NFHS Lightning Safety Policy Explained: The 30-Minute Rule and What It Actually Requires
i The Direct Answer
The NFHS lightning safety policy, issued by the National Federation of State High School Associations Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) and most recently updated in January 2021, requires that when thunder is heard or lightning is seen, play must be suspended immediately and all participants must evacuate to a designated safe location. The 30-minute rule then applies: no activity may resume until at least 30 minutes have elapsed since the last thunder heard or lightning witnessed. Any subsequent thunder or lightning resets the 30-minute clock from zero.
The NFHS guidelines are recommendations — not federal law — but they carry significant weight because most state high school athletic associations have adopted them as their official standard. Schools and athletic programs that deviate from NFHS guidelines without documented justification face substantial liability exposure if a lightning-related injury or fatality occurs.
Scope: This Article Covers the NFHS Policy for High School Athletics
This guide covers the NFHS SMAC lightning safety guidelines — the standard that governs high school athletic programs, coaches, and athletic directors across all 50 states.
If you are responsible for outdoor workers in construction, agriculture, utilities, or other industries, the operative standard is OSHA’s General Duty Clause — not NFHS. See: OSHA Lightning Safety Requirements for Outdoor Workers: The Complete 2026 Guide.
If you operate a surface mine or blasting operation, the operative standard is MSHA 30 CFR §§ 56/57.6604. See: MSHA Lightning Requirements for Surface Mining and Blasting Operations.
Why NFHS Lightning Policy Matters: Key Facts
About 30 people are killed by lightning in the United States annually, with hundreds more injured — some suffering permanent neurological damage. About two-thirds of all lightning fatalities are associated with outdoor recreational activities.
Student athletes, coaches, and spectators at outdoor athletic events are among the most exposed populations: practices and games often occur in the afternoon and evening hours when thunderstorm activity peaks (most commonly between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.).
Lightning injuries are most commonly caused not by a direct strike but by ground current radiating outward from where a strike hits — making distance from the strike point, not just direct avoidance, the key safety variable.
A lightning strike may carry anywhere from 20 million to 1 billion volts at a temperature of approximately 8,000°C. The leading edge of a thunderstorm can produce strikes up to 10 miles ahead of any visible rainfall.
The NFHS itself states: ‘While a lightning policy should be a one-size-fits-all plan’ — unlike heat or cold policies, the NFHS does not permit regional variation in lightning response. The same standard applies in every state, every sport, and every season.
The NFHS Lightning Safety Policy: Complete Verbatim Summary
The current NFHS guidelines on lightning safety are titled ‘Guidelines on Handling Practices and Contests During Lightning or Thunder Disturbances,’ issued by the NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) with a most recent revision date of January 2021. These guidelines have been revised multiple times since their original issuance (2004, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2021) — the January 2021 version is the operative document.
The guidelines are organized around two categories: Proactive Planning and Criteria for Suspension and Resumption of Play. Here is a complete structured summary of both sections:
Proactive Planning Requirements
The NFHS requires the following proactive steps before any outdoor athletic event. Critically, the NFHS policy applies to the full range of outdoor school activities — not just games. It covers contests, practices, warm-ups, pregame ceremonies, halftime activities, marching band activities, outdoor strength sessions, camps, and any other outdoor activity where athletes, coaches, or spectators could be exposed to lightning.
1. Assign staff to monitor local weather conditions before and during practices and contests.
2. Develop an evacuation plan that identifies appropriate nearby safer areas and determines the amount of time needed to get everyone to a designated safer area.
3. Define what constitutes a designated safer place:
Primary safe shelter: a substantial building with plumbing and wiring where people live or work, such as a school, gymnasium, or library.
Alternate safe shelter: a fully enclosed (not convertible or soft top) metal car or school bus.
4. Review the lightning safety policy annually with all administrators, coaches, and game personnel and train all personnel.
5. Inform student-athletes and their parents of the lightning policy at the start of each season.
Suspension and Resumption of Play: The 30-Minute Rule
This is the operational heart of the NFHS policy and the source of most misunderstanding in practice:
a. When thunder is heard or lightning is seen, the leading edge of the thunderstorm is close enough to strike the location. Suspend play for at least 30 minutes and vacate the outdoor activity to the previously designated safer location immediately.
b. 30-minute rule: Once play has been suspended, wait at least 30 minutes after the last thunder is heard or lightning is witnessed before resuming play.
c. Any subsequent thunder or lightning after the beginning of the 30-minute count will reset the clock and another 30-minute count should begin.
d. When independently validated lightning-detection devices or mobile phone apps are available, this technology could be used to assist in making a decision to suspend play if a lightning strike is noted to be within 10 miles of the event location. However, you should never depend on the reliability of these devices and, thus, hearing thunder or seeing lightning should always take precedence over information from a mobile app or lightning-detection device.
