NC bill restricting transgender athletes could change how high school sports are governed

More than 400 member schools in the N.C. High School Athletic Association are currently voting to potentially expand the number of classifications in the state from four to seven.

But that vote could be moot after N.C. Republican senators introduced Senate Bill 636 Wednesday. If passed as written, that bill — called “An Act To Revise Oversight of High School Interscholastic Athletics” — could limit the power of the state association. It also would limit the number of classes at four, based solely on school enrollment.

Among its provisions, the bill calls for:

▪ Any student who does not live in a school district that student is attending will not be allowed to play sports “if the student’s enrollment in that unit is solely for athletic participation purposes.” A student found ineligible could not participate in postseason play for one year after discovery of the violation.

▪ A student who receives priority enrollment as child of a full-time charter school employee could be subject to a one-year ban of postseason participation if the Office of Charter Schools determines the priority enrollment was awarded for athletic purposes.

▪ Teams will be based on biological sex, determined by biology at birth.

▪ There would be four classifications, based on enrollment, with charter and non-boarding parochial schools playing up. Also, conferences would be based solely on geography, division classification and enrollment figures.

▪ The new bill would allow a non-profit, like the NCHSAA, to run high school athletics but much more tightly governed by the state. The NCHSAA would be asked to reduce fees for member schools, take fewer monies from state tournament games, agree to annual audits, not be allowed to solicit grant funding and sponsorships from third parties as well as be restricted in providing scholarships or grants to players and schools.

The NCHSAA is currently in a “memorandum of understanding” with the State Board of Education that allows it to continue in its role of governing public school athletics in the state.

That agreement went into effect last July and was set to run for four years. It came after House Bill 91 was proposed and would’ve potentially disbanded the NCHSAA. Eventually state lawmakers and NCHSAA representatives agreed on a version of the bill that ultimately allowed the NCHSAA to remain in place.

NC’s first female, first Black high school sports commissioner revisits her journey

NCHSAA commissioner Que Tucker said Thursday that she found out about the bill Wednesday afternoon and was very surprised by it. Tucker said she felt the association was abiding by its “Memoradum of Understanding” and had not been informed by anyone at the State Board of Education, or any NC legislator, that there were any issues.

“My inititial reaction was disappointment, frustration,” Tucker said, “and I’ll be honest, just a little bit of angry. We just passed March 14, the one-year anniversary of signing the MOU and we haven’t even reached July 1, which would signify we have been governed under the MOU for one year. So what is prompting this on the part of the bill sponsors? And the frustration is that these are the same legislators that introduced House Bill 91.”

Tucker said her office is open at anytime to any N.C lawmaker who wants to come and see how the association handles its day-to-day duties.

“I have no idea what the end game is on this one,” she said. “We have worked with the State Board (of Education) throughout the year, especially when it relates to any appeals that may have been heard by the independent appeals board....To my knowledge, there has been nothing amiss. We have not gone afoul of anything related to the memorandum.”

A big part of the new Senate bill would prevent transgender females from playing on girls’ sports teams by mandating that a student’s sex at birth would determine which team gender they participate on.

Current NCHSAA rules can allow a transgender female to play on a girls team after a lengthy process that begins at the school level, which seeks to ensure this is a bona fide change of sexual identification for the student-athletes, that the school can keep the athlete safe and provide a safe place to dress for practices and games.

After that, paperwork is submitted to Tucker’s office, reviewed again, and forward to a special NCHSAA Gender Identity Committee, which ultimately rules on whether not the student will be allowed to play. Tucker said since the policy was implemented in 2019, there have been 18 requests under the policy and only one has been denied.

Tucker said the association did not have information about how many of those 17 student-athletes did go on to play. In Cherokee County last fall, a Highlands School transgender volleyball player spiked a ball and hit an opposing player in the face causing a concussion. After the incident, Cherokee County Schools canceled all games between Highlands and other schools in the district over safety concerns.

Tucker acknowleged the incident.

“I worry about all of our students sustaining an injury,” Tucker said, “whether they were born male or female. It comes with participation in sports. I trust our Gender Committee that they talk through these issues and look at the data provided to them, and they are able to call attention to anything we need to reach back around and say, ‘This is a problem.’”

Tucker said she was opposed to any language in bill that “denies opportunities for individuals.”

“I think the language will deny opportunities for females that want to play male sports,” she said. “If you take it literally, it says, ‘a girl can’t play football.’ I would think a girl now wouldn’t be able to play baseball. That’s why I say we have to always be careful when we’re trying to craft language that is seemingly designed to exclude individuals.”

Greg Grantham, the executive director of the N.C. Basketball Coaches Association, seemed happy with the current arrangement, and wasn’t in favor of the new bill.

He tweeted: “For over 100 yrs (sic) the member schools in the NCHSAA have voted & determined the rules they would agree to follow - sort of like democracy. Suddenly today, the Gen Assembly decides elected politicians should dictate policy to those member schools - over the schools’ wishes.”

The N.C. Athletic Directors associated also tweeted in support of the NCHSAA, writing:

“The NCADA believes the NCHSAA is uniquely qualified to run and manage interscholastic high school sports in our state. We have stood, and will continue to stand, am in arm with the NCHSAA as the governing body for high school athletics in North Carolina. We will continue to monitor this piece of legislation and provide any all necassary support to the NCHSAA.”

Read the full bill

To read Senate Bill 636, click here

NCHSAA Supporters take to Twitter

A few comments posted to social media in favor of the NCHSAA by NCHSAA member school members and affiliates