| LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR CHANGE IN NSAA RULES AND REGULATIONS | ||||
| Title: | Eligibility for Eigth Grade Students in All High School Activities - All Class | |||
| Author: | Matt Asche | |||
| School: | Meridian | |||
| NSAA District: | 1 | |||
| Proposal for: | Constitution & Bylaws | |||
| Classes Affected: | All | |||
| Activities Affected: | All | |||
| This proposal: | WILL NOT increase costs to the school WILL NOT increase costs to the NSAA WILL NOT increase travel for participating schools WILL NOT decrease a student's or coach's instruction time | |||
| Implementation date: | 2026-10-01 | |||
| Sections affected in Constitution & Bylaws: | Page 22 24 25 28 29 | Article 2 2 2 2 2 | Section 2.1.1 2.1.1 2.2.3 2.6.3 2.6.4 | |
| Summary: | This proposal would allow 8th-grade students in all classifications to participate in all NSAA-sponsored school activities w/o impacting 4-yr HS Eligibility. | |||
| Rationale: | Allowing 8th-grade students to participate helps ensure the viability of extracurricular programs by providing schools with enough participants to field teams and avoid forfeits, schedule reductions, or canceled seasons.
Several states with small and rural schools, including North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and Iowa already permit 8th-grade students to compete in high school activities under specific conditions. Adopting a similar approach in Nebraska would not be unusual and would provide schools with additional flexibility in maintaining participation opportunities. This proposal expands opportunities for students while helping smaller schools sustain their programs. At the same time, it does not create a disadvantage for larger schools, which typically have sufficient roster numbers to support their activities. Due to declining enrollment and participation, this would allow schools to continue to offer opportunities. There would be no game limit or student count impacting qualification. Individual schools would have local control over allowing their respective 8th graders to compete in varsity and JV competitions. Currently, the NSAA Constitution prohibits this proposal. NDE Rule 10 puts caps on number of competitions for middle school/JH. However, NDE-NSAA focus group has been looking at this possibility and are scheduled to meet again this fall. | |||
| Pros: | More Junior Varsity games for schools.
Games will not be forfeited or canceled. Music already allows Junior High students to participate. Increased opportunites for student-athletes to develop skillsets. More talented 8th graders get to develop and challenge their skillsets against older competition. | |||
| Cons: | ||||