This spring, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) made several notable updates to student athletics in Washington’s K–12 schools.
For the first time since 1999, the WIAA sanctioned a new sport: girls’ flag football. The approval opens the door for more female student-athletes to engage in healthy, organized competition and team participation.
The WIAA board also approved a significant change to student transfer eligibility rules. Under the new policy, a high school student-athlete may transfer once during their four-year career, but only during designated transfer windows. This change is designed to offer limited flexibility without resembling the NCAA’s transfer portal system. A student who transfers will be ineligible for varsity competition for 40% of the maximum number of contests in sports they played the previous year, as defined by each sport’s rules.
In addition to these updates, the WIAA Representative Assembly—comprising 53 school administrators from six geographic districts—held advisory votes on two proposed amendments related to athlete participation categories. These measures, which would not have been implementable according to the WIAA as they would have defied current Washington law, sought to ban transgender students from participation in girls’ sports and relegate transgender athletes to a separate athletic program. There was considerable assembly support for the first amendment, less for the latter. The amendments and how the Rep Assembly voted offer insight into the emerging perspectives about gender issues and participation in sports at the high school level.
As the landscape of student athletics evolves, WFIS has a seat at the table for WIAA deliberations. WFIS supports the critical dialogue that considers the perspectives of diverse school communities across Washington.