! The Night Game Exception — Read Carefully
The NFHS policy contains a specific footnote for nighttime events: ‘At night, under certain atmospheric conditions, lightning flashes may be seen from distant storms. In these cases, it may be safe to continue an event. If no thunder can be heard and the flashes are low on the horizon, the storm may not pose a threat. Independently verified lightning detection information would help eliminate any uncertainty.’
This exception is narrow and explicitly conditional on: (1) no audible thunder, (2) flashes low on the horizon, and (3) preferably confirmed by independently verified detection data. If thunder is audible at any point, the exception does not apply — the 30-minute rule triggers immediately.
Do not interpret this as permission to delay evacuation whenever lightning is visible at night. It is a specific allowance for clearly distant, clearly non-threatening visible lightning — and the NFHS itself notes that detection technology ‘would help eliminate any uncertainty.’
What the 30-Minute Rule Actually Requires: Four Things Schools Get Wrong
The 30-minute rule sounds simple but is more operationally demanding than most schools realize. These are the four most common compliance failures:
Mistake 1: Starting the 30-Minute Clock When You Hear the First Thunder
The 30-minute clock does not start when you hear the first thunder and suspend play. It starts — and restarts — from the last thunder heard or last lightning witnessed. This means the clock cannot begin ticking until the storm has completely passed. In practice, a storm that arrives, produces lightning for 20 minutes, and then appears to pass may still not allow resumption for another 30 minutes after the last event.
A useful field awareness tool is the flash-to-bang method: count the seconds between seeing a lightning flash and hearing the resulting thunder, then divide by 5 to estimate the distance in miles. For example, 30 seconds between the flash and the thunder means lightning is approximately 6 miles away. This technique helps designated monitors track how quickly a storm is approaching and builds awareness — but it does not change the NFHS trigger. Under the NFHS policy, once thunder is audible the 30-minute suspension applies regardless of estimated distance. The flash-to-bang method is an awareness aid, not an override.
In a busy afternoon game schedule, this means that a storm arriving at 3:00 p.m., with the last thunder at 3:45 p.m., cannot result in play resuming before 4:15 p.m. at the earliest — not 3:30 p.m. A coach who reads the policy as ’30 minutes from when we went inside’ and sends athletes back to the field at 3:30 p.m. is not complying.
Mistake 2: Resuming Play When the Rain Stops
Rain stopping is not a criterion for resuming play under the NFHS policy. The criterion is the absence of thunder and lightning. A storm can produce lightning in a completely clear sky up to 10 miles outside of any visible rainfall. Practices and games resumed the moment rain stops are frequently resumed before the 30-minute window has elapsed.
Mistake 2b: Delaying Evacuation to Finish a Task
When the suspension trigger is met, activity stops completely and immediately — not at the next stoppage in play, not after one more drill, and not after athletes collect their equipment. Officials should not wait for a convenient stoppage in play. Coaches should not finish the current rep or rotation. Athletes should not remain on the field to gather gear. Every additional minute between the trigger and shelter increases exposure during the most dangerous portion of any lightning event: the storm’s leading edge.
Additionally, if people are caught outdoors before reaching shelter — light poles, metal fencing, standing water, wet ground, and isolated objects such as trees or bleachers all increase risk. People should not lie flat on the ground: lying flat increases contact with ground current radiating outward from a nearby strike, which is the primary mechanism of lightning injury. If shelter is briefly unavailable, crouch low with feet together, head down, and ears covered as a last-resort risk-reduction measure — but reaching safe shelter remains the goal and this crouching guidance is not a substitute. If someone is struck: lightning victims carry no electrical charge and rescuers can safely provide immediate aid or CPR without risk of secondary shock.
Mistake 3: Treating a Phone App as the Primary Monitoring System
The NFHS policy is explicit: ‘you should never depend on the reliability of these devices and, thus, hearing thunder or seeing lightning should always take precedence over information from a mobile app or lightning-detection device.’ Phone apps have two documented problems: (1) they may show lightning location data that is several minutes old by the time it displays, and (2) they may report strikes from a sensor that is not geographically near the athletic venue.
