New York City has one of the largest public high school enrollments in the country, with more than 320,000 students attending its more than 400 high schools. Almost every one of these schools offers interscholastic sports – even specialty high schools, such as Aviation High School in the Long Island City section of Queens and the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts near Lincoln Center in Manhattan. With a large number of schools and students, the New York public schools have their own governing body for athletics, the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL).
The PSAL governs interscholastic competition for more than 20 different sports, ranging from the usual baseball, basketball, and football to some that are more unusual to see in high schools, such as cricket, Double Dutch, and table tennis. It is separate from the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHAA), which operates in the rest of New York state.
If you have a student who participates in high school sports in New York City, you know how important it is to them to stay eligible during their high school years. They have worked hard to develop their athletic skills, and you and they know that by taking on the added challenge of competing in a sport on top of their academic studies, they are challenging themselves to work hard and accomplish a lot in their four years at high school. You can help them by doing more than making sure they get to their practices and games, cheering them on, and helping them with their homework. By understanding some of the main eligibility requirements put in place by the PSAL, you can make sure they continue to excel both on the field and in the classroom for their entire high school career.
While the PSAL eligibility regulations can be somewhat difficult to navigate, here are some of the main points that parents and student-athletes need to be aware of:
Age-Limit and Semester-Limit Restrictions and Waiver Requests
Student-athletes remain eligible to compete in New York City public high school sports until they reach their 19th birthday. In addition, if a student turns 19 on or after July 1, they remain eligible through the entire next school year (provided they meet all of the other eligibility requirements).
Students have four consecutive calendar years of eligibility, beginning with the start of 9th grade.
Hardship waivers may be available for age and calendar-year eligibility limits. They must be filed with the PSAL by the student-athlete's school principal or athletic director and must be based on the school's belief that the student is ineligible “as a result of an illness, accident, or other circumstance” beyond the student's control. The PSAL Hardship Waiver Committee will review the request and may decide based on the application, request more information, or “Extend the review for further internal review.”
The Hardship Waiver Committee will issue an “initial determination” shortly after the appeal is submitted or a hearing on the waiver request is held and will follow up within five school days with a formal decision letter. A complete case report will only be issued if the Hardship Waiver Committee is notified that the school or family intends to “pursue litigation” in connection with the hardship waiver request. A request cannot be appealed further within the PSAL. However, if a student's family intends to pursue litigation in court regarding the decision, they should inform the Hardship Waiver Committee within 15 days of the date of the committee's decision, and the committee will issue a complete case report.
If your student-athlete is facing an age- or calendar-year eligibility problem, and you believe they may be entitled to a hardship waiver, contact Attorney Joseph D. Lento for help. The Education Law Team at the Lento Law Firm has advised high school students all over the country about eligibility issues and can help your student-athlete exercise their rights under the PSAL rules and regulations.
Academic and Attendance Eligibility Waiver Requests and Appeals
There are four main rules that the PSAL uses to measure whether a student-athlete is academically eligible to compete. The first is called the “5 + 1 Rule.” This rule requires students from the second semester of 9th grade on to have passed a minimum of five classes plus physical education class during the previous semester in order to be eligible to compete during the current semester. In addition to this, student-athletes must be passing five classes plus P.E. as of December 1 of the first semester and April 15 of the second semester to continue to be eligible during those semesters. Further, three of the five classes must be in the so-called “core subjects” of English, Math, Social Studies, or Science.
The second rule used by the PSAL to determine eligibility is called the “10 Credit Rule.” This rule requires student-athletes in grades 10 through 12 to have earned a minimum of 10 credits in the preceding two semesters in order to be eligible to compete in the current semester. Physical education credits do not count in this 10-credit total.
The third rule relates to the student-athlete's GPA: it must be at least a 65, or the student will not be eligible to compete.
Finally, student-athletes must attend school at least 90% of the time during any marking period to remain eligible to compete during that marking period and must be in school for their full school day on the day of any “tryout, practice, scrimmage, or contest.”
Classes taken and passed in summer school will be “counted as grades for the previous June,” and the grades earned will be used to calculate the student-athlete's GPA as of June. If a student is academically ineligible at the beginning of a semester, they can become eligible by “passing five credit bearing subjects and physical education in the most recent marking period” during the semester (provided they also meet the 10-credit and GPA requirements).
