THE LAW PERTAINING TO WIAA

 

RCW 28a.600.200               INTERSCHOOL ATHLETIC AND OTHER EXTRA CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS, REGULATION OF,  DELEGATION, CONDITIONS.

 

Each school district board of directors is hereby granted and shall exercise the authority to control, supervise and regulate the conduct of interschool athletic activities and other interschool extracurricular activities of an athletic, cultural, social or recreational nature for students of the district.  A board of directors may delegate control, supervision and regulation of any such activity to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association or any other voluntary nonprofit entity and compensate such entity for services provided, subject to the following conditions:

(1)   The voluntary nonprofit entity shall submit an annual report to the State Board of Education of student appeal determinations, assets, and financial receipts and disbursements at such time and in such detail as the State Board shall establish by rule;

(2)   The voluntary, nonprofit entity shall not discriminate in connection with employment or membership upon its governing board, or otherwise in connection with any function it performs, on the basis of race, creed, national origin, sex or marital status;

(3)   Any rules and policies applied by the voluntary nonprofit entity which govern student participation in any interschool activity shall be written and subject to the annual review and approval of the State Board of Education at such time as it shall establish;

(4)   All amendments and repeals of such rules and policies shall be subject to the review and approval of the State Board; and

(5)   Such rules and policies shall provide for notice of the reasons and a fair opportunity to contest such reasons prior to a final determination to reject a student's request to participate in or to continue in an interschool activity.  Any such decision shall be considered a decision of the school district conducting the activity in which the student seeks to participate or was participating and may be appealed pursuant to RCW 28A.645.010 through 28A.645.030. [1990 c33 502; 1975-'76 2nd ex.s. c 32 1.  Formerly RCW 28A.58.125.]

NOTE:    The following SBE Resolution was adopted and dated 31 May 1985 in compliance with the RCW 28A.58.125 (above):  BE IT RESOLVED by the State Board of Education as follows:

JURISDICTION OF STATE BOARD - The Board construes RCW 28A.58.125(3) (28A.600.200) as subjecting at the very least those policies and rules of the WIAA that directly govern or condition or otherwise directly affect the eligibility of individual students to commence and continue participation in an interscholastic activity to annual review and annual approval by the Board.  Rules respecting generally applicable eligibility requirements such as residency require participation once otherwise deemed eligible (e.g., practice requirements, limitations upon the particular concern to the legislature.  Accordingly, the Board has elected to limit the exercise of its jurisdiction at this time to those policies and rules identified in this resolution which are most clearly within its jurisdiction, and most clearly necessitate oversight review by the Board.  The Board's selection of such policies and rules for review and approval/disapproval shall not be deemed to constitute a waiver of such authority as the Board may legally have to also subject additional policies and rules of the WIAA which either directly or indirectly govern student participation in interschool activities, to review and approve/disapprove.

APPROVAL/DISAPPROVAL OF SELECTED POLICIES AND RULES - The selected policies and rules from the 1991-92 Handbook of the WIAA for the purpose of review and approval/disapproval pursuant to RCW 28A.58.125(3) approved with qualified or disclaimed statements.

Each year the State Board of Education reviews all articles of General Rules and regulations.  High School Sports, Junior High/Middle Level Sports, and all eligibility rules and regulations.  Each amendment passed by the Assembly is reviewed and approved/disapproved.  Where action by the Representative Assembly would be disapproved by the State Board, it would be noted in the text of the corresponding amendment of the Handbook.

APPENDIX II - POSITION STATEMENT ON BOYS' AND GIRLS' PROGRAMS - This policy is approved only insofar as the second sentence of the opening paragraph, and paragraphs 1 and 2, of the policy respecting separate boy's and girls' teams are applied solely to grades seven (7) through twelve (12) (WAC 392-190-025 prohibits separate sports teams and programs for boys and girls at the K-6 grade levels), and with the further exception of the unequivocal statement that volleyball for girls and football for boys, or vice versa, qualifies per se as the provision of an equal opportunity and substantial equality (assuming for the sake of argument that the state constitution allows for sex segregated sports teams and/or programs in certain cases, each case maintenance of separate teams/programs truly constitutes the best method of providing  both sexes, as a whole, with an equal opportunity to participate in the sports or games of their choice and (b) clearly support a finding that substantial equality is provided for both sexes in terms of such WAC 392-190-030 factors as accommodation of the interests and abilities of both sexes, the provision of equipment, the  provision of coaches, etc.)

DURATION AND LAPSE OF APPROVAL - The approval of policies and rules of the WIAA organization granted by resolution shall be for the school year only.  This approval shall expire upon September 1, at which time all such policies and rules shall be deemed disapprove unless otherwise provided hereafter by resolution of the Board adopted pursuant  to an application for approval by the WIAA.