Bill 81 explained in plain English
Inherited Heart Rhythm Disorders Awareness Act, 2012
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 40th Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
The Inherited Heart Rhythm Disorders Awareness Act, 2012, would mandate school boards and sport organizations to establish policies and procedures for identifying and responding to fainting incidents in students and young athletes, with provisions for timely emergency response and parental notification.
This bill, if passed, would require Ontario school boards to create and maintain policies about inherited heart rhythm disorders. These policies would need to include procedures for employees to follow if a student faints, especially during physical activity, and how to communicate information about these disorders. It would also require sport organizations to have similar procedures for coaches, referees, and other officials when a child faints during sports. The bill also provides some legal protection for employees and sport officials acting in good faith under these policies.
- Requires every school board in Ontario to establish and maintain a policy concerning inherited heart rhythm disorders.
- Mandates that school board policies include requirements for employees to notify parents or guardians if a student faints, and to call 911 if a student faints during physical activity.
- Requires school board policies to include a plan for sharing information about inherited heart rhythm disorders with parents, students, and employees.
- Requires school principals to develop individual plans for students with inherited heart rhythm disorders and to collect relevant medical information upon registration.
- Applies to certain sport organizations and requires coaches, referees, and officials to call 911 and notify parents if a child faints during sports.
- Requires provincial and multi-sport organizations, and their member organizations, to take steps to ensure these fainting response procedures are followed.
- Provides that no legal action for damages can be started against a school board employee or a sport official for acts or omissions done in good faith under the Act or related policies.
- School boards in Ontario
- Employees of school boards
- Students
- Parents and guardians of students
- School principals
- Provincial sport organizations recognized by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport
- Multi-sport organizations recognized by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport
- Member and affiliate sport organizations of provincial sport organizations or multi-sport organizations
- Coaches, referees, and other officials associated with these sport organizations
- Children under 18 years of age involved in sports
- School boards must establish and maintain policies on inherited heart rhythm disorders.
- School employees must notify a pupil's parent or guardian if the pupil faints.
- School employees must call 911 if a pupil faints during physical activity.
- School boards must have a communication plan for information on inherited heart rhythm disorders.
- School principals must develop individual plans for pupils with these disorders.
- School principals must ask for information on inherited heart rhythm disorders from parents/guardians and pupils during registration.
- School principals must maintain files for pupils with these disorders.
- Parents/guardians and pupils must keep the information in the pupil's file up to date.
- Coaches, referees, and officials must call 911 and notify parents/guardians if a child faints during sports.
- Sport organizations must take steps to ensure these requirements are met.
- School board employees and sport officials are protected from lawsuits for acts or omissions done in good faith under the Act.
- The Act will come into force 180 days after it receives Royal Assent.
- The bill states that no action for damages shall be commenced against employees of a board or officials of a sport organization for acts or omissions done in good faith under the Act or related policies.
- The bill does not specify what constitutes 'reasonable steps' for sport organizations to ensure requirements are met.
- The bill does not interfere with duties that a person may have under the common law, meaning existing legal responsibilities might still apply.
- The definition of 'sport organization' is limited to those recognized by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport under that Ministry's Sport Recognition Policy.
- The protections from legal action apply only to acts or omissions done 'in good faith'.
This is the new Act being created by this bill.
Source: Title and Section 1(1)
Expressions in the Inherited Heart Rhythm Disorders Awareness Act, 2012, related to education will have the same meaning as they do in the Education Act, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Source: Section 1(2)
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
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Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
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