This does not mean technology is prohibited — the NFHS policy explicitly endorses independently validated lightning-detection systems as a supplement to human observation. The distinction is between a consumer app used as the sole decision-making tool (not acceptable) and a professional detection system used to supplement human judgment (encouraged). The NFHS specifically notes that independently verified detection ‘would help eliminate any uncertainty’ — particularly at night when the line-of-sight exception is in question.
Mistake 4: Using Dugouts, Tents, or Open Structures as Safe Shelter
The NFHS policy defines safe shelter precisely: a substantial building with plumbing and wiring (school building, gymnasium, library) or a fully enclosed metal vehicle (car or school bus with windows closed). Dugouts, covered bleachers, refreshment stands, press boxes without wiring, open pavilions, tents, gazebos, and screened enclosures do not meet the NFHS definition of a designated safe place.
The NFHS article on lightning policy development specifically warns: ‘Other locations with open areas including tents, dugouts, gazebos, refreshment stands, [and] screened-in porches’ are not safe shelters. A team sheltering in a dugout during a thunderstorm is not complying with the NFHS policy — and if a lightning-related injury occurs in that dugout, the school’s exposure is significant.
While en route to shelter, athletes and spectators should avoid: light poles, metal fencing, wet ground, standing water, isolated trees, bleachers, and any other isolated object that would make a person the tallest or most conductive target in the area. These specific locations are dangerous not only from direct strikes but from ground current and side flash — both of which are more likely when a person is near a struck object or in contact with wet or conductive surfaces.
NFHS vs. NATA Lightning Guidelines: Key Similarities and Differences
Two sets of guidelines are most commonly referenced in high school athletics: the NFHS guidelines and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) position statement on lightning safety for athletics and recreation. The NFHS itself acknowledges that its recommendations ‘are similar to those made by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.’ Understanding the relationship between the two matters because many schools have athletic trainers on staff who work from NATA protocols.| Element | NFHS SMAC Guidelines (January 2021) | NATA Position Statement (2013) |
| Issuing body | NFHS Sports Medicine Advisory Committee | National Athletic Trainers’ Association |
| Most recent version | January 2021 (revised seven times since 2004) | 2013 position statement (Journal of Athletic Training) |
| Applicable to | High school athletics — default policy for all 50 state associations | Athletics and recreation broadly — used in collegiate and professional settings |
| 30-minute rule | Same: 30 minutes from last thunder/lightning; clock resets on subsequent events | Same: 30 minutes from last thunder/lightning; clock resets |
| Suspension trigger | First audible thunder or visible lightning | First audible thunder or visible lightning |
| Safe shelter — primary | Substantial building with plumbing and wiring | Substantial building with plumbing and wiring |
| Safe shelter — secondary | Fully enclosed metal vehicle | Fully enclosed metal vehicle |
| Technology role | Independently validated detection as supplement — never as replacement for human observation | Lightning detection systems recommended; 30-minute rule still applies regardless of technology reading |
| Flash-to-bang guidance | Not included in current NFHS SMAC document; some earlier state association guidance used 30 seconds = ~6 miles | 30-second flash-to-bang count used as trigger — means lightning within approximately 6 miles |
| Annual review requirement | Yes — annually with all administrators, coaches, and game personnel | Yes — policy review and practice drills recommended |
| Parent notification | Yes — inform student-athletes and parents at start of season | Not specifically required in NATA position statement |
→ The Practical Relationship for Athletic Trainers
If your school has a certified athletic trainer (ATC) on staff, their NATA training likely aligns very closely with the NFHS policy — the 30-minute rule, safe shelter definitions, and suspension triggers are essentially identical.
The most important operational difference: NATA’s 2013 guidance references the flash-to-bang method (30 seconds = approximately 6 miles = suspend activity) as a monitoring tool. The current NFHS SMAC document does not include flash-to-bang timing — it uses first audible thunder as the trigger. Schools should clarify in their own written policy which trigger they are using and ensure all personnel understand the school’s specific protocol.
When in doubt, follow the more protective standard. If your ATC calls for suspension and your coach disagrees, the NFHS is clear: all individuals have the right to leave an athletic site to seek safe shelter if they feel in danger of impending lightning — without fear of repercussions or penalty from anyone.
