Rowan's Law for Sports Organizations: A Plain-Language Guide

What Rowan's Law is, in plain language

Rowan's Law — formally the Rowan's Law (Concussion Safety), 2018 — is Ontario legislation that sets out concussion-safety requirements for amateur competitive sport organizations in the province. In plain terms, it asks the organizations that register athletes to do three things every season: make sure people review concussion-awareness resources, adopt a concussion code of conduct, and follow a clear removal-from-sport and return-to-sport protocol. This article is general information to help volunteers understand the law in everyday language — it is not legal advice, and your organization should confirm its own obligations against an authoritative source.

The law is named for Rowan Stringer, a 17-year-old high-school rugby player from Ottawa who died in 2013 from second-impact syndrome — a second concussion sustained before an earlier one had healed. An inquest into her death recommended the concussion-safety measures that became Rowan's Law. That origin matters, because the point of the law is not paperwork; it is keeping young athletes safe by making sure concussions are recognized and taken seriously.

For a volunteer running a club, the practical question is simple: what does Rowan's Law actually require us to do, and how do we do it without it becoming one more impossible administrative job? The rest of this guide answers that.

Who Rowan's Law applies to

Rowan's Law applies to amateur competitive sport organizations in Ontario that register athletes — which is exactly what a minor-hockey association or youth-soccer club is. If your club registers competitive athletes in the province, the law's expectations are written with you in mind.

The requirements reach the people around the athlete, not just the athlete. Depending on age, that means the athletes themselves, the parents or guardians of athletes under 18, and the coaches, team officials, and on-ice or on-field officials involved. The common thread is that everyone in a position to prevent, recognize, or respond to a concussion should have engaged with the safety material — every year, before they take part.

The three things it asks of a sport organization

First, concussion-awareness resources. Before participating each year, athletes (and the parents of athletes under 18), coaches, team officials, and officials are expected to review Ontario's concussion-awareness resources and confirm they have done so. It is an annual acknowledgment, not a one-time box — a new season means a new confirmation.

Second, a concussion code of conduct. Your organization is expected to establish a code of conduct that sets out the behaviours expected to minimize concussions — fair play, respect for the rules, and not pressuring an injured athlete to keep playing — and to have participants commit to it.

Third, a removal-from-sport and return-to-sport protocol. You need a clear, established protocol for immediately removing an athlete suspected of having sustained a concussion, and a stepwise process for returning them to play safely once they are cleared. The protocol exists so that, in the moment, no one has to improvise the most important decision.

What this looks like for a volunteer each season

On paper these are three reasonable requirements. In practice, for a volunteer registrar, they become a tracking problem: who has confirmed they reviewed the resources this year, who has agreed to the code of conduct, and which households still have not — across every athlete, parent, coach, and official, before the season starts. Done by hand, that is another spreadsheet and another round of chasing on top of registration itself.

This is where the right software helps — not by claiming to make you compliant, but by making the operational work disappear. SideKrew is designed around the rules Canadian clubs live under, Rowan's Law among them. Because the acknowledgments are part of registration, the registration agent can collect the concussion-resource confirmation and the code-of-conduct agreement as each household registers, chase the ones who have not done it, and keep the record — so the registrar is not building a separate tracking sheet.

Be careful with the language any vendor uses here, including ours. Software can support your Rowan's Law posture and take the chasing and record-keeping off your volunteers; it cannot make your organization "certified" or "compliant" on its own, and no honest vendor should claim otherwise. Compliance depends on what your organization actually does — the protocols you adopt, the way you respond in the moment. SideKrew is designed around Rowan's Law to support that, not to absolve you of it.

Other provinces, and practical next steps

Rowan's Law is Ontario legislation. Concussion safety matters everywhere, and other provinces have their own guidance and, in some cases, their own rules — but the specific statutory requirements above are Ontario's. If your club is outside Ontario, treat this as a useful model and confirm what your own province expects; if you are in Ontario, confirm your obligations against the authoritative provincial resources rather than relying on any summary, including this one.

Practically, three steps carry most clubs a long way. Adopt and publish your concussion code of conduct and your removal-from-sport and return-to-sport protocol so they exist before you need them. Make the annual awareness-resource confirmation part of registration, so it is captured the moment a family signs up rather than chased later. And keep the records in one place, so you can show who confirmed what, and when. Try the live demo from the SideKrew homepage to see the registration agent capture the acknowledgments and chase the stragglers with a volunteer approving each step — and remember this guide is general information, not legal advice.