Minnesota's Concussion Training Law for All Youth Sports Coaches
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ALL COACHES ARE REQUIRED TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE CONCUSSION TRAINING ONCE EVERY THREE YEARS.  This only takes about 45 minutes to complete.  The training process involves watching a video and then successfully completing a quiz. The entire training module can be completed in a little over a half an hour and then participants can print out a Certificate of Completion. Users should use a screen capture to save the certificate on their desktop or print and scan the certificate to create a digital file.

See below for details on the Minnesota law.

• VIEW the FREE online course.  (CLICK HERE) for the course offered by the National Federation of State High Schools and the Centers for Disease Control.)
• PASS the certification test. 
• SAVE the Certificate of Completion to your PC/MAC.
• EMAIL the Certificate of Completion to [email protected].

The Minnesota Legislature's new "Concussion Law" requires online training for all coaches and officials and concussion education for all parents and athletes. The Minnesota Legislature passed a "Concussion Law" in 2010 which requires any municipality, business, school district or nonprofit organization that organizes a youth athletic activity and charges a fee to follow the statute's requirements, including implementing concussion training and education to improve player safety and establish safe return-to-play policies for athletes who sustain a concussion.  Details about the law can be found in the following document: MN Concussion Statute.

The law mandates that all coaches and officials receive concussion training prior to coaching a team or a practice.  Concussion Training Certificates are valid for three years and then the course must be repeated.
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Coaches must remove an athlete from activity if they exhibit signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion and/or are suspected of sustaining a concussion. The law also requires a doctor's signature to return to play if an athlete is removed due to a concussion or is showing signs or symptoms of a concussion.

The concussion education we recommend for coaches and officials is the online video training session developed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Federation of State High Schools. This course requires registration, but it is free. Over 200,000 coaches and officials have already successfully completed this course.

CONCUSSION INCIDENT REPORTING

IF A PLAYER IS SUSPECTED OF HAVING A CONCUSSION - EPSA REQUIRES A CONCUSSION AWARENESS DOCUMENT SIGNED BY PLAYER AND PARENT BEFORE PLAYER CAN RETURN TO PLAY.
If a player is suspected of having a concussion, the player should be pulled from the game immediately and not return.  The action plan for Coaches is to review the Signs the child is showing and the Symptoms the child is indicating they feel.  All children suspected of having a concussion are highly encouraged to take their child to a health care professional for assessment.  In addition, the below form must be read and signed by both the parent and player BEFORE the player can return to play soccer.  The signed form needs to be emailed or mailed to the Coaching Director as a record of the incident.
CONCUSSION AWARENESS DOCUMENT 

PARENTS AND ATHLETES CONCUSSION AWARENESS
Parents and athletes do not have to complete the training but should access and review the concussion awareness and education information available on the National Federation of High School's website.  A concussion awareness guide can be found HERE.