A legislative task force has made its final recommendations to improve the health and safety of Kentucky’s middle school athletes. Kentucky currently has a High School Athletics Association, which sets policies for older students who are beyond the middle school age.
And the 17-member task force was assembled this year to address the lack of attention paid to middle school sports, which are regulated by the Department of Education.
Task force member Wilson Sears of Somerset is executive director of the Kentucky Association of Schools Superintendents.
He says the Kentucky Board of Education will now consider which of the recommendations it wants to adopt, which could include forming a new middle school athletics agency or providing written recommendations to local school leaders.
“Whether or not they could put in place an agency like the KHSAA by the beginning of the 13/14 school year I’m not sure," says Sears.
Among the recommendations is regulating the health of players and tracking injury and incident reports.