Bill defeated that would have allowed charter students to play at traditional schools

The Senate Bill that would have allowed charter or online students to participate in athletics at their home boundary traditional high schools was defeated in the House Standing Committee on Education Friday morning 6-5.

"This simply standardizes the method where charter or online students can participate in extra curricular activities at boundary or the school from which they withdrew to attend the charter or on-line school," said the sponsor of SB36 Senator Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain.

Right now, he said, students are being forced to choose between an academic situation at charter or on-line schools or staying at a traditional school so they can participate in activities.

When asked by Rep. Kory Holdaway, R-Taylorsville, where the Utah High School Activities Association stood on the bill, Madsen said they'd been helpful.

"They actually amended the interpretation of their by-laws to allow this over the summer, but they couldn't compel certain school districts to go along."

Holdaway said that in the Administrative Rules Committee Hearing on the issue, the Utah Association of School Boards had opposed the bill and wondered if that had changed. Madsen said the UASB was opposed to the bill.

"They are not supportive of this," Madsen said after a bit of a heated exchange with Holdaway. "You said UHSAA, and they are supportive of this policy. It's the districts that have refused to cooperate."

The committee did not take new testimony on the bill, but UHSAA attorney Mark Van Wagoner said the UHSAA doesn't think the bill is necessary.

"This bill is a Xerox of policies already in place," said Van Wagoner. "We don't oppose the policy, but we don't think it needs to be the subject of legislation."

In August the UHSAA's Board of Trustees amended the interpretation of its by-laws to allow public schools to give access to their athletic programs to charter or on-line high school students. Madsen took up the issue in SB 36 after the Alpine School District refused to allow charter and on-line students to participate, and the UHSAA told the senator they could not force a district to accept students.

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