Is the NFHS Lightning Policy Mandatory? Understanding the Legal Framework
This is one of the most common questions from athletic directors: is the NFHS policy legally binding? The short answer is: it is not federal law, but treating it as optional creates substantial legal exposure.
What the NFHS Guidelines Are
The NFHS itself describes its guidelines as ‘a default policy’ that provides a framework for schools that do not have their own state association-specific guidance. The NFHS disclaimer on the guidelines document states explicitly: ‘Such information is neither exhaustive nor necessarily applicable to all circumstances or individuals, and is no substitute for consultation with appropriate health-care professionals.’
The NFHS recommends that schools look first to their state high school activities association for lightning policy, and to the National Weather Service for local guidance. The NFHS document is the floor — states and schools may impose stricter requirements but should not fall below what NFHS recommends.
What Your State Association’s Adoption Means
In practice, the NFHS guidelines function as a de facto mandatory standard in most states because state high school athletic associations have formally adopted them. When a state association adopts NFHS guidelines — as the vast majority have — those guidelines become the enforceable standard for athletic events within that state. Deviation from the adopted policy is a compliance failure with the state association and a documented departure from recognized best practice.
Coaches, athletic directors, and school administrators in states where the NFHS lightning policy has been adopted by the state association are not protected by the argument that ‘NFHS guidelines are just recommendations.’ If your state association has adopted the guidelines, you are expected to follow them.
The Liability Picture
Beyond association compliance, the NFHS lightning policy is relevant in tort liability. Schools, coaches, and athletic directors owe a duty of care to student athletes. When a lightning-related injury or fatality occurs, the question in civil litigation is whether the responsible parties followed the recognized standard of care for lightning safety in school athletics.
The recognized standard of care is the NFHS guideline — or the state association’s adopted equivalent. A school that suspended play 15 minutes after lightning was first seen (rather than immediately), or resumed play 20 minutes after the last thunder (rather than 30), or sheltered athletes in a dugout rather than a gymnasium, has documented a deviation from the recognized standard. That deviation is the basis for negligence findings.
NFHS’s own guidance on reducing athletic program liability is explicit: personnel must understand ‘the duties and basic legal mandates with which they must comply, including liability for sports injury issues.’ Lightning safety compliance is not an administrative detail — it is a legal duty.
Building an NFHS-Compliant Lightning Safety Policy: A Step-by-Step Framework
The NFHS requires a written policy, annual review, and pre-season communication to athletes and parents. Here is a step-by-step framework that satisfies all NFHS requirements and creates a defensible documented program:
Step 1 — Conduct a Pre-Season Site Assessment
For each athletic venue, document in writing:
- The designated primary safe shelter — name the specific building, confirm it has plumbing and electrical wiring, confirm it can accommodate the number of athletes, coaches, officials, and spectators typically present
- The designated secondary safe shelter — specific school buses or fleet vehicles assigned to the venue, confirmed enclosed and metal-topped with functional windows
- The evacuation route from each practice/game area to each shelter — measure the time it takes to move the full group to shelter and document it. This time determines how early evacuation must begin relative to storm arrival.
- Shelter locations for spectators — the NFHS notes that the evacuation plan must account for ‘crowd sizes’ because large events require more lead time to evacuate safely
Step 2 — Establish the Chain of Command
Designate a specific person responsible for:
- Monitoring weather conditions before and during every outdoor athletic event
- Making the suspension call — and giving them the explicit authority to override coaching decisions without discussion
- Issuing the all-clear to resume — making clear this requires 30 minutes from the last event, confirmed through the monitoring method
The NFHS’s May 2021 article advises: ‘Assign a weather safety official — ideally a coach, athletic director, or trained supervisor — to monitor conditions and make decisions regarding delays. Their authority should be respected and unquestioned.’ When there is ambiguity about who calls the suspension, delays occur. A named authority eliminates the ambiguity.
