As the parent or guardian of a high school athlete in Wisconsin, you have a front-row seat to the sometimes thrilling, sometimes agonizing efforts of your student-athlete to compete against other students on behalf of their high school. You know just how hard they have worked to get into shape and stay in shape, to learn and improve the skills needed to excel at their chosen sport or sports, and on top of all this to successfully complete their schoolwork so that they are able to graduate. You've probably helped them along the way, getting them to and from their practices and competitions, making sure they have the clothing and gear that they need, and doing your best to answer their questions when they need homework help, or they want to practice for an upcoming test.
There is one other very important way you can pitch in – and that's to make sure you do your best to understand the main eligibility rules that apply to high school athletes so that your student-athlete can continue to play for their high school without interruption. The four years of high school go by incredibly fast, and losing even a few weeks of eligibility during a sports season can be devastating for a committed student-athlete. By staying on top of what your student-athlete needs to do to remain eligible, you can help them avoid an embarrassing break in their sports participation, one that for top athletes might make all the difference when it comes to being recruited to play for a college after high school.
There are more than 500 high schools that are members of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA), the organization that governs the vast majority of high school sports in that state. The WIAA has developed a comprehensive set of rules that apply to coaches, players, officials, fans, and high schools. You can find all of these in the WIAA handbook, but at more than 60 pages, it can be difficult to wade through and find the rules that are most likely to relate to your student-athlete. What follows is a summary of some of the more important WIAA rules that can affect your student-athletes eligibility to compete in Wisconsin.
Age-Limit and Semester-Limit Restrictions and Waivers
In Wisconsin, assuming the student-athlete is otherwise eligible to compete, students who are under the age of 19 as of July 31 of any school year can compete through that entire school year. So if a student turns 19 on July 31, they will not be eligible to compete during the upcoming school year, while a student who turns 19 on August 1 will be.
The WIAA Board of Control (the WIAA's governing body) has the power to waive the age-limit restriction “due to extenuating circumstances.” That said, a student who turns 20 before the beginning of a sports season is absolutely prohibited from competing.
Student-athletes have eight consecutive semesters during which they are eligible to compete in high school sports, beginning with the first semester of 9th grade. Here too the WIAA may waive this requirement to allow a “fifth-year senior” to compete.
The WIAA has a comprehensive appeal process that applies to decisions made affecting a wide range of issues, including student-athlete eligibility. Students and their families are eligible to appeal, and may be represented by counsel at any hearing that the WIAA Board of Control conducts as a part of the appeal process.
Student-athlete attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team have years of experience helping high school students with a wide range of appeals at the high school and sports association levels. They understand how these processes work and the types of evidence and arguments that can convince a governing body such as the WIAA to grant a waiver request or reverse an eligibility penalty so that the student-athlete can return to competition as soon as possible.
Academic Eligibility Rules and Appeals
Individual schools in Wisconsin are free to set their own eligibility requirements for student-athletes, so long as they are at least as strict as those set by the WIAA. The WIAA requires student-athletes to be attending high school full time, and to have received no more than one failing grade (an “incomplete” is counted as failing) during the most recent grade-reporting period.
Because grade-reporting periods typically happen multiple times during a school semester, this means that a student-athletes eligibility can change a number of times during the school year. When a student-athlete becomes ineligible (for example, because they are failing two classes), they remain ineligible for at least 15 school days. During that period if they improve their grades, they can regain their eligibility on the 16th school day after the grade-reporting period.
If the student is ineligible because of an “incomplete,” they can regain eligibility as soon as they successfully finish the incomplete work, even if that happens before the 15 school day period expires.
Note that a student's eligibility resumes on the 16th school day after the 15-school-day ineligibility period. This means that if the ineligibility period ends on a Friday, the student-athlete remains ineligible over the weekend and is not eligible to compete until Monday (assuming Monday is a school day).
In a situation where the student's most recent grading period is at the end of the spring semester that closes the school year, and the student wants to compete in a fall sport at the beginning of the next school year, the student will be ineligible for the lesser of 21 calendar days starting with the first date the WIAA permits there to be a competition in that sport, or for 1/3 of the maximum number of games permitted by the WIAA in that sport.
There may be limited circumstances where a student-athlete can secure a waiver of these eligibility requirements where there are demonstrated extenuating circumstances that resulted in the student-athlete failing to meet the WIAA or their school's academic requirements. Generally, however, because the ineligibility can be “cured” in a relatively short 15-school-day time period, attempting to appeal may not always be the most effective way to help your student-athlete return to competition. If you have questions about the academic eligibility process in Wisconsin, contact student-athlete attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team for help; with their years of experience advising student-athletes across the US, they can help you understand how the WIAA rules apply to your student-athletes situation and can work with you on an effective strategy to get your student back on the field.
