If your student is one of the more than 175,000 student-athletes who compete in high school sports in North Carolina, you know how important participating as part of their school's team is to them. To accept the dual challenges of growing as both an athlete and a student during this critical time of their life shows true strength of character, no matter how many times they may claim "it's no big deal."
As their parent or guardian, you also have a role to play in their athletic and school lives, whether it's driving them to practice or games or helping them with homework or school projects. One additional area where you can really help is making sure they remain eligible to compete throughout their high school career. The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) is the governing body responsible for high school athletics in North Carolina. Its handbook runs more than 100 pages and includes a complicated and extensive set of bylaws designed to make sure that student-athletes are receiving an education along with their athletics and that the students compete on a level playing field. The NCHSAA bylaws govern whether and on what terms your student-athlete is eligible to compete in high school sports.
Figuring out which rules apply to your student in any given situation and then interpreting what they mean can be a real challenge. What follows below is a summary of some of the main questions and issues that typically arise relating to student-athlete eligibility. If, after reading this, you have further questions about your particular situation, contact Joseph D. Lento. Student-athlete attorney Lento can help you apply the NCHSAA bylaws to your student-athlete's situation and, where necessary, can advise on how best to apply for waivers or to appeal NCHSAA eligibility rulings.
Age-Limit and Semester-Limit Restrictions and Waiver Requests
In North Carolina, students who turn 19 on or before August 31 are ineligible to compete in high school sports thereafter. In other words, if a high schooler who is entering their senior year turns 19 on August 30, they may not compete at all during their senior year. If, however, they turn 19 on September 1, they can.
Student-athletes are also limited to eight consecutive semesters of competition; if a student skips 9th grade and starts high school in the 10th grade, their previous year of school is counted as their first year of eligibility, so they essentially have six consecutive semesters of eligibility remaining.
Hardship waivers may be available to allow an otherwise over-age student to compete or to add additional semesters of eligibility. It's important to request a hardship exemption before the student begins to participate during the season they are ineligible for.
To qualify for a hardship waiver, the student needs to show that the reasons they are not eligible under the bylaws were beyond their own control as well as the control of their parents or guardians and their school. "Injury, illness, or accident" that results in the student being unable to meet an eligibility requirement is "a possible cause for hardship consideration." However, the NCHSAA bylaws specifically point out that "Inability to participate in athletics" due to hardship is not enough; the student must also have been unable to attend school.
Hardship requests are filed with the NCHSAA Commissioner's office and are completed and submitted by the student's school, not the student. The NCHSAA Commissioner's ruling may be appealed by the school to the State Board of Education Independent Appeals Board; their ruling is final.
Because it is the school and not the parent that files the hardship request with the NCHSAA, parents and students need to convince their school's principal to take the time to prepare and submit the information needed so that the hardship request is approved. Student-athlete attorney Joseph D. Lento has experience working with school officials on these types of waiver requests. He and the Lento Law Firm Team can work with parents and students to gather the information needed for the request and complete the required forms to help make it easier for busy school administrators to submit hardship waiver requests for the students.
Academic Eligibility Waiver Requests and Appeals
North Carolina does not have a GPA requirement for student-athletes; instead, it requires that students pass a certain number of courses during the previous grading period in order to be eligible to compete in athletics during the next grading period.
The specific number of classes the student must pass depends on the type of grading format their school uses. Students attending a school that uses traditional semesters must pass at least five courses each semester to be eligible during the next semester. For students attending schools on the "block" format, the number is three courses during each grading period. And for students in schools that are on the "A/B form of block scheduling," the number is six out of eight courses "during what would traditionally be defined as a semester."
Make-up classes completed in summer school have to be applied "to the most recently concluded semester." And a student who is not academically eligible at the beginning of a semester remains ineligible throughout the entire semester. An exception to this is if the student receives an "incomplete" grade that causes them to fail to meet the minimum course requirement; in that case, the student becomes eligible immediately when they complete and pass the missing course. Students who are academically eligible at the beginning of the semester remain eligible through the end of it.
As with other types of eligibility decisions, hardship waivers may be available if the facts of your student's particular case support it. The application procedure is similar to the one for requesting an age-limit or semester-limit waiver; again, it's the school that must make the application, so the more information you can supply in support of the request, the more likely it will be that the school will agree to request the waiver on your student-athletes behalf. Student-athlete attorney Joseph D. Lento can help you identify and gather the information needed to support a successful hardship waiver. He and the Lento Law Firm Team can also work with your student's school administrators to help them prepare the application, making it more likely they will agree to do so and that the application will be granted by the NCHSAA Commissioner.
