Wyoming 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?

Not under the statute. Wyoming is the one state whose law contains no immediate-removal rule at all. The high school activities association requires it — a student showing concussion signs has to come out of the contest or practice — but that is an association rule, not state law, and it does not name who is responsible for making the call. Below high school, or outside association play, there may be nothing.

Can they go back in the same day?

Not in a high school game, though the rule comes from the activities association rather than the statute. WHSAA rule 2.4.6.2 says an athlete showing concussion signs does not go back into that same game or practice session, and the only exception is a licensed medical professional who is there on site and rules a concussion out. That binds WHSAA member high schools. In a middle school program, a club team or a rec league, there may be no binding rule at all — so ask before the season, not after the hit.

Whose note does the school have to accept?

The statute names nobody, because it does not require a clearance at all. The requirement comes from the activities association instead: WHSAA rule 2.4.6.7 calls for written clearance from a licensed health care professional before a full return to play. Which professions a particular district will accept is not settled statewide, so this is worth one phone call to the athletic director before you book the appointment.

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?

Not under the statute — but there is a rule here, and it cuts the other way from what most parents expect. WHSAA rule 2.4.6.3 requires a return-to-learn protocol, and rule 2.4.6.7 requires the student to be back in school full time, without academic accommodations, before a full return to play. So the classroom is not an afterthought in Wyoming; it is the gate the athlete has to get through first. That has a practical implication worth sitting with: pushing for a fast return to the field means pushing for a fast return to a full academic load, and a child who is not ready for one is not ready for the other.

What if the team is not run by their school?

No — and this is the gap most parents do not know about. Wyoming's law stops at school sports. A club team, a travel team, a church league or a Saturday rec programme is outside it, so the coach who is legally required to bench your child at a school game has no such duty at a club game. Nothing stops a league from having a good policy of its own, and many do. But you have to ask for it rather than assume it, and the time to ask is at registration, not from the sideline.

Read the law itself, in full: Wyo. Stat. § 21-3-110 (law.justia.com). 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 17 verified concussion providers in Wyoming across 8 cities, and you can filter by the kind of clinician the answer above calls for.

Browse Wyoming concussion specialists →

What makes Wyoming's law different

Wyoming does not have a true Lystedt-style concussion statute — the only state in this comparison without one. The 2011 law (SF0038, 'School athletics safety') is a two-line delegation: it tells local school boards to adopt concussion protocols and tells the state superintendent to develop model protocols, while § 21-2-202(a)(xxxiii) is paired with language that no district is required to adopt any part of those model protocols. None of the core model-law elements — mandatory removal, mandatory written clearance, named clearing providers, signed acknowledgment — appear anywhere in the Wyoming code; they exist only as WHSAA Handbook Rule 2.4.6, which itself pushes the definition of a qualified clearing provider down to each school district. An attempt to extend concussion management to non-school youth sports (2012 SF0050, 'Youth sports concussion management') died on general file without a Committee-of-the-Whole vote.

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

Applies to boards of trustees of Wyoming public school districts, which must adopt concussion protocols for school athletics beginning in school year 2011-2012. There is no coverage of non-school recreational or club youth leagues, and no age range is specified — coverage follows school athletic participation.

Education and acknowledgment

The statute requires only that a district's protocol 'include means for providing to students and parents information on head injuries and concussions and related restrictions on participation in athletic activities.' It requires training of coaches and athletic trainers to recognize concussion symptoms, but it does not mandate a specific course, an information sheet, or any signed acknowledgment by athlete, parent or coach.

Wyoming Return-to-Play Law: Removal From Play

No immediate-removal trigger appears in the statute; districts must merely 'address restrictions concerning participation in school athletic events after suffering a concussion or head injury' in their local protocols. The operative removal rule is WHSAA Handbook Rule 2.4.6, which requires a student exhibiting signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion to be removed immediately from the contest or practice (the rule does not name who must order the removal).

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

The statute imposes no clearance requirement at all. WHSAA Rule 2.4.6 bars return to play until the student is cleared by 'an appropriate health care professional,' with no waiting period and no graduated protocol; the related Rule 2.4.5 bars same-day return for any student who loses consciousness.

Who the law lets sign the clearance

No clearing provider is named anywhere in the statute. Any requirement of that kind comes from the state athletic association rather than the code.

Return to learn

Not addressed in the statute.

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:

No immunity or liability provision appears in the concussion subsections themselves.

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 Wyoming?

The statute names nobody, because it does not require a clearance at all. The requirement comes from the activities association instead: WHSAA rule 2.4.6.7 calls for written clearance from a licensed health care professional before a full return to play. Which professions a particular district will accept is not settled statewide, so this is worth one phone call to the athletic director before you book the appointment.

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

Not in a high school game, though the rule comes from the activities association rather than the statute. WHSAA rule 2.4.6.2 says an athlete showing concussion signs does not go back into that same game or practice session, and the only exception is a licensed medical professional who is there on site and rules a concussion out. That binds WHSAA member high schools. In a middle school program, a club team or a rec league, there may be no binding rule at all — so ask before the season, not after the hit.

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

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 Wyoming require schools to help with schoolwork after a concussion?

Not under the statute — but there is a rule here, and it cuts the other way from what most parents expect. WHSAA rule 2.4.6.3 requires a return-to-learn protocol, and rule 2.4.6.7 requires the student to be back in school full time, without academic accommodations, before a full return to play. So the classroom is not an afterthought in Wyoming; it is the gate the athlete has to get through first. That has a practical implication worth sitting with: pushing for a fast return to the field means pushing for a fast return to a full academic load, and a child who is not ready for one is not ready for the other.

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

No — and this is the gap most parents do not know about. Wyoming's law stops at school sports. A club team, a travel team, a church league or a Saturday rec programme is outside it, so the coach who is legally required to bench your child at a school game has no such duty at a club game. Nothing stops a league from having a good policy of its own, and many do. But you have to ask for it rather than assume it, and the time to ask is at registration, not from the sideline.

When did Wyoming pass its youth concussion law?

2011. The statute is Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 21-3-110(a)(xxxii) and § 21-2-202(a)(xxxiii) (2011 Wyo. Sess. Laws ch. 97, from SF0038).

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

• Wyo. Stat. § 21-3-110 (2025 edition)
• Wyo. Stat. § 21-3-110 (current)
• Wyo. Stat. § 21-2-202 (duties of state superintendent)
• 2011 SF0038 enrolled act (Wyoming Legislature)
• 2011 SF0038 status — Wyoming Enrolled Act 97
• 2012 SF0050 (youth sports concussion management) — failed
• WHSAA Handbook (Rule 2.4.5, 2.4.6)
• NASBE State Policy Database — Wyoming concussion/head injuries
• WHSAA 2026-27 Handbook, Rule 2.4.6 (Concussions)