FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 24, 2006


FHSAA Representative Assembly adopts comprehensive revision to residence, transfer rules

GAINESVILLE – High school student-athletes looking to transfer schools will come under more scrutiny starting this fall due to a comprehensive revision to FHSAA residence and transfer rules that was adopted today by the Association's Ninth Representative Assembly.

Five of the eight total proposals before the Assembly received the necessary two-thirds majority vote (35) for passage from the 52 delegates in attendance.

The residence and transfer proposal, sponsored by Commissioner John A. Stewart, will establish the school in which a student begins the ninth grade as the student's school of residence for athletic purposes. Any subsequent transfer during the student's high school career, other than one corresponding with a joint physical relocation by the student and his or her parents to another address that requires a change in school, will restrict the student's eligibility to the sub-varsity level in the new school for one calendar year. The rule provides 10 exceptions through which a waiver of the period of restricted eligibility may be sought from the Commissioner. If the Commissioner denies a waiver application or a transfer results from circumstances not covered by one of the 10 exceptions, it may be appealed to one of the Association's four sectional appeals committees and subsequently, if necessary, to the FHSAA Board of Directors.

"The membership voiced its concerns about our current residence and transfer rules and we developed this proposal in response to those concerns," Stewart said. "We have spent the better part of the last year drafting and redrafting the proposal based on feedback we received from our Board of Directors, the Florida Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association and individual member schools who took the time to attend one of the many area meetings that our staff has conducted around the state.

"Today, the membership, through its delegates to the Assembly, said that not only is this something that they want, but something that they need. It will go a long way toward cleaning up the growing problem of students transferring for athletic reasons and those schools who market themselves to students who make themselves free agents. Hopefully, once again we will be able to level the playing field in our Association."

The proposal passed by a vote of 44-8. Thirty-one of the 34 delegates representing public member schools, district superintendents and district school boards voted in favor of the proposal. Ten of the 15 delegates representing private schools also voted in support.

Said Stewart: "It is important to note that not only did the proposal win the support of two-thirds of the delegates representing the public education sector, but also two-thirds of the delegates representing private education as well. That is significant because so much of the concerns raised about the proposal was that it would hurt private schools."

In other action, the Representative Assembly:

• By a vote of 52-0, adopted a proposal renaming the office of Vice President to President-Elect and establishing qualifications for election to that office.

• By a vote of 46-6, adopted a proposal repealing the "50-percent clause" in Bylaw 9.8.2 and directing the Board of Directors to establish regulations governing the interaction between coaches and their student-athletes during the off-season.

• By a vote of 45-7, adopted a proposal reflecting the provisions of Florida Statutes relating to the eligibility of individual students who attend charter schools that do not sponsor interscholastic athletic programs.

• By a vote of 12-40, defeated a proposal prohibiting students who attend sports academies full time from participating in interscholastic athletics.

• By a vote of 1-51, defeated a proposal prohibiting any student from being dismissed early on a school day to practice a sport.

• By a vote of 17-35, defeated a proposal prohibiting home-educated students from transferring their athletic participation from one school to another from year to year without a corresponding change in residence.

• By a vote of 37-15, adopted a proposal permitting a student who reaches the age of ineligibility (19 years 9 months) during the state championship series in any sport to retain his or eligibility until the conclusion of that state championship series.

The five proposals that were adopted will take effect on July 1, 2006, for the 2006-07 school year.

About the FHSAA
Headquartered in Gainesville, the Florida High School Athletic Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletic competition in Florida. It has a membership of more than 720 middle and senior public and private high schools. More than 175,000 student-athletes annually participate in one or more of the FHSAA’s 28 championship sports programs. More information is available at www.fhsaa.org.

Contacts:
Jack Watford
Director of Communications, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 170
jwatford@fhsaa.org