A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS BY REQUIRING THAT ALL PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS EMPLOY A LICENSED ATHLETIC TRAINER AND TO appropriate funds for that purpose.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  It is the policy of the State of North Carolina that student health and safety is a top priority of the educational system. It is the intent of the General Assembly and the expectation of parents that there be quality and immediate care for a student athlete in case of a medical emergency. It is the further intent of the General Assembly and the expectation of parents that athletic health care in public secondary schools be coordinated by licensed athletic trainers.
SECTION 2.  G.S. 115C‑12(12) reads as rewritten:
"§ 115C‑12.  Powers and duties of the Board generally.
The general supervision and administration of the free public school system shall be vested in the State Board of Education. The State Board of Education shall establish policy for the system of free public schools, subject to laws enacted by the General Assembly. The powers and duties of the State Board of Education are defined as follows:
…
(12)	Duty to Provide for Sports Medicine and Emergency Paramedical Program. – The State Board of Education is authorized and directed to develop a comprehensive plan to train and make available to the public schools personnel who shall have major responsibility for exercising preventive measures against sports related deaths and injuries and for providing sports medicine and emergency paramedical services for injuries that occur in school related activities. The plan, at the high school level, shall require local school administrative units to employ a full‑time, nonteaching athletic trainer that is licensed pursuant to Article 34 of Chapter 90 of the General Statutes for each of their high schools. The licensed athletic trainer shall be responsible for the coordination of the athletic health care for the school. The plan for other schools shall include, but is not limited to, the training, assignment of responsibilities, and appropriate additional reimbursement for individuals participating in the program.
The State Board of Education is authorized and directed to develop an implementation schedule and a program funding formula that will enable each high school to have a qualified sports medicine and emergency paramedical program by July 1, 1984.
The State Board of Education is authorized and directed to establish minimum educational standards necessary to enable individuals serving as sports medicine and emergency paramedical staff to provide such services, including first aid and emergency life saving skills, to students participating in school activities."
SECTION 3.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of twenty‑one million five hundred thousand dollars ($21,500,000) for the 2009‑2010 fiscal year and the sum of twenty‑one million five hundred thousand dollars ($21,500,000) for the 2010‑2011 fiscal year to employ licensed athletic trainers at all public high schools in the State.
SECTION 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2009.