Proposed Legislation Would Impact Athletics Programs

By Lee Green

Background

The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA), federal legislation enacted in 1994, requires every university receiving federal financial assistance to annually file a report with the United States Department of Education detailing information related to the level of equality in the institution's athletics program. In effect, the law requires each university to perform an annual Title IX self-audit and, through submission of the report to the Department of Education, make the results available to the public.

The information contained in EADA filings enable monitoring by the United States Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of institutional compliance with the mandates of Title IX. However, an ongoing criticism of the EADA throughout the years since its enactment has been that the legislation applies only to institutions of higher learning and provides no regime for similar reporting of information as to equality in K-12 athletics programs.

In February 2007, two bills were introduced in the 110th Congress that in practical application would extend the requirements of the EADA to K-12 institutions. The High School Accountability Act of 2007 (HSAA), introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 901, would "amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to direct certain coeducational elementary and secondary schools to make available information on equality in school and athletic programs, and for other purposes." The High School Sports Information Collection Act of 2007 (HSSICA), introduced in the Senate as S. 518, would "amend the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 to require the Statistics Commissioner to collect information from coeducational secondary schools on such schools' athletic programs."

A year after their introduction, both the HSAA and the HSSICA remain at the first step of the legislative process, referral to committees that will deliberate, investigate and revise the bills before they proceed to general debate. School leaders, including superintendents, principals and athletics administrators, should familiarize themselves with the content of the proposed legislation and monitor the progress of the bills through Congress in preparation for the contingency that the legislation is enacted sometime during 2008.

Goals of the HSAA and HSSICA

The High School Accountability Act (HSAA), the House version of the legislation, was introduced by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, D-New York, and is presently co-sponsored by 61 representatives. The HSAA includes 10 "Findings" setting forth the reasons for which the bill's sponsors argue enactment of the legislation is necessary.

Finding One: Participation in sports teaches youth critical life skills and has a positive impact on all areas of their lives, especially for girls.

Finding Two: Participation in sports results in many long-term physical and psychological health benefits for girls, including combating obesity, lowering rates of heart disease, breast cancer and osteoporosis, and improving levels of confidence and self-esteem.

Finding Three: Participation in sports promotes responsible social behaviors and greater academic success among girls, including lowering rates of sexual activity, pregnancy, tobacco and drug use, and enhancing personal and professional growth. This finding incorporates statistics indicating that a high percentage of successful businesswomen in the United States played sports while growing up and that most report that athletics participation had contributed significantly to their success.

Finding Four: The opportunity to participate in high school athletics allows many middle-income and low-income students who would otherwise be unable to afford college to gain access to higher education.

Finding Five: Physical inactivity is more common among females than males.

Finding Six: Girls who are not involved in physical activity by age 10 have only a 10-percent chance of being more physically active when they are age 25.

Finding Seven: Girls receive 1,250,000 fewer opportunities to play high school sports than do boys.

Finding Eight: Girls' teams often receive inferior opportunities and benefits in a variety of aspects of school athletics programs, including overall budgets, equipment, uniforms, locker rooms, practice and competition facilities, scheduling of practices, games and sports seasons, training and medical services, coaching and publicity.

Finding Nine: Students and parents should have access to information regarding the athletics opportunities and benefits that schools provide to male and female students.

Finding Ten: Without information regarding the allocation of athletic opportunities and benefits at the elementary and secondary school levels, students may be deprived of athletics opportunities.

The High School Sports Information Collection Act (HSSICA), the Senate version of the legislation, was introduced by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and does not contain a "Findings" section, instead focusing solely on the data mandated for collection if the bill is enacted.

Reporting Requirements of the HSAA and the HSSICA

The High School Accountability Act (House version of the bill) would amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to require each coeducational elementary or secondary school that participates in any program under the Act and has an athletics program to annually prepare a report containing the following categories of information:

Category One: Data regarding the male and female enrollments at the school.

Category Two: A listing of school sports teams and first-day-of-competition information on the total number and gender of participants on each team, along with year each team was established at the school.

Category Three: Budget data for each team, including information related to travel, equipment, uniforms, facilities-related expenditures, athletic training and medical services costs, and publicity items.

Category Four: Detailed information related to athletic trainers and medical personnel involved in the school's athletics program.

Category Five: Detailed information related to the coaches involved in the school's athletic program, including salary information broken down into gender-specific average compensation for head coaches and assistant coaches.

Category Six: Data regarding the revenues generated by each team and financial contributions from outside sources such as booster clubs, corporate sponsorships, fund-raising and donors.

Category Seven: Information on all competitions scheduled for every school sports team, including the day of the week and time the competition was scheduled.

Category Eight: Information on all practices scheduled for every school sports team, including the day of the week and time each practice was scheduled.

Category Nine: Information on the season of the year in which each school sports team competed.

Category Ten: Data on the postseason competition and postseason success of each school sports team.

The information mandated for collection by the HSAA, to those familiar with the requirements of Title IX, is essentially the data required to evaluate compliance with the so-called "three-prong test" measuring equality of sports participation opportunities and with the "other athletics benefits and opportunities" checklist of factors affecting the quality of the sports participation experience.

Upon compilation of the report, the HSAA imposes a disclosure requirement and a submission requirement. The disclosure requirement mandates that each school makes its athletics equity report available to students, potential students and the public. The Equity In Athletics Disclosure Act has a similar disclosure requirement with which most universities comply by posting EADA reports on their Web sites. Online postings at school district, high school or athletics department Web sites would likely satisfy the disclosure requirement of the HSAA. The submission requirement mandates that each report would also have to be provided to the Department of Education's Commissioner for Education Statistics for use in monitoring Title IX compliance and ensuring public access to the information in the report.

The High School Sports Information Collection Act (Senate version of the bill) requires the compilation of essentially the same information as that required by the HSAA but includes no explicit disclosure requirement.

Present Status of the HSAA and the HSSICA

The High School Accountability Act (House version) is presently awaiting consideration by the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education. The High School Sports Information Collection Act (Senate version) is currently awaiting action before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The status of both bills may be monitored using Congress' official Web site for the tracking of legislation, www.thomas.gov. Additional information on the status of the legislation is available at www.govtrack.us.

Lee Green is an attorney and a professor at Baker (Kansas) University, where he teaches courses in Sports Law, Business Law and Constitutional Law. He may be contacted at Lee.Green@BakerU.Edu.