Youth coach licence: a substance test is now required

It is a new requirement for the licence to coach teams with minors. Before, the negative certification from the Registry of Persons Convicted of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse was enough. Now evidence of a negative controlled-substance test must be added, and the applicant pays for the test.

Every person interested in applying for a licence as a coach of teams belonging to sports clubs attached to the Department of Recreation and Sports, as well as to Sports Federations in which minors up to eighteen (18) years of age take part. It also reaches anyone who already holds a licence and anyone providing those services free of charge.

• A negative certification issued by the Police of Puerto Rico showing your name is not in the Registry of Persons Convicted of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse. This requirement already existed.Verified against the official source
• Evidence of a negative result on controlled-substance screening. This is the new requirement Act 59-2026 adds.Verified against the official source
• That the result be sent directly to the Department by a laboratory duly certified by the competent authorities, under the parameters set by regulation to guarantee the certainty of the procedural process. You do not hand it in yourself.Verified against the official source
• If you already hold a licence granted before this Act: submitting the negative result to the Department within sixty (60) days after the Regulation is approved.Verified against the official source

• Two: the Police’s negative certification on the Registry of Persons Convicted of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, and the evidence of a negative controlled-substance result sent by the laboratory. The law publishes no form and names no laboratories: the regulation must list them.

1. 1

   Step 1: The two documents the licence requires

   Article 2, as amended, requires both together: a negative certification issued by the Police of Puerto Rico showing your name is not in the Registry of Persons Convicted of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse, and evidence of a negative result on controlled-substance screening. The law calls them an indispensable requirement.

2. 2

   Step 2: The result does not pass through your hands

   It is a procedural detail worth knowing before going to the lab: the result must be sent directly to the Department by a laboratory duly certified by the competent authorities, under the parameters set by regulation to guarantee the certainty of the procedural process. That is, you do not carry a paper: the lab sends it.

3. 3

   Step 3: Who pays: you, and the law says it twice

   Both Article 2 and Article 4 close with the same sentence: “The cost of that test shall be borne entirely by the applicant.” And Section 5 repeats that the regulation shall list the laboratories “whose cost must be assumed entirely by that person”. The law does not say how much it costs, and we are not going to estimate it either.

4. 4

   Step 4: It also applies if you coach for free

   Article 4 is what closes that door, and it is worth quoting: no sports club attached to the Department or Sports Federation in which minors up to eighteen (18) take part shall contract, employ or use in any capacity, for pay or free of charge, any provider of such services, unless they have previously delivered the Registry certification and the evidence of a negative controlled-substance result.

5. 5

   Step 5: Random tests during the licence’s term

   The new Article 5 provides that every coach attached to the Department of Recreation and Sports may be given periodic controlled-substance tests at random during the licence’s term. That same article directs the Department to specify the substance panel by regulation, and to set control measures to uniform the processes and guarantee the selection method is random.

6. 6

   Step 6: What the test looks for, and what happens if you test positive

   Section 5 sets limits on the regulation the Department must adopt, and they are limits that protect the coach. The test must be limited solely to detecting substances under Schedules I and II of Act No. 4 of 23 June 1971, the Controlled Substances Act of Puerto Rico. If a coach tests positive for a Schedule II substance, they must present evidence showing their use is the product of a prescription issued by a health professional with a current licence as part of medical treatment. And the regulation must establish a protocol for positive results including official notification, an opportunity to challenge, provisional measures and protection of that coach’s rights.

7. 7

   Step 7: The medical cannabis patient exception

   It is written into the law and worth knowing: the regulation must recognise as an exception those sports coaches duly registered as patients under Act 42-2017, the MEDICINAL Act, who do not pose a risk to minors’ safety and wellbeing. And it adds that the regulation may set additional exceptions where medical justification exists.

8. 8

   Step 8: If you already hold a licence: sixty days from the regulation

   This is the deadline to note and the one most people will overlook. Section 5 provides that sports coaches who hold a licence to operate prior to this Act’s approval must submit to the Department of Recreation and Sports the negative controlled-substance result within sixty (60) days after the Regulation is approved. It counts from the regulation, not from the Act.

The licence and the Coaches Registry are attached to the Department of Recreation and Sports, which is also who receives the lab result and who must adopt the regulation. The negative certification from the Registry of Persons Convicted of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse is issued by the Police of Puerto Rico. The law publishes no address, phone, portal or list of laboratories.

• Believing the Registry certification alone is enough: since Act 59-2026 the evidence of a negative controlled-substance result must be added.
• Carrying the result by hand: the law requires the laboratory to send it directly to the Department.
• Thinking the Department pays for the test: the law says twice that the cost shall be borne entirely by the applicant.
• Assuming coaching without pay exempts you: Article 4 reaches anyone employed or used in any capacity, for pay or free of charge.
• Counting the sixty days from the Act’s approval: they run from when the Department’s Regulation is approved.
• Assuming a positive ends the matter: the regulation must carry a protocol with official notification, an opportunity to challenge and protection of rights, and a Schedule II positive can be explained with a current prescription.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Recreación y Deportes (DRD)

  DRD

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov