm very grateful right now," Stone said to ESPN.com on Wednesday. "We're really not focused on recruiting right now. We're more focused on getting on the field at high school and helping a team win a championship, but this is big. It's finally showing how hard I've worked."

Stone told ESPN that UCLA's reputation as an academically prestigious institution is "what [he's] looking for in a college," but he hasn't yet spoken with a UCLA coach since receiving the scholarship offer.

He isn't the only middle school football player to hear from a college this week, though. On Sunday, class of 2017 wide receiver Nathan Tilford landed a scholarship offer from the University of Southern California while participating in a skills camp at the school, according to ESPN.com. Tilford, like Stone, just wrapped up 8th grade.

While offering an athletic scholarship to someone four years away from college may sound outlandish, USC and UCLA certainly aren't the first to blaze this trail. In the summer of 2012, 14-year-old quarterback Tate Martell, who was preparing to enter the 8th grade, verbally committed to the University of Washington after receiving a scholarship offer there. Louisiana State University, meanwhile, extended a scholarship offer last summer to 14-year-old linebacker Dylan Moses, another player only entering the 8th grade at the time.

Moses found himself back in recruiting news earlier this year when the University of Alabama also offered him a football scholarship. Keep in mind, Alabama's football team has won three of the past four national championships.

These early scholarship offers have raised concerns from coaches in the past, as student-athletes aren't allowed to officially commit to a college until the fall of their senior year in high school (via a binding National Letter of Intent). If a coach leaves a school, or the National Collegiate Athletic Association punishes a team for a violation by prohibiting it from postseason play, a verbally committed athlete could easily change his mind between starting 9th grade and his senior year in high school.

Back in 2011, the NCAA legislative council voted down a proposal that would have barred college coaches from offering scholarships to recruits in all sports before July 1 of their senior year in high school. Shane Lyons, then-chairman of the legislative council, told the Associated Press that concerns about the proposal's enforceability caused its demise.

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A new version of federal education law could require high schools to publicly report how many boys and girls they have playing sports.

And here you thought this week's Senate ESEA markup hearings didn't have any direct impact on K-12 sports.

But at a markup today, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee passed an amendment to a proposed reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that would require high schools to report a breakdown of athletes and athletic expenditures by gender.

The amendment, which passed by a vote of 13-9 this morning, according to the Women's Sports Foundation, would add the "High School Data Transparency Act" to ESEA, the current version of which is better known as the No Child Left Behind Act. It would require high schools to publicly report data about how many boys and girls are on each sports team and how much the school spends on each team.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits gender-based discrimination in any federally financed education program or activity. Schools can prove their compliance with Title IX in one of three ways: By offering athletic participation opportunities to male and female athletes in proportion to their overall respective enrollments; by showing a history and continuing practice of expanding athletic programs for the underrepresented sex; and by demonstrating that the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex have been fully and effectively accommodated.

While schools don't necessarily have to spend an equal amount of money on boys' and girls' sports teams or have an equal number of male and female athletes, the distribution must be proportional to their overall student population. In short, Title IX prevents schools from doing things like spending 90 percent of their athletic budgets on boys' teams.

This amendment, if eventually signed into law, could help the public keep better track of potential Title IX violations in their local districts.

Since 1994, postsecondary institutions have been required to report gender-specific athletic data due to the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act. No such federal law currently exists for K-12 schools; however, the U.S. Department of Education's office for civil rights did collect and publicize this data from roughly half the school districts in the U.S. for a recent data collection.

According to the National Coalition for Women & Girls in Education, schools are already required to report gender-based sports data to the U.S. Department of Education; it just doesn't need to be publicized. Four states already require states to annually report interscholastic athletic data for male and female students, with Pennsylvania being the latest to pass such a law during the summer of 2012.

The Senate committee passed the full ESEA reauthorization bill sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, on a party-line vote today. It has an "outside chance" of advancing to the full Senate, according to EdWeek ed-politics reporter Alyson Klein, who's been attending the markup hearings this week.

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Children with a history of concussions, especially those who have had multiple concussions or have sustained a concussion within the past year, tend to have a longer-lasting symptoms than those with their first concussion, according to a study published online today in the journal Pediatrics.

The findings "have direct implications on the management of concussion patients, particularly those at high risk for future concussive injuries, such as athletes," the authors write.

