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Committee approves publishing of revised interscholastic athletics regulations
Summary
The committee voted to seek permission to publish comprehensive revisions to COMAR 13A.06.03, proposing changes to eligibility, sports-season designations, coaching-eligibility thresholds, penalties, classification and sanctioning rules to better align athletics with current school models.
The Education Policy Committee voted to seek permission to publish a comprehensive revision to COMAR 13A.06.03 governing interscholastic athletics after a presentation by Andy Warner.
Warner, who identified himself as both director of athletics at the Maryland Department of Education and executive director of the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association, said the package responds to changes in how students access school and extracurricular programs. Key proposals include allowing a local school system to authorize students enrolled in virtual, technical or specialty schools to participate at another public school when the student’s school does not offer the sport; replacing a fixed list of sports with MPSSAA policy categories (emerging vs. championship) for how a sport is designated; and adding procedural guidance for sports‑season limitations reviewed by the sports medicine and equity committees.
Warner described substantial editorial and substantive changes under operational guidelines, including flexibility on a longstanding 50% professional‑educator coaching threshold to expand the hiring pool while preserving background‑check and certification safeguards. The package aligns language on permitted medical examiners for weight certification with other COMAR provisions, shortens some disciplinary windows (schools suggested moving from 60 to 30 school days for certain penalties), clarifies the executive‑director review processes for violations, and proposes modernized classification rules that account for nontraditional delivery models (virtual, magnet, tech schools).
When Mr. Chesterfield asked whether a 19‑year age cutoff in the draft would exclude students served under an IEP who remain in school through age 21, Warner said corollary athletic programs (covered elsewhere in COMAR) specifically accommodate students who age out; Warner said there are "over 6,000 participants" in those corollary programs year to year.
Mr. Chesterfield moved for permission to publish COMAR 13A.06.03; the motion was seconded and the committee approved the request to publish.
The committee’s record of the hearing does not include a detailed roll‑call tally in the transcript; the motion was approved by voice vote as recorded.
