As promised, following our October 29 alert we more closely examined the conflict between the Governor’s order delaying basketball to Spring and the IHSA’s decision to proceed as scheduled in November. Our review identified a number of issues that must be considered by school districts in determining whether to follow the IHSA basketball schedule. Issues include:

• the potential impacts of the Governor’s order on the availability of liability defenses under the Tort Immunity Act;
• the availability of insurance coverage for COVID injury lawsuits;
• the use of waivers by participants and their parents; and
• the nature of the data IHSA reportedly relied upon to support its decision.

Due to the sensitive nature of the analysis, it is in clients’ best interests that we communicate our legal opinion on these matters in a detailed memo protected by the attorney-client privilege.