Opinion: Florida is the first state to require EKGs for high school athletes. It’s a mistake
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- Florida's Second Chance Act will require all high school athletes to obtain an EKG before participating in sports starting the 2026-2027 school year, making Florida the first and only state with such a mandate.
- The law is named for Chance Gainer, a Port St. Joe High School football player who collapsed and died during an away game in September 2024; sudden cardiac death in young athletes occurs in roughly 1 in 70,000 adolescents.
- EKG screening produces false-positive results in up to 15% of healthy adolescents with no heart disease history, and rates run higher among Black athletes, sending students for cardiology visits, echocardiograms, and stress tests.
- School districts are responsible for finding partnerships to provide EKGs for under $50 per student, but the law does not address the cost of follow-up testing, which can reach thousands of dollars and is not always fully covered by insurance.
- The American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology do not support routine EKG screening for adolescent athletes, recommending instead targeted screening based on personal and family history and physical exams.
- Author Katherine Hofmann, a fourth-year M.D./M.P.H. student at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, recounts receiving a false-positive EKG as a college rower and an unexpected bill from follow-up testing.
Why it matters: Florida's mandate, set to take effect in 2026-2027, directly conflicts with American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology guidance and could sideline thousands of student athletes over false-positive rates as high as 15%, with follow-up costs falling hardest on lower-resource families who can least afford them.
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