School Disciplinary Defense
Each high school in North Carolina has its own code of conduct for students. Generally speaking, students who are accused of misconduct can suffer a wide range of consequences, from verbal warnings to detention to suspension or expulsion. Students can also be suspended from participating in extracurricular activities, including athletics.
While each school has its own code of conduct, these codes typically provide for an investigative and hearing process before the more serious forms of consequences, such as suspensions, are imposed. These procedures typically do not have the same protections for students as would a court procedure. In addition, school administrators are typically not experts at investigating misconduct allegations or applying the rules to disciplinary situations. As a result, mistakes are sometimes made, and students receive penalties in situations where they shouldn't or receive harsher penalties than they actually deserve.
Joseph D. Lento has years of experience advising students all across the United States who have been accused of in-school misconduct. He and the Lento Law Firm Team understand how these disciplinary procedures work in school settings, and he can advise you and your student on how best to ensure that your student is treated fairly by their school. And where it appears that some sort of consequence is going to result from alleged misconduct, Mr. Lento can typically suggest alternatives that will keep your student eligible to compete while addressing the school's concerns about enforcing its rules.
Discipline Defense for Behavior During Games
The NCHSAA bylaws note that the NCHSAA "may take any action it deems justified in response to unsporting behavior." That said, the bylaws also state that student-athletes who are "found guilty of misconduct" can be reprimanded, placed on probation for up to one year, or suspended for up to one year.
Students can be ejected from competitions for a range of more serious types of unsportsmanlike behavior, including fighting, leaving the bench at times when it is against the rules to do so, engaging in "flagrant conduct" involving excessive bodily contact with another player, biting, taunting, spitting at an official, use of profanity or ethnic or homophobic slurs, obscene gestures, and disrespectfully addressing an official. A first ejection during any school year results in a student being suspended from the next game; for a second ejection, the student is placed on probation and is suspended from the next two games; and a third ejection results in suspension for a calendar year.
Under certain circumstances, ejection penalties can be appealed, but, as with other appeals to the NCHSAA, they must be made by the school, not by the student or the student's family. If your student has been given a suspension by the NCHSAA for misconduct during a game that you believe may be based on an inaccurate portrayal of the incident, contact Joseph D. Lento for help. He and the Lento Law Firm Team understand first-hand how there can be more than one view of any particular situation, and he can help you and your student gather information such as video evidence and witness testimony that could result in a successful appeal.
Residence and Transfer Issues
NCHSAA bylaws state that students are eligible to participate in athletics at the school their local board of education assigns them to within their "administrative unit of residence." Students will be allowed to transfer to a new school in a different "PSU" (or school district) and compete at the new school immediately if the transfer is the result of a "bona fide change of residence."
The NCHSAA considers a number of factors when evaluating whether the student's move to a new residence is "bona fide." Basically, the move must include the entire family, it must be intended to be permanent, it must involve the family's abandonment of the old residence, and it must not be made for "athletic purposes."
If the NCHSAA determines that the move was not a "bona fide" move, or if the student transfers from one school to another within the same PSU, the student will not be eligible to compete in athletics for 365 days.
Determinations about transfer status can be appealed – again by the school, not by the student or the student's family. If your family is considering a move or has recently moved and you are concerned about your student-athlete's eligibility at their new high school, contact Joseph D. Lento for help. Mr. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Team have experience advising families about transfer issues in schools all over the United States and can help you collect the information you need to support and present an effective appeal.
Be Careful About Following the Coach
The NCHSAA has a strict rule that applies when a student transfers "to the same member school where the student's coach has relocated within a calendar year." In that case, the student is "deemed ineligible in any sport in which the coach is involved."
This determination, as with other eligibility determinations, may be appealed to the SBOE's Independent Appeal board but must include an argument explaining why the NCHSAA's decision was not "based on substantial evidence or the applicable law, policy, regulation, State Board Rule or rules or regulations of the NCHSAA." A situation that might support an appeal could be, for example, where a student's family makes a bona fide relocation of their residence into the PSU, where their student's former coach has also recently begun coaching.
Contact Joseph D. Lento for Help With Eligibility Issues
Whether your questions relate to your student-athlete's academic eligibility, misconduct allegations and potential loss of eligibility, school transfer problems, or other issues that could affect your student's ability to compete in high school sports in North Carolina, student-athlete attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Team are there to help. They have years of experience advising students and their families all over the United States on a wide range of school-related issues and can help you understand your situation and options. Call Joseph D. Lento today at 888.535.3686 or through the Lento Law Firm's online contact form. They are there to listen and help.
