Wednesday while making calls for a follow-up story on the NJSIAA’s public/non-public committee recommendations I discovered there was still a lot of trouble understanding the new transfer guidelines that were proposed.
First, you have to know that whatever proposals that came out are a long, long way from being approved, and who knows if they would ever withstand a court challenge. I talked to 1 lawyer already who said no way, that you can’t establish different guidelines for kids depending on where they want to go to school and make some prove change of address and some not.
But I have some theories on that too.
To clarify the proposals, I went right to the source, Mike Zapicchi, the co-chairman of the NJSIAA’s public/non-public committee, who sent me the proposed new transfer guidelines taken straight from his presentation in Atlantic City Tuesday.
This is what Mike sent me….I present it unchanged.
TRANSFER RULE—PROPOSED CHANGES
• If a student transfers from one closed-enrollment school to another closed-enrollment school, with a bona fide change of residence, there would be no restriction on the student’s athletic eligibility.
• If a student transfers from a closed-enrollment school to an open-enrollment school, with or without a bona fide change of residence, the student’s athletic eligibility would be restricted as follows:
– For any sport in which the transferring student had participated as a varsity athlete, the transferring student would be ineligible for 30 days (or one-half the season, whichever is less) and would be ineligible to participate in the state tournament.
– For any sport in which the transferring student had participated as a non-varsity athlete, the student would be ineligible for 30 days (or one-half the season, whichever is less) of varsity competition. The transferring student would be eligible to participate at the non-varsity level immediately.
• If a student transfers from an open-enrollment school to a closed-enrollment school, with or without a bona fide change of residence, the student’s athletic eligibility would be restricted as previously mentioned.
• If a student transfers from an open-enrollment school to an open-enrollment school, with or without a bona fide change of residence, the student’s athletic eligibility would be restricted as previously mentioned.
• If the open-enrollment school is a choice school or a public school that accepts tuition-paying students, the restrictions on participation would only apply if the student is a non-resident.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PROPOSED RULE AND EXISTING RULE
• The new rule creates a distinction between closed-enrollment schools and open-enrollment schools.
• The new rule eliminates the bona fide change of residence exception for all transfers except transfers from one closed-enrollment district to another (i.e., traditional transfer from one public school to another).
• The new rule increases the waiting time from 30 days (or half the season) to 30 days (or half the season) & post-season play
• The new rule would apply to both varsity and non-varsity athletes, but differentiates the application:
o Varsity athletes would be subject to the 30-day and post-season sit.
o Non-varsity athletes would be allowed to play immediately at the non-varsity level, and could play varsity after 30 days without the exemption from state tournament play.
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Now remember, the lingo has been changed, an open school is a school that is able to accept students from a geographic area without borders (think non-public or choice school). A closed school is one that has closed borders, think public school.
But, of course, there are all kinds of other schools out there. I asked about tuition schools (schools that accept students from outside their geographic realm if they pay) and was told that they are considered “open.â€
I asked specifically about Passaic Tech and Bergen Tech. Those schools are currently considered “closed†which did not sit to well with some North Jersey ADs. When I went up later to speak to Zapicchi for clarification on that, he said a few things. He said 1. that even though those schools can get students from all over, their geographic footprint remains relatively small (not that many kids come to Passaic Tech from outside Passaic County etc.) I am gonna paraphrase the next thing he said, which was that basically, not that many Vo-Techs are good in many sports, although Passaic Tech certainly is strong in many different sports. He did say though that the committee would continue to look at this and perhaps if/when this goes forward, it could be changed.
Speaking of…questions…
What is the next step?
It’s interesting because the football proposal and the transfer proposal were put on 2 different tracks, if you will. The transfer proposals are on the faster track, with an eye toward implementing these in time for the Fall of 2015. The reason the football thing is somewhat delayed is because 2015 is the second year of a two-year scheduling cycle (unless you are one of 3 teams in the Big North United when your 2015 schedule is currently kablooie) so any changes for football can wait until 2016.
But these proposals have to go through the NJSIAA’s’ Advisory Committee on April 1st, and then the NJSIAA Executive Committee on May 6th.
The Executive Committee could boom, pass it, and it goes into action in Fall of 2015. Or….like the football proposal, they could say let’s put it to a vote of the entire membership of the NJSIAA (meaning every HS) and they could vote on it in December and it would go into place in 2016.
What is a bona fide change of address?
A-Ha. A bona fide change of address is the proof that an athlete actually lives where he/she says. It is a very tired phrase and one of the main causes of all the trouble with this rule as it currently stands. Point blank….people lie, or present phony addresses in order to be eligible right away. They say that the student-athlete is living with an aunt or uncle, some families have even said they were going through a divorce (no kidding) to be able to show a 2nd address in order to stay eligible right away. A bona fide change of address is usually proved with a utility bill or lease document provided by the parents.
So, why did the committee pull the bonafide change of address rule for going from closed to closed?
I asked that very question to NJSIAA attorney Steve Goodell. Here was his answer –
“The committee recognized that if you do away with the bonafide change of address rule for everybody you will be casting too wide a net, and you will get too many innocent people, people who [just] move from one school district to another. They thought that the one exception that they could accept was going from one public school district to another. Or from a ‘closed’ to a ‘closed’ because there is a far greater chance that those are true transfers, it’s not just for sports, it’s because the family has moved.â€
(So in other words, he is saying the committee thinks people dont transfer from public school to public school for athletic gain, but they do often transfer from a public school to a non-public school for athletic advantage).
The big question, will this stand up in a court of law?
Obviously, I’m not a lawyer. But I asked this question too. Say my 7YO son, who seems to like swimming, goes to our local public HS. Then our house burns down, and we move to a new town. But my son decides he now wants to go swim for Seton Hall Prep. According to this proposal, we would have a bonafide change of address, but he’d be eligible right away only if he stays in a public school. If he wants to go to Seton Hall Prep (after we move) – he would have to sit.
You know as well as I do, that a parent in that spot – or similar – would sue everybody in sight and say it’s discrimination.
I got an email from a softball dad a few weeks ago saying his daughter had transferred from a non-public school to a Bergen County public school. They never moved….why would he move? So his daughter was going to have to sit out the first 30 days of the season because of his honesty. He was saying, if you followed what happened with the 2 girls from Paramus who went to Immaculate Conception – they got punished 15 days out this season. So, if you follow the rules, it seems like you can be punished more.
But listen, I’m all in favor of having rules. We need them. And I applaud the NJSIAA for trying. And also, listen, the non-public schools don’t like this trend either. They don’t like having kids transfer mid-season, or just before the season starts. They know it gives them a black eye and makes the whole enterprise look skeevy. They probably want to see this pushed through.
So, my cynical journalist side thinks that perhaps 30 days plus the State Tournament is maybe just the starting point for negotiations in order to see this through any legal challenge. Maybe it comes back that just 30 days is enough, or just missing the State Tournament is enough.
I will go on record again saying that the whole concept of making a kid sit out after transferring schools is a slippery slope. If mom or dad get offered a new job with (what they feel are) better hours, better facilities and better upward track, they take it and don’t have to sit any time. Maybe get a little probationary period. Why are kids made to sit out? It’s a free country remember.
I still think the best option is a simple sit period for every transfer, 21 days, forget all this bonafide change of address stuff. Please. No school has the staff or resources to make sure kids really are living where they say they are. 21 days is what? 3 football games, 8 basketball games? It’s a deterrent, and you need some type of probationary period, but I think this is still too complicated. Simple rules are simple to follow, simple to understand and simple to enforce. Keep it simple.