Battle brewing between state leaders, AHSAA, over athletic eligibility under the CHOOSE Act
Gov. Kay Ivey and House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter are seeking a injunction against the AHSAA over whether students who transfer schools under the CHOOSE Act are immediately eligible to participate in athletics.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) has issued a ruling that says student-athletes who transfer schools must sit out for one year before competing in athletics.
The state’s new Creating Hope and Opportunity for Our Students’ Education Act (CHOOSE Act) allows students in underperforming schools to transfer to a better school. Eligible families can receive as much as $7,000 to help pay for private school and $2,000 for homeschooling expenses if they choose to move their children out of a public school altogether.
According to a news release from the office of Gov. Kay Ivey, she and Ledbetter say the AHSAA rule that requires students to sit out for a year violates state law and affects thousands of student-athletes who it won’t allow to play school sports.
“We wrote and passed the CHOOSE Act to give every child a true choice in their education, and that very much includes participation in athletics,” Gov. Ivey said. “I remain in strong opposition to the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s decision to sideline CHOOSE Act participants from competing in school sports and am committed to seeing all Alabama students have a fair chance on the playing field. Speaker Ledbetter and I have jointly filed a lawsuit to reverse this wrong.”
“The AHSAA issued this ruling without consulting a single policymaker or even attempting to gain clarity on the intended interpretation of lines 162–165 in Act 2024-21, which clearly state the CHOOSE Act will not impact the eligibility of student-athletes,” Ledbetter said. “For the AHSAA’s leadership to take such drastic action just as football season begins tells me they are not concerned with the best interests of all student-athletes.
“While I fully expect members of the House and Senate will take a hard look at how the AHSAA operates in the upcoming session, this situation demands action today. My hope is the court will side with our student-athletes and not allow this organization to wrongfully take away their opportunity to compete,” he said.
The AHSAA has issued its own response, saying it is committed to fairness, consistency and member-driven governance.
The AHSAA says last year, it recognized the CHOOSE Act as a form of financial aid. It says under longstanding bylaws, any student who transfers to a member school and receives such aid is ineligible for athletic participation for one year.
It says the policy, established by its member schools, promotes competitive equity and deters recruitment.
Today, it said the AHSAA Central Board confirmed this interpretation, which it says doesn’t apply to first-time 7th grade enrollees and doesn’t apply to students continuously enrolled for more than one year.
The AHSAA said it would have no additional comment at this time.
