Health & Science

For Houston-area families, the start of school often means something else begins almost immediately: football practice, cross-country workouts, marching band rehearsals and long afternoons spent outside.

This year, those familiar August routines are happening under a new set of statewide heat safety requirements.

Beginning with the 2026-27 school year, the University Interscholastic League (UIL) is requiring member schools to use Wet Bulb Globe Temperature, or WBGT, to monitor environmental conditions during outdoor athletic and marching band practices and workouts. The change took effect Aug. 1, 2026, moving a heat-safety practice that UIL had previously recommended into a required statewide standard.

The timing is particularly relevant in the Houston area, where students are returning to campuses while afternoon temperatures remain near triple digits.

Houston Methodist West Hospital sports medicine physician Dr. Irvin Sulapas said the broader measurement can give schools a better understanding of what students are actually experiencing outdoors.

“Extreme heat doesn't affect every athlete the same way, which is why relying on more than the temperature alone is so important,” Sulapas said. “The goal is to get a clearer picture of heat risk so students can compete safely.”

What is WBGT, and why is UIL requiring it?

The temperature displayed on a phone's weather app does not tell the entire story when a student is running drills on a football field or marching across sun-heated pavement.

WBGT takes several environmental factors into account, including temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and solar radiation. UIL says the measurement provides a more useful picture of heat stress during outdoor physical activity than air temperature alone.

UIL first approved WBGT as its recommended measurement for monitoring outdoor conditions in 2023. After several years of recommended implementation, the UIL Medical Advisory Committee recommended making the protocols mandatory, and the UIL Legislative Council approved the change for the 2026-27 school year.

The result is a more standardized approach across Texas schools at a time of year when coaches, athletic trainers, band directors, students and parents routinely contend with extreme heat.

Under the new rules, WBGT readings are used to determine when schools must adjust factors such as the amount of time students spend exercising versus resting, the frequency of hydration breaks, the equipment athletes wear and the overall length or intensity of outdoor practices.

Schools must check conditions before and during outdoor practices

For parents wondering what the new UIL heat rules may look like in practice, the biggest change is that monitoring is no longer optional.

UIL says WBGT readings should be taken within 15 minutes before an outdoor practice or workout begins and every 30 minutes during the activity. Schools can use an approved onsite WBGT instrument or an approved internet-based forecasting resource.

Those requirements apply not only to traditional outdoor fields but also to practices held under covered pavilions and in indoor facilities that are not climate-controlled.

As environmental conditions move from one WBGT risk level to another, schools are expected to make the corresponding practice modifications required by UIL. Rest periods under the plan must allow unlimited hydration and cannot include additional physical activity. UIL also states that students should have unrestricted access to water.

That could mean a practice looks different from one afternoon to the next even when the air temperature appears similar. Humidity, direct sunlight and wind can change the amount of heat stress placed on a student's body.

What about football games and other competitions?

There is an important distinction for parents to understand.

UIL's mandatory WBGT practice guidelines and limitations do not automatically apply to competitions. For games and contests, UIL recommends that schools monitor WBGT before and during competition and consider safety changes when conditions warrant them. Those measures can include adjusting game times, adding hydration opportunities or official timeouts, providing shade, using fans and misters, lengthening halftime or, in extreme conditions, rescheduling a contest.

There are still mandatory safeguards.

When a UIL contest, practice, workout or conditioning session is held at or above the applicable WBGT threshold identified in the state plan, schools must have a rapid cooling zone available. That includes equipment capable of rapidly lowering the body temperature of someone experiencing a serious heat illness, such as a cold-water immersion tub or the tarp-assisted cooling oscillation, or TACO, method.

UIL requires school emergency action plans to address heat emergencies and onsite rapid cooling.

For families sitting in the stands, those precautions may never be noticeable. But for a student who develops exertional heat stroke, rapid cooling can become critical within minutes.

Parents should know the signs of heat exhaustion

The new UIL requirements give schools another tool for managing outdoor heat, but parents and students still have an important role.

Sulapas, a board-certified primary care sports medicine physician at Houston Methodist West Hospital, said symptoms of heat exhaustion can include fatigue, dizziness, nausea, muscle cramps, vomiting and confusion. Without prompt treatment, heat exhaustion can progress to heat stroke, a life-threatening medical emergency.

Those symptoms matter because a student may not always recognize that what feels like an unusually difficult practice is becoming something more serious.

Parents can also encourage students to arrive at practices hydrated, take advantage of every water break offered, speak up when they feel ill and avoid trying to “push through” dizziness, nausea, confusion or other concerning symptoms.

UIL's own heat-safety resources emphasize unrestricted water access, appropriate rest and emergency plans that allow immediate cooling when heat illness is suspected.

Why the change matters for Houston-area families

For many Houston-area students, outdoor activity is a major part of the school experience.

Football players may spend hours practicing in helmets and pads. Marching band members rehearse routines while carrying instruments. Cross-country runners cover miles outdoors, while soccer, tennis and other athletes begin conditioning as summer heat lingers well beyond the first day of school.

WBGT does not eliminate that heat. What the new UIL requirement does is establish a common measurement schools must use when deciding how much activity is appropriate under the conditions students are actually experiencing.

It also gives parents a useful question to ask when outdoor conditions become especially harsh: What is the WBGT, and what does UIL require at that level?

That is a more meaningful measure than looking at the afternoon temperature alone.

As another Texas school year gets underway, the new rules add another layer of protection to routines that generations of students know well — the first whistle at practice, the first marching-band rehearsal and the return of Friday night lights.

For parents, understanding those rules and recognizing the early signs of heat illness can help make sure those traditions remain part of a safe start to the school year.

Stay tuned to My Neighborhood News for additional local school, weather and student safety updates throughout the 2026-27 school year.

By Tiffany Krenek, My Neighborhood News 

Tiffany Krenek has been on the My Neighborhood News team since August 2021. She is passionate about curating and sharing content that enriches the lives of our readers in a personal, meaningful way. A loving mother and wife, Tiffany and her family live in the West Houston/Cypress region.