Washington Youth Sports Concussion Law

What this actually means for your family

The statutory detail is further down, and it is all sourced. But if you are here because your child got hit this week, these are the six things you came to find out.

My child took a hit to the head. Does the coach have to take them out?

Yes. If your child shows signs of a concussion, or is suspected of having one, they have to come out of that practice or game right away. This is the part of the law that is nearly identical everywhere, and it does not require anyone to be certain — a suspicion is enough, and the coach is not supposed to wait for a diagnosis before acting.

Can they go back in the same day?

In practice, no. Washington law does not use the words 'same day,' but it bars a return until a provider has examined your child and put a clearance in writing. That is not something that realistically happens between the third and fourth quarter, so the effect is the same.

Whose note does the school have to accept?

Washington names specific professions in the law, so this one is worth checking before you book — if your provider is not one of them, the school does not have to take their note.

The statute names no professions at all — any licensed provider trained in concussion evaluation can sign, and may even be a volunteer. For high school sports the WIAA publishes the list its member schools accept.

The exact wording, if you need to show it to a school

• licensed health care provider trained in the evaluation and management of concussion — the statute uses this functional description and names no professions
• the provider may be a volunteer
• WIAA identifies the qualifying providers for its member schools as: medical doctor (MD), doctor of osteopathy (DO), advanced registered nurse practitioner (ARNP), physician assistant (PA), and licensed certified athletic trainer (AT/L)

That list comes straight from Wash. Rev. Code § 28A.600.190 (app.leg.wa.gov). This is the text a school, a coach or an athletic director is bound by, so it is the page to print or forward if anyone tells you the rule is something other than what you have read here. Where a state's law runs across several sections, the rest of them are in the sources at the foot of this page.

Is there a minimum number of days out?

Not in the law. This surprises people, but the statute sets no minimum number of days — it just requires a provider to sign off. How long your child sits out is a clinical decision, not a legal one, and a provider who returns a child quickly is not breaking any law. This is the single biggest gap between what these statutes require and what current concussion medicine actually recommends.

Does the school have to help with schoolwork while they recover?

No. Washington law is silent about school. It governs athletics only. That is a real gap, because recovering from a concussion is usually harder in a classroom than on a field — screens, noise, testing and concentration are exactly what an injured brain struggles with. Ask the school anyway, and if symptoms persist, ask about a 504 plan, which does carry legal weight.

What if the team is not run by their school?

Only sometimes, and the trigger is the building. Washington law reaches outside leagues when they use school district property, and lets go of them when they do not. So the same club team can be covered on Tuesday at the district field and uncovered on Saturday at a private complex. That is a strange line to draw, but it is the line. The mechanism is RCW 4.24.660: a private nonprofit youth program that contracts to use school district facilities has to file a statement of compliance as a condition of the district's liability protection. A league on its own fields is outside it.

Read the law itself, in full: Wash. Rev. Code § 28A.600.190 (app.leg.wa.gov). This is the text a school, a coach or an athletic director is bound by, so it is the page to print or forward if anyone tells you the rule is something other than what you have read here. Where a state's law runs across several sections, the rest of them are in the sources at the foot of this page.

If this happened in the last few days

Rule out the emergencies first.

A concussion is not usually a medical emergency, but a small number of head injuries are. Go to an emergency department now for a headache that keeps getting worse, repeated vomiting, seizures, slurred speech, weakness or numbness, one pupil larger than the other, or a child who cannot be woken or is unusually confused or drowsy. None of this is what the concussion statute is about, and none of it should wait for a clearance appointment.

Get the evaluation booked, and book the right kind.

The clearance your school needs has to come from a provider the law recognizes, and that list is different in every state — it is the third question above. Confirming that before the appointment saves families a wasted visit and a second co-pay more often than you would think.

Write down what happened while it is fresh.

The date and time, what the hit looked like, who saw it, what symptoms appeared and when, and who was told. This helps the clinician far more than a general 'he got hit at practice,' and if there is ever a dispute with the school about what was reported, it is the only contemporaneous record anyone will have.

Finding a provider who can sign it

Knowing what the law requires is one half of it; finding someone who can actually do the evaluation is the other. Our directory lists 72 verified concussion providers in Washington across 14 cities, and you can filter by the kind of clinician the answer above calls for.

Browse Washington concussion specialists →

What makes Washington's law different

This is the original — enacted in 2009 after Zackery Lystedt, a 13-year-old middle school football player, suffered catastrophic brain injury after returning to a game with a concussion — and it is the template every other state copied: education sheet, immediate removal, written clearance. Two things distinguish it. First, it has never been amended: the operative text is still 2009 Wash. Sess. Laws ch. 475, § 2, so the 'original' really is the current law. Second, in Swank v. Valley Christian School (Wash. 2017) the Washington Supreme Court held that the Lystedt Law creates an implied private cause of action even though it names no penalty or remedy, reasoning that the legislature would not grant rights to an identifiable protected class without enabling that class to enforce them — the sharpest contrast with states like Utah that expressly disclaim any new cause of action. The court expressly declined to decide whether the law reaches private school students, that argument having been raised only at oral argument. The statute is also unusual in requiring the athlete personally, not just the parent, to sign the annual information sheet, and in expressly contemplating that the clearing provider may be an unpaid volunteer with matching civil immunity.

The statute in detail

Everything above is the short version. This is what the law actually says, section by section, for anyone who needs the precise wording — a school administrator writing policy, a coach checking a duty, or a family that has hit a disagreement with a district.

Who the law covers

The statute directs school districts, working in concert with the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, to adopt concussion policies and materials, and its removal and return-to-play commands apply to any 'youth athlete' injured in a practice or game. 'Youth athlete' is not given an age range in the statute. Coverage of non-school youth sports comes indirectly through RCW 4.24.660, which requires a private nonprofit youth program contracting to use school district facilities to file a statement of compliance with the RCW 28A.600.190 policies as a condition of the district's liability protection.

Education and acknowledgment

School districts, together with the WIAA, must develop the guidelines, information, and forms needed to inform and educate coaches, youth athletes, and their parents or guardians about the nature and risk of concussion and head injury, including continued play after a concussion. On a yearly basis, a concussion and head injury information sheet must be signed and returned by both the youth athlete and the athlete's parent and/or guardian before the athlete begins practice or competition.

Washington Return-to-Play Law: Removal From Play

A youth athlete suspected of sustaining a concussion or head injury in a practice or game must be removed from competition at that time. The statute does not designate an official to make the call; in Swank v. Valley Christian School the Washington Supreme Court read it as imposing a duty on the coach to monitor for concussion signs and to pull the athlete when they appear.

Washington Return-to-Play Law: Getting Cleared to Return

A youth athlete removed from play may not return to play until evaluated by a licensed health care provider trained in the evaluation and management of concussion and until the athlete receives written clearance to return to play from that provider. The statute sets no waiting period and no graduated protocol; WIAA policy supplies the operational return-to-play sequence for member schools.

Who the law lets sign the clearance

• licensed health care provider trained in the evaluation and management of concussion — the statute uses this functional description and names no professions
• the provider may be a volunteer
• WIAA identifies the qualifying providers for its member schools as: medical doctor (MD), doctor of osteopathy (DO), advanced registered nurse practitioner (ARNP), physician assistant (PA), and licensed certified athletic trainer (AT/L)

Return to learn

Not addressed in the statute. RCW 28A.600.190 speaks only to removal from and return to athletic play; there is no academic accommodation or return-to-learn provision in the statutory text.

How the law has changed

• 2015 — RCW 28A.600.190 itself has not been amended; the surrounding framework was extended in 2015, when RCW 4.24.660 (school district liability under contracts with youth programs) was amended to condition a nonprofit youth program's use of school facilities on filing a statement of compliance with the RCW 28A.600.190 concussion policies alongside a new sudden-cardiac-arrest compliance statement under RCW 28A.600.195.

