Existing law provides various programs for youth and adolescent health, including requiring a youth sports organization that elects to offer an athletic program to ensure athletes have access to an automated external defibrillator during official practice and regulating youth football. Existing law also authorizes a community youth athletic program to request state and federal level criminal history information for volunteer or hired coach candidates.
This bill, the Youth Sports for All Act, would require the Secretary of California Health and Human Services and other relevant agencies or departments as determined by the Secretary, to, on or before March 1, 2026, establish and convene the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Development of a California Department of Youth Sports or an Equivalent Centralized Entity to conduct a comprehensive study on the need for and feasibility of creating a centralized entity charged with supporting and regulating youth sports, as provided. The bill would require the commission to, on or before January 1, 2027, submit the study to the Legislature and the Governor. The bill would make its provisions contingent upon an appropriation by the Legislature or upon the California Health and Human Services Agency obtaining sufficient funds from federal, nonprofit, or private sources. The bill would create the Youth Sports Blue Ribbon Commission Fund in the State Treasury and would authorize moneys in the account to be expended by the agency, upon appropriation by the Legislature, for purposes of the commission. The bill would create the Youth Sports Blue Ribbon Commission Special Fund Subaccount within the fund for the receipt and deposit of the aforementioned federal, nonprofit, or private moneys, and would continuously appropriate moneys in the subaccount to the agency for purposes of the commission, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would repeal its provisions on January 1, 2029.