HF 2261 (LSB 6155HH (3) 83)

HOUSE FILE 2261

BY  BURT

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to requirements for certain interscholastic athletic contests and competitions.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 256.46, Code 2009, is amended to read as follows:
   256.46  Rules for participation in extracurricular activities by certain children.

   The state board shall adopt rules that permit a child who does not meet the residence requirements for participation in extracurricular interscholastic contests or competitions sponsored or administered by an organization as defined in section 280.13 to participate in the contests or competitions immediately if the child is duly enrolled in a school, is otherwise eligible to participate, and meets one of the following circumstances or a similar circumstance:  the child has been adopted; the child is placed under foster or shelter care; the child is living with one of the child’s parents as a result of divorce, separation, death, or other change in the child’s parents’ marital relationship, or pursuant to other court-ordered decree or order of custody; the child is a foreign exchange student, unless undue influence was exerted to place the child for primarily athletic purposes; the child has been placed in a juvenile correctional facility; the child is a ward of the court or the state; the child is a participant in a substance abuse or mental health program; or the child is enrolled in an accredited nonpublic high school because the child’s district of residence has entered into a whole grade sharing agreement for the pupil’s grade with another district. The rules shall permit a child who is otherwise eligible to participate, but who does not meet one of the foregoing or similar circumstances relating to residence requirements, to participate at any level of competition other than the varsity level. For purposes of this section and section sections 280.13 and 282.18, “varsity” means the highest level of competition offered by one school or school district against the highest level of competition offered by an opposing school or school district.
    Sec. 2.  Section 280.13, Code 2009, is amended to read as follows:
   280.13  Requirements for interscholastic athletic contests and competitions.
   1.  A public school shall not participate in or allow students representing a public school to participate in any extracurricular interscholastic athletic contest or competition which is sponsored or administered by an organization as defined in this section, unless the organization is registered with the department of education, files financial statements with the department in the form and at the intervals prescribed by the director of the department of education, and is in compliance with rules which the state board of education adopts for the proper administration, supervision, operation, adoption of eligibility requirements, and scheduling of extracurricular interscholastic athletic contests and competitions and the organizations.
   2.  A student enrolled in a school district who failed coursework for which credit is given at the end of a grading period may be allowed by the school district to participate in an athletic contest or competition other than at the varsity level. For purposes of this subsection, “varsity” means the same as defined in section 256.46.
   3.  For the purposes of this section “organization” means a corporation, association, or organization which has as one of its primary purposes the sponsoring or administration of extracurricular interscholastic athletic contests or competitions, but does not include an agency of this state, a public or private school or school board, or an athletic conference or other association whose interscholastic contests or competitions do not include more than twenty-four schools.
EXPLANATION
   This bill permits a school district to allow a student to participate in athletic contests and competitions at all but the varsity level if the student failed coursework for which credit is given. 
   Administrative rules currently require all contestants to pass all coursework for which credit is given and to be making adequate progress toward graduation requirements at the end of each grading period. A student who fails a course is ineligible to dress for and compete in the next occurring interscholastic athletic contests and competitions in which the student is a contestant for 30 consecutive calendar days.