Step 3 — Define Your Monitoring System
Write specifically into your policy what monitoring method will be used:
- Primary method: human observation — first audible thunder or visible lightning triggers suspension
- Supplemental method: if an independently validated lightning-detection system is available (such as cyclonePORT’s on-site lightning sensor with RadarOmega data integration), it will be used to support the decision — particularly for nighttime events where the NFHS permits continued activity if no thunder is audible and flashes are low on the horizon
- Documentation: how the monitoring record will be kept — automatic timestamped logs from the detection system, or manual logs maintained by the designated weather monitor
Step 4 — Write the 30-Minute Protocol Explicitly
Do not rely on staff to recall the rule from memory. Write it in your policy and post it visibly at your venue:
- Suspension trigger: first audible thunder or first visible lightning — play suspends immediately, with no delay to finish a task, collect equipment, or wait for a convenient stoppage
- Evacuation: all athletes, coaches, officials, and spectators must proceed to designated safe shelter — and the evacuation plan must account for travel time. If it takes several minutes to move spectators from an open field to a building, the suspension call may need to happen before the storm reaches the venue, not when it arrives overhead
- Warning signals: define how the suspension will be communicated to all groups — PA announcements, sirens, radios, text alerts, scoreboards, or designated staff directing people. The signal must reach athletes, coaches, officials, and spectators simultaneously
- All-clear signal: define separately how the return to play will be communicated — and make clear that only the designated authority issues the all-clear, not coaches or officials responding to pressure from crowd or scoreboard conditions
- 30-minute clock: starts from the last thunder heard or last lightning witnessed — not from when you entered shelter, not from when the rain stopped
- Clock reset: any thunder or lightning after the count begins resets the clock to 30 minutes from that event
- Resumption: only the designated authority may authorize return to the field, only after 30 full minutes have elapsed with no additional events
Managing Pressure to Continue Play
Weather delays create genuine pressure. Coaches want to finish the game. Tournament organizers worry about scheduling. Parents object to leaving seats. Officials want to avoid rescheduling. These pressures are predictable — which is why the policy must be written, announced before the season, and enforced before the storm arrives.
The NFHS guidance is explicit: the designated weather monitor should have clear, unchallengeable authority to suspend play. All personnel — coaches, officials, parents, athletes — should understand before the first storm that the policy is non-negotiable. A documented, pre-communicated policy protects both the decision-maker and the school when the pressure is on.
Step 5 — Train All Personnel Before Each Season
NFHS requires annual training with all administrators, coaches, and game personnel. Training should cover:
- The specific shelter locations at each venue where the person coaches or administers
- The suspension trigger — first thunder or lightning, not ’30 seconds of flash-to-bang’
- The 30-minute rule — exactly how it works, that the clock resets, and that rain stopping is not the criterion
- What does not qualify as shelter — dugouts, tents, open bleachers, covered pavilions
- First aid for lightning strike victims: victims carry no electrical charge and can be touched safely; cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death from lightning strikes; call 911 and begin CPR immediately if the victim is unresponsive
- Pre-season communication to athletes and parents — confirm this is documented each year
Step 6 — Document Every Event
The NFHS policy creates an implicit recordkeeping obligation. In the event of a lightning-related injury, the question will be: what did you do, when did you do it, and how do you know? The answers must come from contemporaneous records.
- Suspension events: when suspension was called, why, who called it
- Shelter occupancy: when shelter was reached, who was accounted for
- Clock resets: whether any subsequent thunder or lightning occurred during the waiting period and when each reset event happened — this documents that the 30-minute clock was properly administered
- Monitoring record: what the monitoring system showed during the suspension period, and when the 30-minute window cleared
- Resumption: when play resumed, who authorized it, and on what basis
An on-site lightning detection system with automatic timestamped logging satisfies this documentation requirement without requiring any staff action. The log exists regardless of whether anyone remembered to write it down.
Lightning Detection Technology and the NFHS Policy: What Schools Should Know
The NFHS policy is explicit that technology supplements human judgment — it does not replace it. Understanding how different monitoring approaches relate to the NFHS standard helps athletic directors make appropriate choices for their programs.| Factor | Human Observation Only | Consumer Weather App | Professional On-Site Lightning Detection (cyclonePORT) |
| NFHS policy compliance | Meets the minimum NFHS standard — thunder and lightning are the trigger | NFHS explicitly says ‘never depend on the reliability of these devices’ — consumer apps are a supplement only | Meets NFHS standard for independently validated detection; provides site-specific proximity data that supplements human observation |
| Trigger detection | Requires someone to see or hear the storm — may miss night events, storms during crowd noise, or rapidly developing cells | Delayed data — may show lightning that occurred minutes earlier; does not meet NFHS ‘independently validated’ standard | Real-time detection; alerts all designated personnel simultaneously without requiring anyone to see or hear the storm |
| Night game compliance | Limited — NFHS permits activity if lightning is low on horizon with no thunder, but human observation of proximity is imprecise | Consumer apps may help estimate distance but are not ‘independently verified’ — NFHS uncertainty language applies | Independently verified proximity data — directly addresses NFHS’s recommendation to ‘help eliminate any uncertainty’ for nighttime events |
| Automatic logging | No — requires manual records that may be incomplete or inconsistent | No — no automatic log of what was shown and when; screenshots are not a reliable compliance record | Yes — automatic timestamped log of every detection event, every alert, and every all-clear; the documentation record NFHS compliance requires |
| Multi-venue coverage | Requires a separate monitor at each venue — not scalable | One app per device; no centralized visibility across multiple venues | Single dashboard visible to all designated personnel across multiple practice/game venues simultaneously |
→ How cyclonePORT Supports NFHS Lightning Policy Compliance
cyclonePORT’s on-site lightning detection sensor monitors proximity in real time and delivers simultaneous push alerts to all registered supervisors via the RadarOmega app — covering all coaches, athletic trainers, and administrators at once, whether they are at the practice field, in a press box, or managing a separate venue.
