with its regulations and with SBE Policy ATHL-012.
NCHSAA Application Note 1.5. The rule set forth in ATHL-009 applies to all membership entities. Therefore, no
student, coach, professional educator, other employee, or agent of any membership entity or the NCHSAA shall
subject a student to undue influence by any other student, coach, principal, local superintendent, other member
ship entity agent or employee for the purpose of inducing or causing the student to transfer from one participating
school to another to participate in interscholastic athletics on behalf of the receiving school.
(a)
Allegations of undue influence that are substantiated will be processed as infractions under the
penalty code.
(b)
The prohibition on undue influence is intended to apply broadly. Therefore, for purposes of ATHL-
009 and this application note, “coach” means any individual who coaches at an NCHSAA member
school, head or assistant, paid or non-paid, faculty or non-faculty, parent volunteer, etc., as well as
any other person formally or informally associated with a school’s athletic program.
SECTION 2: SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION OF INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC PROGRAM
2.1
GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
2.1.1
Organization of School - For athletic purposes in determining eligibility membership entities may set their
own semester dates prior to the opening of school, and a copy of the calendar indicating these dates must be sent to
the NCHSAA along with the filing of the school’s first eligibility list.
2.1.2
High School Definition - A high school is composed of grades 9-12 inclusive.
(a)
No student can be approved for practice or an athletic contest unless he or she is a regularly en-
rolled member of those grades at the school submitting his or her eligibility.
Exception: An eighth grade student who is over-age or specialty school students under certain con-
ditions, as indicated elsewhere in these rules.
(b)
Students on teams below the ninth grade shall not play or practice against interscholastic athletic
teams, which have members in or above the ninth grade. This includes skill development during the
academic school year calendar, inclusive of all weekends, holidays, work days, etc. [See Rule
2.2.14(d) (10)].
(c)
No membership entity may use students of two or more of its regularly constituted high schools,
which offer an athletic program, to form a “composite team.” A PSU, by local policy, may choose to
assign its specialty school students, who meet all other eligibility requirements, to participate in
athletics at a regularly constituted high school provided the specialty school does not have an
athletic program. Specialty schools in a PSU could include schools with special courses of study, ear-
ly or mid- dle colleges, STEM/STEAM schools, magnet schools, virtual schools, etc. and these schools
may or may not be housed on campus.
NOTE: The enrollment of that specialty school must be counted for realignment and classification
purposes when other students are assigned to regularly constituted high schools.
Example: Member school A’s Average Daily Membership (ADM) is 500. The ADM for the Mid-
dle College is 200. Member school A has 5 students participating in athlet- ics who are actually
enrolled in the PSU governed Middle College. PSU policy allows any student enrolled in the Middle
College to participate in athletics at the base school; therefore, for realignment and football sub-
dividing purposes, Member School A, which is the base school for the middle college, must add 200
students to its own ADM count, making the ADM 700. If students at the middle college are assigned
to more than one school, the ADM number—200—of the middle college is divided between/
among those member schools, based on those assignments.
(d)
If any school district or unit shall have been officially enlarged (e.g., a city unit), students
residing in the newly added territory shall be eligible for approval just as though the new territory
had previously been a part of the district or unit.
(e)
A single gender student body shall have its enrollment doubled for classification purposes;
2.1.3
Non-Boarding Parochial Schools - Non-boarding parochial schools, in addition to subscribing to the rules
of the NCHSAA, must also agree to adhere to the following rules:
(a)
Student-athletes shall not be given scholarship aid or other financial consideration with the excep-
tion of need-based aid as determined by an independent agency.
(b)
All non-boarding parochial schools shall provide full disclosure of financial aid data upon request,
within guidelines of privacy laws.
2.1.4
Enrollment Date - Any school that desires to renew membership in the NCHSAA must sign and submit a
membership renewal agreement by September 1 and pay their membership dues before December 1. Any school
that has not paid membership dues is not eligible for playoffs beginning with the winter sports season until all dues
are paid.
(a)
To join the NCHSAA, an eligible school must pay a $1000 application fee and fill out the appropriate
application form.
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