Depending on your student-athlete's circumstances, a hardship waiver may be available if their failure to meet the academic eligibility requirements are a result of the same sorts of circumstances beyond their control as described above. If your student is facing a period of ineligibility due to their failure to meet any of the PSAL's three academic eligibility requirements, and you believe there are circumstances that support a hardship waiver, contact Joseph D. Lento to discuss the situation. Where the situation supports it, the Education Law Team at the Lento Law Firm will work with you and the athletic director at your student's school to prepare and submit a strong and effective hardship waiver request to the PSAL.
School Disciplinary Defense
Students who are suspended from school are not allowed to compete in interscholastic sports in New York City. In addition, NYC high schools can also cut off a student's participation in any extracurricular activity, including sports, as a consequence of the student's misconduct.
The problem with this is that schools do not always do a thorough or fair job of investigating and ruling on allegations of student misconduct. This is not a problem that is unique to New York City schools; as a whole, across the country, school administrators are overworked and do not always have the time or the skills necessary to fully investigate allegations made against students or to conduct full and fair hearings and rule on those allegations.
Student-athlete attorney Joseph D. Lento has advised high school students across the country facing serious disciplinary allegations at their schools that could potentially result in suspensions or expulsions. He and the Lento Law Firm Team have years of experience with these kinds of situations and understand how school conduct codes and the investigation and decision process in high schools operate. Furthermore, they have the experience drawn from these situations to propose effective alternatives to extracurricular or full-school suspension when a student misconduct finding is upheld. If your student-athlete is facing a misconduct allegation in their New York City high school that could make them ineligible to play sports, contact the Lento Law Firm at once for help.
Discipline Defense for Behavior During Games
A student ejected from a PSAL competition is suspended from competing during at least the next officially-scheduled PSAL competition. In certain sports, the student may be suspended for the next two games. If a student is ejected twice or more during a season, the suspension is generally doubled. And students ejected for “Violent Acts” (physically striking or spitting on an official or another person or threatening to do so) are penalized in the same way as a second suspension.
Game suspension decisions may be appealed to the PSAL's Senior Director of Student Programming. The appeal must come from the student's principal or athletic director and must be made quickly, within 24 hours of the suspension and at least 24 hours before the next competition.
The Lento Law Firm Team can help with these kinds of appeals. Frequently, student-athletes are improperly ejected from games as a result of a mistaken application of the rules or a misidentification of the athlete who committed the conduct in question. Student-athlete attorney Joseph D. Lento has the experience and skills to help you and your student's athletic director quickly gather the information needed to submit a suspension appeal to the PSAL and can help present the appeal in as compelling a way as possible.
Transfer Issues When You're Not Moving to a New Home
Student-athletes who transfer high schools in New York City are ineligible to compete in the same sport in which they competed at their old school for a period of one year from the date of their transfer.
An exception to this general ineligibility rule is where “the transfer is a result of an official change of residence by his/her parent/guardian.” In addition, if the student's high school is phasing out a sport, the student can apply to attend another school that has a PSAL team for that sport.
Under certain circumstances, the PSAL has granted waiver requests in so-called “safety transfer” situations, which occur when students are the victims of a violent crime on school property or where there is evidence to support a finding that the student's continued attendance at the school is unsafe (including situations involving harassment, intimidation, or bullying).
The PSAL's rules on exceptions to their usual transfer rules are not very well-developed, and as a result their decisions on waiver requests are not always consistent. In a number of cases, families have had to file or threaten lawsuits in order to force the PSAL to grant a transfer waiver for their student-athletes.
The Lento Law Firm can help in these situations. He understands how the PSAL rules and regulations operate and has years of courtroom experience on behalf of students and their families in New York and New Jersey. He and the Lento Law Firm Team are uniquely positioned to go to bat for your student-athlete, and to help make sure that their rights are respected both in the classroom and on the playing fields of New York City.
Add Joseph D. Lento to Your Roster if You Need a Strong and Effective Advocate
Student-athletes work hard both on and off the field. By committing to do much more than the minimum to make it through high school, they distinguish themselves from other students and develop disciplinary habits that will last them a lifetime. Joseph D. Lento understands how important it is to student-athletes to be eligible to compete. He also understands the PSAL rules and regulations, and has helped students all over the country who were facing disciplinary and eligibility challenges. If your student-athlete is facing similar challenges, contact Joseph D. Lento today at 888.535.3686 or through the Lento Law Firm's online contact form. You won't regret it, and it could make all the difference to your student-athlete.
