The National Federation of High School Associations (NHSF) has taken new approaches for the next step in high school sports and activities. Through a 15-member committee consisting of health experts and high school officials, a new set of guidelines has been released for the future approaches for high school activities. These guidelines differ between different states. The approach each high school takes is determined by state and local health departments.

“We are greatly indebted to the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee for its work in formulating this guidance for re-opening high school athletics and activities,” said Dr. Karissa Niehoff , the NFHS executive director, in an email. “It is important to be clear that this is guidance for individual states to consider as they return to activities this fall. States will utilize the guidance in this document as it best fits their state after consulting with local and state health departments.” 

These guidelines offer varieties depending on different risk levels for different sports. These levels are high risk, moderate risk or low risk. The risk level is associated with the danger to physical contact of the sport. For example, a high risk level is a sport like football that requires a lot of physical contact while a low risk level is a sport like golf.

“We believe this guidance document will be a tremendous resource for our member state associations as they determine the timetables for re-opening sports and activities,” Niehoff said. “The NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee utilized recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as some return-to-play considerations by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), in formulating this guidance document for re-opening athletics and other activities in our nation’s schools.”