Changes made by the Iowa Legislature to high school athlete eligibility rules were tackled by the Washington Community School Board this week.

The Iowa Department of Education’s General Transfer Rule was amended this year so that students who open enroll into another district can request that their resident and receiving districts waive the 90-day ineligibility period that prevents them from playing in varsity sports following their school transfer. The Washington school board received requests to waive the period for two students open enrolling to Highland, which was also waived by Highland.

Superintendent Willie Stone recommended that the board grant a waiver to the freshman student as he had played baseball in eighth grade for Washington which Stone believed shouldn’t prevent him from playing varsity at Highland. However, Stone recommended the board not grant the waiver for the other student who was an upperclassman and already had opportunities to play varsity sports. Stone says that after talking with Activities Director Brent Van Weelden and other area superintendents he feels that this should be the norm for all future requests, “I want to make sure people understand that that’s going to be the recommendation, whether students are coming into our district or out of our district, because we want to make sure that we’re emphasizing the student-athlete and really emphasizing the student in ‘athlete’ instead of just the athlete.”

The board approved Stone’s recommendations. Students are still allowed to play junior varsity sports during the 90 ineligibility period, and school boards must decide on waiver requests on a case by case basis rather than have a blanket policy.