Ontario’s Rowan’s Law Effective Now
October 10, 2018 by admin
Filed under Canadian Sport Features

The inaugural Rowan’s Law Day was recognized on Wednesday, September 26. The day represents an opportunity to engage students, staff, coaches and parents/guardians in activities that increase awareness about concussions and to share Rowan Stringer’s story.
Thanks to Rowan’s Law, all sports organizations and schools in Ontario will now have new rules in place involving concussions. Our partners in sport, OPHEA, have done significant work with committees for Rowan’s Law Day.
OPHEA’s Rowan’s Law Day Toolkit for Schools encourages students to speak up about concussions.
The toolkit includes:
*Information about Rowan Stringer and Rowan’s Law Day
*A list of concussion awareness activities for school
*Printable posters
*Links to additional concussion resources
Please download the toolkit by clicking the url below:
https://teachingtools.ophea.net/supplements/rowans-law-day-toolkit-schools
Also, OPHEA’s revised Concussion Protocol and implementation tools (Ontario Physical Education Safety Guidelines, Appendix C-1) and OPHEA’s revised Concussion Identification, Management and Prevention for Schools 2018/19 e-Learning module, also help educators stay current with concussion safety.
The day is named after Ottawa’s Rowan Stringer, who died in 2013 after suffering multiple concussions while playing sports.
The goal of Rowan’s Law Day is to increase concussion education awareness, especially in schools.
Rowan’s Law Day was one of several measures included in Rowan’s Law, which was approved by the Ontario Government in March.
The new concussion safety legislation established mandatory requirements for removal-from sport and return to sport protocols if an athlete is suspected of having sustained a concussion. It also sets up a concussion code of conduct to set out rules of behaviour to minimize concussions while playing sports.