School Disciplinary Defense
Student-athletes typically spend much more time being students than they do being athletes. All of those in-school hours mean that they're much more likely to run into eligibility issues as a result of school misconduct than they are as a result of behavior in practice or a competition. And schools typically reserve the right to apply a wide range of consequences to student misconduct, from verbal warnings, to written notifications, to suspension of extracurricular activities (including sports), to in-school or out-of-school suspensions, to expulsion. Because many of these consequences can appear on the student-athletes permanent record, they can have a long-lasting effect on the student's ability to get into a competitive college or get a job.
The problem with many school disciplinary procedures is not so much with the rules that are applied, but with how busy school administrators apply them. Investigations into the accused behavior may be cursory and incomplete; evidence used against the student may be weak or not credible; and school staff that conduct investigations and hearings may not have been trained well in the best ways to make sure the student's rights are respected.
Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team have seen this happen over and over again with high school students across the United States. They understand how important and how helpful it can be to have an experienced student-athlete attorney working with you and your student to protect their rights and make sure the school disciplinary process is administered fairly. Where necessary, they can also work with school officials to suggest consequences for student misbehavior that do not affect eligibility while still respecting the school's legitimate need to maintain order.
Discipline Defense for Behavior During Competitions
Student-athletes who are ejected from a competition for “flagrant or unsportsmanlike conduct” are also ineligible for the next scheduled competition. If the student-athlete strikes, spits, or otherwise physically contacts an official in an aggressive way (in other words, not by accident), they will be ineligible for 90 days after the confrontation, plus for 25% of the next season in that sport.
Schools are required to provide student-athletes facing ineligibility for in-game behavior with “an opportunity for the student to be heard prior to any penalty being enforced.” This is where student-athlete attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team can help. There are many situations during games where tempers run high, and things can get confusing. Even the best officials can make mistakes identifying players responsible for unsportsmanlike conduct, or misinterpreting or misapplying a rule. The Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team can help you and your student-athlete prepare for a school hearing that can make all the difference between an extended period of ineligibility or getting back out on the field as soon as possible.
Transfer Issues and Waiver Requests
The WIAA rules relating to student-athlete school transfers are among the most comprehensive and complicated ones in the WIAA handbook. As a result, if your family is moving to a new home or your student-athlete is thinking about changing schools, it's vitally important that you have a clear understanding ahead of time what the eligibility consequences of those changes are likely to be.
Generally speaking, if a student-athlete's family moves to a new home – a “total and complete change in residence” – and the student-athlete transfers to a new school serving the new home, then the student-athlete will be allowed to compete at the new school. And if a student has never participated in “a try-out, practice, scrimmage, or contest” at their old school, they may transfer and will be eligible to do so at their new school.
In almost all other transfer cases, there is a risk that the student-athlete will face some period of ineligibility at the new school for some period of time, at least at the varsity level. The extent to which the student-athlete is ineligible can vary depending on what year they are in school and whether they competed in the sport at the old school. Even if waivers are granted by the student-athletes new school and old school, the student may be restricted from competition at the varsity level for up to one year, again depending on their grade when they made the transfer.
Waivers of the transfer student eligibility restrictions may be available from the WIAA where there are “extenuating circumstances” that would support allowing the student to compete more quickly than the rules would otherwise provide. The WIAA defines “extenuating circumstances” as “unforeseeable, unavoidable and uncorrectable act, condition or event which result in severe burden and/or involuntary change, that mitigates the rule.”
The WIAA transfer rules are somewhat of a minefield, filled with exceptions and different rules that apply to different students at different class levels. Fortunately, student-athlete attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team have fought these battles before, and can help you and your student-athlete navigate through the complicated transfer rules to make sure that you understand the likely consequences of any planned move. And where there are extenuating circumstances that would support an exception to those rules, the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team can help you support a strong waiver request on behalf of your student-athlete.
Joseph D. Lento Can Help Keep Your Student-Athlete Competing
Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team have helped student-athletes across the country keep or regain their eligibility to compete in the sports that they love. With a deep understanding of student-athlete eligibility rules, waiver standards, and appeal processes, Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team bring the kind of experience and dedication that only years of work on behalf of students can provide. By making them part of your team, you stand a much better chance of helping your student-athlete stay eligible.
If your student-athlete is facing a loss of eligibility or if you have questions about whether they might, call Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm Student Defense Team today at 888.535.3686 or use their online contact form to set up a consultation. They are there to listen and help.
