The State Board of Education approved emergency rules today for the new law that allows eighth graders to play in any high school sport.
The Board’s attorney Thomas Mayes says the rules create the power to allow eighth graders to play, but the decision is still up to the schools. “So local interscholastic athletics locally controlled, local policies about which sports to offer, open rosters versus competition, coaching decisions. Nothing in this bill displaces any of those,” Mayes.
Mayes says the emergency rule takes effect on August 1st, and it also prevents students from playing on a junior high and high school team at the same time. Mayes says the rules require the annual physical required for all athletes to consider the nature of the sports and the student’s health and development. “What type of sport? Not all 13-yearbooks are the same. Not all 19-year-olds are the same. Not all sports are the same. So providing a little bit more direction to the medical professionals who are doing these annual physicals,” he says.
The current rules require athletes in 9th through 12th grade to take at least four courses and pass all of them. Mayes says that will not apply to eighth graders. “When the department was considering the rules, the question was, what do we do with 8th graders? And the proposal here is nothing because eighth grade is different than high school,” he says. Mayes says that’s currently the standard for eight graders who are allowed to play summer baseball and softball.
Mayes says they also did not address the impact of eight graders on school size classification for competition. “Because that is a decision to be made by the association and the union. there is one very tangential reference to classification in current Chapter 36,” he says. “So classification is not something that the state board regulates. There’s no need to, because it’s not something that we currently regulate. There’s no proposal.”
The Board also approved a change to transfer rules requiring athletes to sit out 140 calendar days instead of the current 90 school days. “It primarily accounts for how sports seasons are of different length and what happens if somebody is a summer sport athlete. They play softball or baseball and there’s no school days to count towards that 90 days. So to even it out amongst the three sports seasons, the change is from 90 school to 140 calendar,” Mayes says.
The Board of Ed will hold a public hearing on the emergency rules on August 11th. The Board will then vote on permanent rules at its meeting in September.