Researchers from Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard University's medical school examined a total of 280 patients between the ages of 11 and 22 who went to the emergency department of a children's hospital within 72 hours of a concussion. These youths went through the 16-item Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire to determine when they were considered symptom-free. Of the youths initially enrolled in the study, 45 were lost to follow-up, meaning that 235 patients were included in the final findings.

The majority of patients (66 percent) were enrolled in the study on the same day they sustained their concussion, 24.7 percent enrolled the following day, 7.2 percent enrolled two days later, and the remaining 1.7 percent enrolled three days later. A majority (150 of the 235) sustained their concussion while playing a sport. Hockey (14 percent), soccer (9.4 percent) and football (8.5 percent) were the most common. Of the 235 patients included in the study, 68 had previously sustained a concussion.

For all patients, the median amount of time it took to become asymptomatic was 13 days. Those with a previous history of concussions had a significantly longer recovery period (a median of 22 days) compared with those without a history of concussions (a median of 12 days). Those who had sustained a concussion within the previous year had a median symptom duration of 35 days, while those with multiple previous concussions had a median symptom duration of 28 days. For the group with multiple previous concussions, it's unclear whether they sustained at least one of those concussions within the previous year.

"This suggests that repeat concussion, particularly within a vulnerable time window, may lead to longer duration of symptoms," the authors conclude.

Beyond a history of previous concussions, certain risk factors stood out as being associated with significantly longer symptom duration. Youths 13 and older, those with a score above 18 on the Rivermead Post-Concussion Symptoms Questionnaire, and those with a history of depression also had significantly higher odds of facing a prolonged recovery.

Consider these findings more food for thought as states continue revising their youth-concussion laws and as districts revise their emergency management plans for youth-sports concussions.

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The neuropsychological concussion test battery known as ImPACT was found to misidentify healthy participants in certain circumstances up to 46 percent of the time, according to a study published this week in the Journal of Athletic Training.

This variance suggests that the tests should only be used as one component of a multi-faceted approach to determining when a student-athlete is ready to return after sustaining a concussion, the authors conclude.

A team of researchers from the United States and Ireland sought to determine the reliability of computerized neuropsychological testing by running two separate sets of students through the ImPACT test battery in different time intervals. One group consisted of students from an Irish university (46 in total), while the other group was comprised of students from a U.S. university (45). All of the students in the study were between the ages of 19 and 24, hadn't sustained a concussion in the six months before or during the study, and were considered nonathletes.

After completing a baseline test at the beginning of the study, the first group of students (from the Irish university) redid the full battery of testing one and two weeks after the initial baseline. The second group of students (from the U.S. university) completed a baseline, then retook the test 45 days and again 50 days after the initial baseline.

In the first group, 17 of the 46 participants (37 percent) were classified as "impaired" in at least one aspect of the test upon retaking it a week after the original baseline, despite being completely concussion-free. Twenty-one of the 46 students in the first group (46 percent) were classified as "impaired" when retaking the test two weeks after baseline. In the second group, 10 of the 45 participants (22 percent) had scores which deviated from their baseline when taking the test 45 days later, and 13 (28.9 percent) deviated on the test taken 50 days after baseline.

While a majority of the test-retest subjects studied experienced no change from baseline to a later test, the variation among scores in healthy test subjects raised concerns among the researchers.

"This research confirms previous findings about ImPACT, and that is especially noteworthy in light of a recent study that found that athletic trainers who use computerized neurocognitive testing choose ImPACT," said lead author Jacob Resch, the director of the UT Arlington Brain Injury Laboratory, in a statement. "We hope this study re-emphasizes the importance of using multiple measures such as balance and a thorough clinical examination to assess concussed athletes."

As noted by ESPN's Outside the Lines in the summer of 2012, previous research has also suggested ImPACT tests may return a false positive rate between 30 percent and 40 percent. Considering that nearly every state now has a law prohibiting concussed student-athletes from returning to play until obtaining medical clearance, these false positives could be unnecessarily delay their return to school- or athletic-based activities.

The lack of conclusive research around neuropsychological testing caused the authors of the latest consensus statement on concussions in sport to stop short of recommending its widespread use. The statement said such testing "contributes significant information in concussion evaluation," but noted that it shouldn't be the only determining factor as to whether or not a concussed student-athlete is ready to return to play.

Likewise, the American Academy of Neurology earlier this year also acknowledged the role of neuropsychological testing, saying it is "likely useful in identifying the presence of concussion," but also noted the lack of conclusive evidence regarding its reliability.

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Youth football players between ages 8 and 12 are significantly more likely to sustain a concussion during a game than a practice, according to a study published online today in The Journal of Pediatrics.

The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Cornell University, examined 468 players 8-12 years of age from four nonscholastic youth tackle-football leagues in western Pennsylvania during the 2011 season. In total, 18 of the 22 teams from the youth leagues participated in the study, with four declining due to "perceived time requirements or disinterest in the study."

Researchers sought to determine how many concussions the players sustained per 1,000 athletic exposures, which are defined as one athlete participating in one game or one practice during which he is exposed to the possibility of athletic injury. In total, there were 11,338 athletic exposures throughout the study period (8,415 in practice, 2,923 in games). During that time, 20 different players sustained a medically diagnosed concussion.

Of the 20 concussions recorded, only two occurred in practice, while the remaining 18 happened during a game. The concussion incidence rate for practices ended up being 0.24 concussions per 1,000 athletic exposures, while the incidence rate during games was significantly higher, at 6.16 concussions per 1,000 athletic exposures. The researchers determined the combined incidence rate for practices and games to be 1.76 concussions per 1,000 athletic exposures.

Nine of the 20 concussions resulted from head-to-head contact, while head-to-ground contact and head-to-body contact each caused one of the 20 concussions sustained. The cause of the remaining nine concussions was "indiscernible due to the context of play" (such as large group tackling), according to the study.

The researchers also broke down the number of concussions suffered by particular age groups. The 8- to 10-year-olds suffered five medically diagnosed concussions during a total of 5,398 athletic exposures (3,970 in practice and 1,428 in games), while the 11- to 12-year-olds suffered 15 medically diagnosed concussions in a total of 5,940 athlete exposures (4,445 in practice and 1,495 in games). The combined incidence rate for the 8- to 10-year-olds (in both practice and games) ended up being 0.93 concussions per 1,000 exposures, while the 11- and 12-year-olds sustained 2.53 concussions per 1,000 exposures.

The respective incidence rates suggest that 11- and 12-year-olds were nearly three times as likely to sustain concussions as the 8- to 10-year-olds, the researchers surmise.

Last summer, Pop Warner implemented new restrictions on the amount of contact allowed in youth-football practices. Based on the findings of this particular study, the authors conclude that "reducing contact exposures in youth football will likely have little effect on reducing concussion risk, as few concussions actually occur in practice." In fact, such restrictions may end up having unintended consequences, they suggest, as practice time is when youth players learn proper tackling techniques.

Previous research, however, has found that unlike in high school and college football, the hardest hits for younger football players typically occur during practice.

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Posted by Bryan Toporek at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Vermont's student-athletes will now be prohibited from continuing to participate in a school-based athletic event if they've sustained a concussion under a new law signed Tuesday.

The law, signed by Gov. Peter Shumlin on the athletic fields of Montpelier High School, requires coaches and athletic trainers to remove student-athletes from practice or competition if they "know or should know that the athlete has sustained a concussion or other head injury." Student-athletes removed from play in this fashion must receive written permission to participate in athletics from a health-care provider before being allowed to return.

Vermont's original youth-concussion law, passed back in May of 2011, contained language that less clearly defined when a student-athlete suspected of having a concussion must be removed from play. That law stated: "A coach shall not permit a youth athlete to train or compete with a school athletic team if the athlete has been removed or prohibited from participating in a training session or competition associated with the school athletic team due to symptoms or other head injury" until receiving written clearance from a health-care provider. However, it failed to specify the circumstances in which a coach or other school official would be required to remove the student-athlete from play, opening a potential loophole.

The 2011 law does have plenty in common with the updated version signed Tuesday, however. Both laws require youth-athletes and a parent or guardian to sign a concussion-information form on an annual basis before being allowed to participate in school-based athletics, and mandate that coaches receive concussion training at least once every two years.

The new law adds an additional training requirement: High school referees who oversee "collision sports" (football, ice hockey, lacrosse, or wrestling) must also undergo training at least once every two years regarding how to recognize concussions.

It also mandates that each public and independent school in the state must have a concussion-management action plan "that describes the procedures the school shall take when a student-athlete suffers a concussion." The plan must include information about who's responsible for making the decision to remove student-athletes from play when suspected of a concussion, what steps the athlete must take to return to "any athletic or learning activity," who makes the final decision about when the athlete can return, and who's responsible for informing a parent or guardian when his or her child suffers a sports-related concussion.

