State High School Sports Safety Policies

Preparing for an emergency should be the top priority for schools to ensure the safety of their athletes. Through the implementation of required policies and procedures, schools can be well prepared in the unfortunate event of a catastrophic injury.

At the Korey Stringer Institute, we have utilized best practice documents related to the top causes of sudden death in high school athletes to compile a group of policies that represent these best practices. These polices are relevant to the best practices developed for the top causes of sudden death in sport. Based off the “Inter-Association Task Force Document Preventing Sudden Death in Secondary School Athletics” document, the policies outlined on this website were evaluated directly from publicly available resources such as state high school associations and legislative websites.

Ranking of states regarding the implementation of evidence-based best practices for preventing and managing the leading causes of sudden death in secondary school athletics. State-Level Implementation of Health and Safety Policies to Prevent Sudden Death and Catastrophic Injuries Within Secondary School Athletics, the study which details the results, is published in The Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine.

2024-2025 State High School Sports Safety Policy Evaluation

You can sort the list by ranking or alphabetically by state.


Rank State Score(%)
1 Georgia 93.67
2 Florida  93.0
3 New Jersey 85.0
5 Louisiana 80.0
4 New Hampshire 82.0
8 North Carolina 69.867
9 Massachusetts 69.4
6 Kentucky 73.375
10 District of Columbia 67.0
11 Delaware 65.3
7 Tennessee 71.75
12 Arizona 63.0
21 Rhode Island 56.175
13 Illinois 62.2
19 Texas 57.0
20 South Carolina 56.8
22 Connecticut 54.534
31 West Virginia 50.75
25 Washington 53.125
27 New York 52.75
28 Missouri 52.325
24 Hawaii 53.275
29 Ohio 52.0
30 Kansas 51.8
16 Wisconsin 57.825
17 New Mexico 57.15
26 Iowa 52.75
32 Alabama 48.192
15 Arkansas 58.15
34 Oregon 46.967
23 Utah 53.4
38 Pennsylvania 45.0
39 South Dakota 43.6
37 Oklahoma 45.5
36 Maryland 46.2
33 Indiana 48.0
18 Nevada 57.125
40 North Dakota 42.0
14 Vermont 61.201
42 Alaska 41.4
41 Michigan 41.8
43 Colorado 40.0
44 Idaho 40.0
46 Virginia 39.8
45 Wyoming 39.8
47 Montana 37.8
50 Mississippi 32.375
48 Nebraska 36.0
49 Minnesota 33.75
51 Maine 30.0
35 California 46.8