New state rules broaden extracurricular eligibility; Sarasota staff and board weigh operational and equity concerns

District staff told the board that statutory changes during the 2026 session make extracurricular eligibility uniform across educational settings and tighten transfer and roster rules.

"The law now defines eligible student to include students in any educational setting and treat them all the same way," Mr. Chris Prento explained, summarizing the new athletics and extracurricular provisions. Under the changes, students may participate at the public school where they live or at another district school if their enrolled school does not offer the activity; a student may not participate at two different schools in the same year without an FHSAA waiver.

The legislation also allows districts to charge fees for extracurricular participation by nontraditional students, but the board must workshop and approve fee structures annually. Mr. Prento said the board may not charge a higher fee to a nontraditional student than to an in‑district public school student in comparable circumstances.

Board members asked for operational details. Mr. Edwards urged the district to capture accurate counts of nontraditional participants, saying, “we do need to have a mechanism that’s capturing how many of those students we’re serving” before setting fees. Mrs. Barker and Mrs. Marinelli asked how grandfathering and athletic choice interact with redistricting and roster grandfathering; staff said out‑of‑count students on prior rosters would be grandfathered for the remainder of their high‑school careers but new transfers will be subject to the district athletic‑choice process.

Superintendent Connor and staff told the board they will work with athletic directors to implement notification, roster, and fee policies and return with a proposal that accounts for equity, grandfathering and enforcement timelines.