Every year, changes to the IHSA By-Laws can be recommended by the principal or IHSA Official Representative of each member school.
These proposals are submitted to the IHSA in time for the Principal's Town Hall Meetings, which were held earlier this month. After recieving feedback from the principals, the IHSA Legislative Commission voted on the proposals.
Twenty-seven total proposals were submitted, in which 13 were approved by the Commission. These 13 proposals will be sent for a full member school vote, which takes place from November 23 to December 23.
The final results will be announced on January 6.
APPROVED Proposals by the Legislative Commission:
Proposal 1 requires a school renewing a coop to provide more reasons for a cooperative, and updates the coop requirements to reflect class expansion.
Proposal 7 extends the deadline for ceasing non-school practice and competition in a particular sport from five days to seven days after the school team’s first practice or tryout.
Proposal 8 clarifies the Independent Team Participation rule to state that in determining the number of school athletes that are on a non-school squad, only those that have eligibility to play in the next season of that sport shall be counted.
Proposal 10 rewords the Coaching School Participation rule to prohibit coaches, rather than students, from being involved, during the school term, in any coaching school, camp, or clinic attended by more than two student-athletes from his or her school.
Proposal 12 defines a school offering a discounted tuition less than the full tuition rate authorized by the Illinois School Code as non-boundaried.
Proposal 14 moves the number-of-games-in-a-tournament restriction from the individual Team Limitations into a new IHSA by-law.
Proposal 17 eliminates the boys spring golf season.
Proposal 19 clarifies the rule to allow a school to participate in 14 swimming contests and 14 diving contests.
Proposal 20 eliminates the boys fall tennis season.
Proposal 21 eliminates the girls spring golf season.
Proposal 23 restricts the fall softball season to only those schools that do not offer volleyball in the fall.
Proposal 24 eliminates the girls spring tennis season.
Proposal 27 restricts practice, but not the organization, of Competitive Cheerleading squads to the period from Monday of Week 18 to Saturday of Week 37.
REJECTED Proposals by the Legislative Commission:
Proposal 2 grants athletic participation during a strike at the permission of the school's Board.
Proposal 3 honors state-required freshman physicals for 18 months instead of 12.
Proposal 4 grants athletic eligibility to students affected by homelessness, regardless of current by-law practices.
Proposal 5 grants athletic eligibility to students who transfer from a public school in a multi-high school district to a charter school without having to sit out 365 days.
Proposal 6 changes the Independent Team Participation rule to make it so that programs simply sponsored and not directly conducted by a National Governing Body can be granted Executive Director approval for a waiver in that rule.
Proposal 9 prohibits coaches at a school from coaching athletes on a non-school team outside of the school season.
Proposal 11 expands football summer organization to include more than just 7-on-7 passing camps; schools would organize events under a certain set of rules made by the IHSA.
Proposal 13 allows high school chess teams to compete in non-IHSA events that include K-8 participants along with high school students from the same school.
Proposal 15 restricts the fall baseball season to only those schools that do not offer football in the fall.
Proposal 16 shortens the football regular season to eight games from nine, and in its replacement creates an expanded round of football playoffs.
Proposal 18 would start the boys swimming season one week later than it currently does, to avoid organizing over Thanksgiving week.
Proposal 22 pushes the overall girls gymnastics season a week back.
Proposal 25 increases the maximum number of matches a school can play in a volleyball tournament from five to ten.
Proposal 26 briefly extends the competitive cheerleading season four days.
-Cody
