There was another example in the paper of a girl that moved from Conner's school district to Highlands. The girl was ruled ineligible and appealled the decision, but was then rule eligible after the season was over. Another situation was where the boy moved from his mother's home to his father's home and tried to play football in the district he moved to. I can think of a lot of good reasons for a child to move from one parent to another, yet hes not allowed to play sports when he does move.

 

As for the Warren situation, I can't go into the details, but the young man definitly deserved to play.

 

 

I have never seen a situation where a student/athlete moves from one parent to another and ruled eligible.

I will agree that the appeals process should be speeded up. They should be able to decide within a month or so.

 

As I understand it, the KHSAA has recommended some changes to the due process procedures that should speed things up. Unfortunately, those changes are hung up in the legislature because they are part of a package that contains some things that the legislators don't like. The changes would have an Asst. Commissioner whose duty is primary compliance make the initial determination (rather than the Commissioner who currently does it). Because the Asst. Commissioner will have more time to devote to investigating the situation before he makes the initial determination, the hope is, as I understand it, that the Asst Commissioner will be able to make a more informed initial detemination and will rule some people eligible that the Commissioner would have ruled ineligible. That certainly speeds up the eligibility situation in those cases. If the Asst Commissioner makes an initial determination of ineligible, the case can be appealed to a hearing officer (as is the case). To ensure that the affected parties have the necessary time to prepare of the hearing, the time between the initial determination and the hearing will not change unless waived by the parties. Once the hearing officer makes his determination, there again has to be some time to allow parties to file any exceptions to his recommendation. Again, this time period can be shortened waived. But another change proposed by the KHSAA involves the Commissioner making the final determination as opposed to the Board of Control. Such change should eliminate some time also as she will be able to make her final determination as soon as the deadline to file exceptions has elapsed, whereas now, the final decision is made at the next scheduled Board meeting. I don't think however that even with changes, the appeals process can be cut to a month if the initial determination is ineligible.

 

Hopefully the legislators will rethink their position and allow those things in the package that they approve of (like the due process procedure changes) to move forward and just sit on those things that they oppose.