For any school-based collision sports, the home team is now required under this law to ensure that a health-care provider (such as an athletic trainer or other licensed official) is present. Home teams are "strongly encouraged," but not required, to ensure the presence of a health-care provider during any contact sport beyond the four specified "collision sports."

Most of the new law goes into effect on July 1. The provision about schools ensuring the presence of a health-care provider during collision sports takes effect on July 1, 2015.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina: The youth-concussion bill progressing through the legislature was unanimously approved by both the state Senate and state House and is now headed to Gov. Nikki Haley's desk for a signature.

If passed, the bill would require parents to sign a concussion-information form before their child would be allowed to participate in school-based athletics. It would also require student-athletes to be removed from play if suspected of a concussion, and they wouldn't be allowed to return to play until obtaining medical clearance. While the bill mandates that school districts distribute a concussion-information form to all coaches, no formal concussion training would be required for coaches.

South Carolina is currently only one of two states without a youth-concussion law on the books. The other state, Mississippi, has no youth-concussion legislation pending, after three bills failed to pass through committees earlier this year.

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As part of a new Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Initiative, the Pac-12 conference has announced a plan to limit the amount of contact allowed in football practices starting in the fall.

Although this particular move won't have an immediate impact on current high school student-athletes, it's almost certain to affect some in the long run.

Currently, the National Collegiate Athletic Association allows football coaches to conduct up to five full-contact practices per week. Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said Monday that the conference will limit hits to "less than what the NCAA permits," according to the Associated Press, although it's unclear exactly what the new restrictions will be. The final details of the plan are to be revealed on July 26 during the conference's football media day.

"In our discussions, it became clear this is a topic our coaches are focused on," Scott said Monday, according to the AP. "There is a high degree of awareness about it and a deep commitment to it. It was a high priority."

The Ivy League conference set the precedent for this particular Pac-12 move back in 2011, when it started limiting football coaches to a maximum of two full-contact practices per week. The National Football League's latest collective bargaining agreement likewise restricts coaches to a total of 14 padded practices throughout the regular season, 11 of which must be held within the first 11 weeks of the season. In the youth-football realm, Pop Warner implemented a ban in the summer of 2012 on coaches utilizing more than one-third of practice time for contact drills.

The Pac-12's new student-athlete well-being initiative isn't just limited to football players, however. The conference announced on Monday that it will devote $3.5 million in research grants for projects at its institutions devoted to improving student-athlete health. The Big Ten Conference and the Ivy League announced a similar joint partnership last summer.

The Pac-12 also revealed plans this week to establish a head-trauma task force.

Calls for NCAA Leadership on Concussions

In recent months, the NCAA has faced a slew of criticism over its response (or lack thereof) to the growing issue of concussions in sports.

A scathing column by SportsOnEarth's Patrick Hruby in January accused the NCAA of "largely sitting on their hands" in regards to sports-related concussions due to legal liability. Paul Anderson, the publisher of NFLconcussionlitigation.com, told Hruby that by taking a hands-off approach, the NCAA is delegating legal responsibility to individual member institutions.

"If the NCAA doesn't acknowledge college football's brain-trauma problem in anything but the most general terms, and doesn't try to do anything about the problem beyond making a few general suggestions, then neither a judge nor jury will be able to hold the organization responsible when the sport produces life-altering injuries and subsequent lawsuits," Hruby wrote.

Likewise, Rod Gilmore wrote a column for ESPN.com in April calling for the NCAA to change its rules regarding the amount of contact permitted in football practices. He suggested reducing the number of allowed full-contact football practices to two per week in the first half of the season and one per week during the second half of the season.

The Southeastern Conference recently joined the chorus clamoring for more action from the NCAA.

"Prevention and treatment of concussion injuries is a national concern that needs and deserves a coordinated national effort," said SEC Commissioner Mike Slive in a statement last week, according to AL.com. "For this reason, the presidents and chancellors will make a formal request that the NCAA take the lead in organizing and spearheading a national research effort and examining possible revisions to playing rules in football and other sports."

Chris Nowinski, the executive director of the Boston-based Sports Legacy Institute, recently told Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News that the NCAA isn't working fast enough on the issue of concussions.

"I hope [conferences] are willing to innovate and not wait for the NCAA, which may not ever make the move," Nowinski said.

Data released last fall by the NCAA suggest that the rate of football-related concussions has remained relatively steady over the past eight years, despite the recent wave of sports-concussion awareness.

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