Iowa Administrative Code › Agency 281 - Education Department › Title VI - Interscholastic Competition › Chapter 36 - Extracurricular Interscholastic Competition › Rule 281-36.13 - Cooperative Student Participation

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 3, July 24, 2024
Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, in the
				  event a member or associate member school does not directly make participation
				  in an interscholastic activity available to its students, the governing board
				  of the member or associate member school may, by formally adopted policy if
				  among its own attendance centers, or by written agreement with the governing
				  board of another member or associate member school, provide for the eligibility
				  of its students in interscholastic activities provided by another member or
				  associate member school. The eligibility of students under a policy, insofar as
				  applicable, or a written agreement is conditioned upon the following:
(1) All terms and conditions of the agreement
				are in writing;
(2) The attendance
				boundary of each school that is party to the agreement is contiguous to or
				contained within the attendance boundary of one of the other schools, unless
				the activity is not offered at any school contiguous to the party district, or
				all schools that are contiguous refuse to negotiate an agreement with the party
				district, in which case the contiguous requirement may be waived by the
				applicable governing organization. For the purposes of this rule, a nonpublic
				school member will utilize the attendance boundaries of the public school in
				which its attendance center is located;
(3) Any interscholastic activity not
				available to students of the schools participating in the agreement may be
				included in the agreement. A school's students may be engaged in cooperative
				activities under the terms of only one agreement.
However, if several schools are in a consortia cooperative
				  agreement for a specific activity, they are not precluded from having a
				  separate agreement with one or more of the same schools for a different
				  activity as long as all schools of the consortia agree to such a separate
				  agreement;
(4) Agreements
				will be for a minimum of one school year. Amendments may be made to agreements,
				including allowing additional member schools to join an existing agreement,
				without necessarily extending the time of existence of the agreement;
(5) All students participating under the
				agreement are enrolled in one of the schools, are in good standing, and meet
				all other eligibility requirements of these rules;
(6) A copy of the written agreement between
				the governing boards of the particular schools involved, and all amendments to
				the agreement, will be filed with the appropriate governing organization(s) no
				later than April 30 for the subsequent year, unless exception is granted by the
				organization for good cause shown. The agreements and amendments are deemed
				approved unless denied by the governing organization(s) within ten calendar
				days;
(7) It is the purpose of this
				rule to allow individual students participation in interscholastic competition
				in activities not available to them at the school they attend, through local
				policy or arrangements made between the governing boards of the schools
				involved, so long as the interscholastic activities of other schools are not
				substantially prejudiced. Substantial prejudice includes situations where a
				cooperative effort may result in an unfair domination of an activity or
				substantial disruption of activity classifications and management. In the event
				an activity organization determines, after investigation, that an agreement
				between schools that was developed under the terms of this rule results in
				substantial prejudice to other schools engaged in the activity, or the terms of
				the agreement are not in conformity with the purpose and terms of this rule,
				the activity organization may give timely notice to the schools involved that
				the local policy or agreement between them is null and void for the purposes of
				this rule, insofar as cooperative student participation is concerned with a
				particular activity. Determinations are appealable to the director of education
				under the applicable terms of rule
				281-36.10 (280). For notice to
				be timely, it must be given at least 45 calendar days prior to the beginning of
				the activity season.
This rule is intended to implement Iowa Code section
				  280.13.