The automatic timestamped log documents every detection event, every alert delivery, and every all-clear threshold — creating exactly the compliance record that NFHS policy compliance requires and that civil litigation will seek in the event of an incident.
For night games specifically: cyclonePORT’s independently verified proximity data addresses the NFHS’s stated goal of eliminating uncertainty about whether a lightning flash seen at night is from a distant, non-threatening storm or from a storm close enough to require suspension.
cyclonePORT’s RadarOmega integration also gives athletic directors access to NWS alerts, NEXRAD Doppler radar, and storm cell tracking — so the decision about whether a cell is moving toward or away from the venue is informed by professional data, not a consumer app.
Frequently Asked Questions: NFHS Lightning Safety Policy
What does the NFHS 30-minute rule actually require?
Is the NFHS lightning policy legally required for schools?
Does a dugout count as safe shelter under the NFHS lightning policy?
Can a weather app replace the 30-minute rule under NFHS policy?
What is the difference between NFHS and NATA lightning guidelines?
What role does lightning detection technology play under NFHS guidelines?
Who is responsible for calling a lightning suspension at a high school athletic event?
NFHS Lightning Safety Compliance Checklist for Athletic Programs
Use this checklist to evaluate your school’s lightning safety program against all NFHS requirements. Every ‘No’ represents a potential compliance gap and an increase in legal exposure.| Program Element | What to Confirm |
| Written lightning safety policy | Exists in writing, is venue-specific, and mirrors NFHS SMAC guidelines (or stricter state association standard) |
| Designated weather monitor | A named individual is assigned to monitor weather conditions before and during every outdoor practice and contest |
| Designated authority to suspend play | A specific named person has explicit authority to call suspension — and their authority is documented and unquestioned |
| Primary safe shelter identified | A specific substantial building with plumbing and wiring is named for each venue — not a dugout, tent, or open structure |
| Secondary safe shelter identified | Specific fully enclosed metal vehicles (cars or school buses) are designated as the alternate shelter for each venue |
| Evacuation route documented | The time required to move all athletes, coaches, officials, and spectators to shelter is measured and documented |
| Spectator evacuation plan | Shelter locations and evacuation routes exist for spectator crowds — accounts for crowd size and access |
| 30-minute rule clearly defined in policy | Policy specifies: clock starts from last thunder/lightning; clock resets on subsequent events; rain stopping is not the criterion |
| Prohibited shelters named in policy | Policy specifically lists what does NOT qualify as shelter: dugouts, tents, covered bleachers, open pavilions, screened structures |
| Nighttime event protocol | Policy addresses the NFHS nighttime exception and specifies what conditions must be met before continued activity |
| Monitoring method documented | Policy specifies the monitoring approach (human observation, detection technology, or both) and who is responsible |
| Lightning detection technology in use | An independently validated system provides proximity alerts and automatic timestamped logs of detection events |
| Annual policy review | The written policy is reviewed with all administrators, coaches, and game personnel before each season |
| Pre-season athlete and parent notification | Athletes and parents are informed of the lightning policy at the start of each season — documented |
| Staff training on first aid | All athletic personnel know that lightning victims carry no electrical charge, can be touched safely, and that CPR should begin immediately if the victim is unresponsive |
| Post-event documentation | A record is kept of every suspension event: when called, monitoring records during the delay, and when resumption was authorized |
