BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
2015 - 2016 Regular Session
AB 2182 (Mullin) - School athletics: neurocognitive testing
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| |
| |
| |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Version: May 31, 2016 |Policy Vote: ED. 9 - 0 |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Urgency: No |Mandate: Yes |
| | |
|--------------------------------+--------------------------------|
| | |
|Hearing Date: August 1, 2016 |Consultant: Jillian Kissee |
| | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill
Summary: This bill, contingent upon an appropriation,
establishes the Neurocognitive Testing Pilot Grant Program to
provide funds to Title I schools for neurocognitive testing. As
part of the pilot program, this bill requires school districts,
charter schools, and private schools that elect to offer sports
programs to collect and maintain data on traumatic brain
injuries and concussions sustained during these activities.
Fiscal
Impact:
Unknown cost pressure to implement this pilot as costs would
depend on the size of the school districts awarded. Costs
likely in the tens of thousands to low hundreds of thousands
AB 2182 (Mullin) Page 1 of
?
annually, unless the Los Angeles Unified School District is
awarded, which would increase costs to about $2 million.
The California Department of Education (CDE) estimates costs
of about $252,000 spanning across several positions over the
life of the pilot for start-up activities, administering the
program, and the reporting requirement if the program were to
be funded. (General Fund)
Cost pressure, potentially in the hundreds of thousands, for
all school districts and charter schools that offer an
interscholastic athletic program to collect, maintain, and
report data on traumatic brain injuries and concussions.
Potential minor reimbursable state mandate costs for county
offices of education to compile and retain the data.
(Proposition 98)
Significant cost pressure to the extent the pilot is funded,
to subsequently expand it statewide. See staff comments.
(Proposition 98)
Background: The growing awareness of concussion dangers has led the state
to enact a series of bills to protect students. Existing law
requires a school that offers an athletic program to immediately
remove an athlete from athletic activity for the remainder of
the day if he or she is suspected of sustaining a concussion or
head injury and prohibits the athlete's return until written
clearance is provided by a licensed health care provider. If
the athlete sustained a concussion, the athlete is required to
complete a graduated return-to play protocol of no less than
seven days under the supervision of a health care provider.
Existing law also requires a concussion and head injury
information sheet to be signed by the athlete's parent before
participation in athletic activity. Some California
Interscholastic Federation (CIF) sections have limits on
full-contact practice. Finally, state law requires each high
school sports coach to complete training regarding the
identification of concussions.
Neurocognitive testing is used to evaluate brain processing and
can be conducted with pencil and paper, or with computerized
testing. Testing can be used as a baseline to gauge an
athlete's condition post-injury relative to performance before
injury. As such, it can be a factor in making decisions as to
whether and when an athlete should return to activity and what
kinds of activity may be safe for that athlete.
AB 2182 (Mullin) Page 2 of
?
A few school districts in San Mateo County have sought stronger
protections for student athletes and have, in some cases, paid
for computerized neurocognitive testing. The San Mateo County
Civil Grand Jury studied the issue and recommended, among other
things, that all districts in the county serving high school
students provide neurocognitive testing for all student
athletes, and recommended that the districts seek funding and
collect data.
According to the author's office, this bill is intended to
generate data to better understand the frequency and
consequences of head injuries among young athletes.
Proposed Law:
This bill, contingent upon funding provided in the annual
budget act or other statute, establishes the Neurocognitive
Testing Pilot Grant Program to provide grant funding to Title I
schools (schools with high numbers or high percentages of
children from low-income families) for neurocognitive testing.
This program is scheduled to sunset on January 1, 2022.
This bill requires the CDE to establish an application process
for school districts to apply on behalf of Title I schools
interested in participating in the pilot program. If funded,
grant awards would go to three school districts, one in each of
the northern, central, and southern areas of the state. Each
school district is required to participate in the pilot program
for four years in order to track students in grade 9 through the
completion of high school.
Grant funding is required to be used for the following
activities:
Baseline and post injury neurocognitive testing of students
participating in specified sports. The baseline testing is
required to take place at the beginning of an athletic season
and must be repeated at intervals not exceeding 24 months.
The testing is required to be administered by individuals who
AB 2182 (Mullin) Page 3 of
?
have been trained to administer the tests.
Post injury neurocognitive testing of an athlete who is
suspected of sustaining a concussion or head injury in an
interscholastic athletic activity and must be conducted within
72 hours of the injury.
Training of personnel or to consult with experts on the
interpretation of post injury test results. Parents of the
students participating in the specified sports are required to
be notified that the results of the baseline and post injury
neurocognitive testing conducted on their children are
available upon request.
Reporting to the county office of education data that includes
an overview of the baseline neurocognitive testing conducted
for each of the specified sports and an overview of normal,
abnormal, and follow up post injury neurocognitive tests. The
data are also required to include the number of students who
discontinue participation in the sport following a concussion
and post injury testing.
Based on information collected from county offices of education,
the CDE is required to prepare a report including, but not
limited to: (1) the number of athletes who received the baseline
and the post injury tests, and (2) the number of students that
have taken the tests and discontinued participation in sports
due to concussion injuries. The report is required to be
submitted to the Legislature by December 31, 2021.
Outside of the pilot program, this bill provides that a school
district, charter school, or private school that elects to offer
an interscholastic athletic program is required to collect and
maintain data on traumatic brain injuries and concussions
sustained by any of its students during an athletic activity.
The data are required to be reported periodically to the
appropriate county office of education. The county office of
education is required to compile and retain the data for summary
and analysis as it deems necessary.
AB 2182 (Mullin) Page 4 of
?
Staff
Comments: Costs of this pilot program will depend on the size
of the school districts awarded since the numbers of schools
within a school district vary significantly. Most schools will
qualify for grant funding as about 88 percent of schools in the
state are Title I schools. Neurocognitive testing can be
provided through companies through a variety of payment schemes.
Charges can range from $1 to $7.50 per test or can be offered
on a flat rate. Assuming a school district would contract with
a company to conduct testing and a flat rate per school of
$1,800 most school districts operating grades 9 through 12 would
incur costs in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands
depending on the number of schools in the school district.
However, for Los Angeles Unified School District, with about 800
high schools and over 200 charter schools, costs would be about
$1.8 million to perform required neurocognitive testing.
If this pilot were to be expanded statewide, to include about
2,000 high schools (including charter schools) in the state,
costs would be about $3.6 million to conduct testing annually.
-- END --