Safe Sport Act Federal Law Applies to RYB Franchised Leagues
In 2018, Congress enacted a new Federal law (Public Law 115-126) which establishes a nationwide standard “duty to report” suspected child abuse. The “Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017” (“Safe Sport Act”) specifically applies to all Ranger Youth Baseball (“RYB”) leagues and/or their sponsoring organizations. All RYB leagues must comply with the following provisions of the Safe Sport Act:
1) Duty to Report Child Abuse – Ranger Youth Baseball franchised leagues and/or their sponsoring organizations whose membership includes any adult who is in regular contact with an amateur athlete who is a minor must report suspected child abuse, including sexual abuse, within 24 hours to law enforcement. Please review the “Abuse Reporting Guidelines” under the League Risk Management tab on the RYB website at youth.dixie.org,
2) Limit One-On-One Interaction with Minors – Ranger Youth Baseball franchised leagues and/or their sponsoring organizations must establish procedures to limit one-on-one interactions between an amateur athlete who is a minor and an adult (who is not the minor’s legal guardian) at a facility under a jurisdiction of the league without being in an observable and interruptible distance from another adult, except in emergency circumstances.
3) Training for Adults and Minors – Ranger Youth Baseball franchised leagues and/or their sponsoring organizations must offer and provide consistent training to all adult members who have regular contact with amateur athletes who are minors, and subject to parental consent, to members who are minors, regarding prevention and reporting of child abuse to allow a complainant to report easily an incident of child abuse to appropriate persons.
• This Plan will serve as awareness education training for all league officials and staff who agree to educate themselves on all forms of misconduct and to refrain from engaging in such misconduct and in violating the policies herein. Leagues may adopt this Plan or adopt a similar plan which complies with Federal law.
• The Safe Sport Act requires sports organizations including Ranger Youth Baseball franchised leagues and/or their sponsoring organizations to provide training to minors on preventing and reporting of child abuse. RYB league organizations shall provide all parents of minor children access to the “Abuse Avoidance Training for Minors” or a similar document from another source to each parent with a strong recommendation that each parent should review this document with their minor child. Under the League Risk Management tab on the RYB website at rangeryouthbaseball.com, please review the “Abuse Awareness Training – Minors”.
Prohibit Retaliation – RYB franchised leagues and/or their sponsoring organizations must prohibit retaliation against any individual who makes a report required under the Safe Sport Act.
