August 19, 2009


FHSAA forms Urban / Rural Committee

For a number of years, there has been a growing concern among public and private school members of the Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA), regarding the issues of: attendance boundaries, open enrollment, foreign student eligibility requirements and guidelines, and the potential for illegal recruiting of student-athletes.

In addition, Florida is a very diverse state in terms of student population within the schools and the population of the communities served by those schools. Florida has some very large metropolitan areas, which have high schools with more than 4,000 students. At the same time, there remains a great number of small, rural communities in Florida, which have high school populations fewer than 500 students. Private schools and charter schools vary in student population from fewer than 100 students to more than 2,000 students.

For all of these reasons and more, it is conducive upon the FHSAA to study the problems that are created by such diversity, enrollment procedures, foreign student eligibility requirements, and student attendance boundary policies. Therefore, the FHSAA has established the Urban / Rural Committee to research data from this state, meet with individuals who care to express concerns and suggestions in each of the four established administrative sections of Florida, and study the policies and rules of the other southeastern state high school associations regarding these issues.

Mission: Gather information and suggestions, while meeting with constituents throughout the state of Florida, about the problems and potential solutions of creating a more fair and equitable system of competition for interscholastic athletics. The committee will research what other southeastern state associations are doing to "level the playing field" in terms of obtaining and developing talent for student-athletes in the state of Florida.

There will be five meetings throughout the state. Dates, times and locations will be posted on the FHSAA web site when it becomes available.

About the FHSAA
The Florida High School Athletic Association is the governing body for interscholastic athletics in Florida. It has a membership of more than 750 middle and senior high schools, and sponsors postseason competitions to determine the official state high school champions in 30 different sports. The 16-member FHSAA Board of Directors is the executive authority of the Association.

Contact for media:
Cristina Alvarez
Director of Media Relations & Marketing, FHSAA
(352) 372-9551 ext. 190
calvarez@fhsaa.org