Swallows: Transfer Rules About Protecting Prep Academics

TSSAA Board of Control President Grant Swallows said the decision to implement a one-time transfer rule for high school athletes came after pressure from state legislators.

The one-time transfer rule would allow a student to transfer schools if they have significant academic, social-emotional, environmental, or mental health needs and not be prohibited from participating in sports. Swallows said he is not sure why legislators are pushing so hard for TSSAA to change their transfer rule but believes transfer rule changes are trickling down from collegiate sports.

“From the organization standpoint, we do not feel like the college game and the high school game should be the same,” Swallows said. “Really, it’s two totally different entities primarily because at the high school level this is an extracurricular activity.”

Swallows said TSSAA is trying to position itself to best meet state legislators’ requests while also doing what’s best for school systems. Swallows said if TSSAA allowed students to transfer one time for any reason, then academic priorities would not be where they should be.

“Extracurricular implies by that phrase it’s curricular first and then anything else is extra,” Swallows said. “So if we start making decisions on where someone goes to school based on athletics or extracurricular activities, then we got those priorities out of order.”

Swallows said the new rule still provides school systems the authority to approve or deny transfer requests. Swallows said that giving the school systems the authority is preventing the chaos that would ensue with an abundance of transferring that would likely happen.

“We hope that by passing what the legislative council passed, we are not creating the wild wild west of transferring in and out,” Swallows said. “That’s what has happened in some of our states in the United States to where it is happening constantly, and it’s been a bad thing, and we certainly don’t want to get there.”

Swallows said the new transfer rule could be abused by school systems. Swallows said an example would be a senior football player wanting to transfer to another school in the county for academic reasons. Swallows said often times school systems know what situation a student is in and under those circumstances it would make the request questionable.

“Why is it taken us three years for us to make that decision,” Swallows said. “Is it because there is a new rule in place that allows us to do that? Well, if that’s the case, then to me, that brings on some questions of if the move is for academic reasons or athletic reasons. If that were to be the case, then the school system has to stand up and say hey look, we believe this to not be for academic reasons.”