Bill Text: NJ A1785 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Provides that students attending a choice district may only play interscholastic sports on sending district sports teams unless sending district does not offer a sport that the choice district offers.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-01-27 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Education Committee [A1785 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2016-A1785-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
217th LEGISLATURE
PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2016 SESSION
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman JOHN J. BURZICHELLI
District 3 (Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem)
Co-Sponsored by:
Assemblyman Ciattarelli
SYNOPSIS
Provides that students attending a choice district may only play interscholastic sports on sending district sports teams unless sending district does not offer a sport that the choice district offers.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative Counsel.
An Act concerning the participation of certain students in Statewide interscholastic sports programs and supplementing P.L.2010, c.65 (C.18A:36B-14 et seq.).
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. A student who attends a choice district who wishes to participate in interscholastic athletics shall be required to try out for, and compete on, an interscholastic sports team or squad in the sending district, and shall only be eligible to try out for, and compete on, an interscholastic sports team or squad in the choice district if the sending district does not sponsor an interscholastic sports team or squad in the sport in which the student wishes to participate.
As used in this section, "sending district" includes any school district that a student in a particular district of residence is required by law to attend.
2. This act shall take effect on July 1 of the next full school year following the date of enactment.
STATEMENT
This bill provides that a student who attends a choice district who wishes to participate in interscholastic athletics is required to try out for, and compete on, an interscholastic sports team or squad in the sending district. The student would only be eligible to try out for, and compete on, an interscholastic sports team or squad in the choice district if the sending district does not sponsor an interscholastic sports team or squad in the sport in which the student wishes to participate.
Under the current rules of the NJSIAA, effective September 1, 2013, a student who enrolls in a choice district must wait 30 days or one half of the maximum number of games in the sport, whichever is less, before becoming eligible to participate on an interscholastic sports team or squad in the choice district. This restriction, however, does little to address the issue of student-athletes transferring to choice districts for athletic advantage. The purpose of the "Interdistrict Public School Choice Program Act," P.L.2010, c.65, was to increase educational opportunities for students by giving their parents the ability to select a school that best suits their child's needs. However, the law has had the unintended consequence of allowing certain scholastic sports teams to achieve dominance by eliminating the competitive balance between schools. Choice schools are able to draw student-athletes from a wide region that extends well beyond the region of their competitors, which provides choice schools with a clear athletic advantage.
Requiring choice district students to participate on the sports teams and squads of their sending districts will help restore a competitive balance among the schools.