What happens if the rules are not followed

This is the part families ask about most and the part these statutes handle least. Almost every one of these laws sets out duties without setting out a penalty for ignoring them, and most go further and grant the school and its staff protection from being sued over concussion decisions. What that protection covers, and where it stops, is a state-specific question:

The statute grants limited immunity to volunteers: a volunteer who authorizes a youth athlete to return to play is not liable for civil damages for any act or omission in rendering that care, other than acts or omissions constituting gross negligence or willful or wanton misconduct. Separately, RCW 4.24.660 shields a school district from liability for injuries caused by a youth program's employees or contractors on district property, provided the nonprofit program carries the required accident and liability insurance and has filed a statement of compliance with the concussion policies of RCW 28A.600.190 and the cardiac arrest policies of RCW 28A.600.195. The statute itself is silent on private enforcement.

Two things are worth being clear about. Immunity clauses of this kind generally stop short of conduct that is willful or reckless, so they are not unconditional. And a school district's or athletic association's own rules sit on top of the statute and can be enforced through the school or the association even where the law provides no remedy — that route is often faster than any legal one. If you believe the rules were not followed and your child was harmed as a result, that is a question for an attorney licensed in your state. It is not something this page can answer, and it is not something a directory should pretend to.

Common questions

Whose note does a school have to accept to clear a concussion in Washington?

Washington names specific professions in the law, so this one is worth checking before you book — if your provider is not one of them, the school does not have to take their note. licensed health care provider trained in the evaluation and management of concussion — the statute uses this functional description and names no professions; the provider may be a volunteer; WIAA identifies the qualifying providers for its member schools as: medical doctor (MD), doctor of osteopathy (DO), advanced registered nurse practitioner (ARNP), physician assistant (PA), and licensed certified athletic trainer (AT/L)

Can a student go back in the same day after a head injury in Washington?

In practice, no. Washington law does not use the words 'same day,' but it bars a return until a provider has examined your child and put a clearance in writing. That is not something that realistically happens between the third and fourth quarter, so the effect is the same.

How long does a student have to sit out after a concussion in Washington?

Not in the law. This surprises people, but the statute sets no minimum number of days — it just requires a provider to sign off. How long your child sits out is a clinical decision, not a legal one, and a provider who returns a child quickly is not breaking any law. This is the single biggest gap between what these statutes require and what current concussion medicine actually recommends.

Does Washington require schools to help with schoolwork after a concussion?

No. Washington law is silent about school. It governs athletics only. That is a real gap, because recovering from a concussion is usually harder in a classroom than on a field — screens, noise, testing and concentration are exactly what an injured brain struggles with. Ask the school anyway, and if symptoms persist, ask about a 504 plan, which does carry legal weight.

Does Washington's concussion law apply to club and rec league sports?

Only sometimes, and the trigger is the building. Washington law reaches outside leagues when they use school district property, and lets go of them when they do not. So the same club team can be covered on Tuesday at the district field and uncovered on Saturday at a private complex. That is a strange line to draw, but it is the line. The mechanism is RCW 4.24.660: a private nonprofit youth program that contracts to use school district facilities has to file a statement of compliance as a condition of the district's liability protection. A league on its own fields is outside it.

When did Washington pass its youth concussion law?

2009. The statute is Wash. Rev. Code § 28A.600.190 (2009 Wash. Sess. Laws ch. 475, § 2) (SHB 1824). It has been amended in 2015.

How this summary was written

Each summary was built from the statutory text and, where the statute delegates, the state rule or athletic association policy it delegates to. Where a detail could not be traced to a primary source it was left out rather than guessed at, so a section reading “not addressed in the statute” means the law is silent — not that nothing applies.

Not legal advice. This is a plain-language summary of a statute, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for reading the law or asking a lawyer about a specific situation. Statutes are amended; school district and athletic association rules sit on top of them and are often stricter. Every source used for this page is linked below so you can check it against the text.

Sources

• RCW 28A.600.190 — leg.wa.gov
• Chapter 28A.600 RCW, full text — leg.wa.gov
• RCW 4.24.660 (youth program contracts; compliance statement) — leg.wa.gov
• RCW 28A.600.195 (Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Act) — leg.wa.gov
• Swank v. Valley Christian School — Washington Supreme Court opinion (No. 93282-4)
• WIAA Health & Wellness — concussion clearance providers
• Analysis of Swank and the Lystedt Law