2025-2026 Bill 4163 Text of Previous Version (May. 07, 2026)

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A bill

TO AMEND THE SOUTH CAROLINA CODE OF LAWS BY ENACTING THE "SOUTH CAROLINA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION ACT" BY ADDING CHAPTER 9 TO TITLE 59, so as TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION AND TO PROVIDE THE PURPOSE, FUNCTIONS, ORGANIZATION, AND GOVERNANCE OF THE ASSOCIATION; TO PROVIDE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, INCLUDING CHARTER SCHOOLS, MAY NOT JOIN OR AFFILIATE WITH ANY OTHER ENTITY WITHIN THE STATE FOR THE PURPOSE OF GOVERNING, SANCTIONING, OR OPERATING INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC PROGRAMS; AND TO PROVIDE PROVISIONS CONCERNING TRANSFER STUDENTS, HOME SCHOOL STUDENTS, PRIVATE SCHOOL STUDENTS, AND APPEALS, AMONG OTHER THINGS.

Amend Title To Conform

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. This act may be cited as the "South Carolina High School League Oversight and Accountability Act."

SECTION 2. Title 59 of the S.C. Code is amended by adding:

CHAPTER 9

High School League Oversight and Accountability

Section 59-9-110. Effective June 30, 2027, a public school district, including charter schools and their authorizers, may not join, affiliate with, pay dues or fees to, or in any way financially support any interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity unless the constitution, bylaws, rules, or other governing that govern the association, body, or entity contain the following:

(1) A provision requiring that the governing body of the association, body, or entity must be comprised solely of:

(a) one superintendent member or his designated district level administrator, one principal member who shall be a member of the South Carolina Association of School Administrators (SCASA) secondary affiliate and one athletic administrator who shall be a member of the South Carolina Athletic Administrators Association, from each classification selected by a vote of the respective schools;

(b) two members appointed by the Chair of the House Education and Public Works Committee, who are not employees of any high school league member school or its school district;

(c) two members appointed by the Chair of the Senate Education Committee, who are not employees of any high school league member school or its school district;

(d) the State Superintendent of Education or his designee;

(e) one middle school representative, selected by a vote of the respective schools but must be a superintendent, principal, or athletic director;

(f) one representative from private member schools and one representative from charter member schools selected by a vote of the respective schools but must be a superintendent, principal, or athletic director;

(g) the executive committee chairman shall be elected annually by the membership of the executive board. A chairman may not serve in this capacity more than two consecutive years; and

(h) the elected members shall serve staggered terms with the odd-numbered classifications originally serving three-year terms and the even numbered classifications serving two-year terms. The remaining appointments shall serve three-year terms. A committee member shall not serve more than two consecutive three-year terms.

(2) A provision requiring that an interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity be subject to audits performed by the Legislative Audit Council. For the purpose of this item an interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity is an "agency" for the purpose of Section 2-2-10(1).

(3) A provision requiring that the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity shall submit its annual budget to the General Assembly and be subject to appearing before the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.

(4) A provision requiring that the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity must be subject to legislative oversight as provided in Chapter 2, Title 2.

(5) A provision requiring that the commissioner of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity shall file an annual Statement of Economic Interest with the South Carolina Ethics Commission.

(6) A provision requiring that any employment contract with the commissioner of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity may not:

(a) exceed three years;

(b) contain an automatic renewal provision; or

(7) A provision requiring the use of a range of sanctions that:

(a) may be applied to a student, coach, team, or program; and

(b) considers factors such as seriousness, frequency, and other relevant factors when there is a violation of the constitution, bylaws, rules, or other governing provisions of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity.

(8) Provisions concerning private schools and charter schools that:

(a) afford a private school or a charter school the same rights and privileges that are enjoyed by all other members of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity;

(b) prohibit expulsion of a private school or a charter school or the unreasonable withholding of the membership of a private school or a charter school based solely on its status as a private school or a charter school;

(c) prohibit restrictions on the ability of a private school or a charter school to participate in interscholastic athletics including, but not limited to, state playoffs or championships;

(d) require the establishment of reasonable standards for the admission of private schools and charter schools as members of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity; and

(e) require that when a private school or a charter school is denied membership in the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity, the school must be provided the reason or reasons for the rejection of its application for membership in writing within five business days after the denial.

(9) A provision that guarantees a South Carolina home school athletic team that is a member of a home school athletic association may not be denied access to preseason and regular season interscholastic athletics including, but not limited to, jamborees and invitational tournaments, based solely on its status as a home school athletic team; provided, however, all other rules or policies of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity must apply.

(10) A provision that creates a uniform system applicable to all member schools at the varsity, sub-varsity, junior varsity, and middle school levels that establishes fines for the cancellation of a scheduled contest regardless of whether the contest is in-region or out-of-region, including for the refusal of a member school to schedule a mandatory region contest with another member school within the same region including, but not limited to, requirements that:

(a) a school which cancels a scheduled contest must be fined an amount equal to the cost incurred for officials, tickets, and concessions or one thousand dollars, whichever is greater; and

(b) a waiver of the fine may be granted only if the contest is rescheduled or cancelled for a documented health or safety reason, in which case the school may not be fined.

(11) A total provision that prohibits students from earning compensation from the use of their names, images, or likenesses (NIL).

(12) A provision that allows an individual student who attends a private school in this State to have the opportunity to try out for and, if selected, participate in an interscholastic athletic program offered at a public school in the district if the:

(a) student resides within the attendance zone boundaries of the public school;

(b) private school which the student attends is not a member of the South Carolina High School League;

(d) particular sport in which the student seeks to participate is offered at the public school located in the attendance zone where the student resides;

(e) student notifies the superintendent of the public school district in writing of his intent to try out in the particular sport as a representative of the public school before the beginning date of the season for the sport in which he wishes to try out;

(f) student pays for all sport-specific fees charged by the public school for an individual student to participate in the particular sport;

(g) student meets all public school district eligibility requirements, except for the:

(i) class and enrollment requirements of the school district; and

(ii) class and enrollment requirements of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity which administers the interscholastic sports;

(h) student and the student's parent or guardian agrees for the student to be subject to the code of conduct of the public school;

(i) student has not been expelled from the same public school during the same academic year; and

(j) the percentage of private school students on a public school athletic team may not exceed ten percent.

(13) A provision that establishes uniform eligibility requirements for new students to participate in interscholastic athletics. These eligibility requirements may not be more restrictive in language or application than the rules or policies of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity that were in effect on January 1, 2020.

(14) A provision that the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity may not apply public school academic, athletic, or extracurricular policies or procedures to any private school that a student attends if the student also participates in a public high school league sport pursuant to the terms of this chapter, except for requirements related to maintaining a certain grade-point average and grade level for participating in and attending regularly scheduled practices of the sports team.

(15) A provision that the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity shall establish a multiplier system for the purpose of classification that considers a school's geographic location, student population to include, but not limited to, out-of-attendance zone students, adequate number of roster players to safely field a team, and performance in each sport in which it participates. A school with a satellite or auxiliary campus must be counted as one school for the purpose of this item.

(16) A provision that the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity shall abide by all eligibility determinations made by the Department of Education and the State Board of Education pursuant to Section 59-39-160.

Section 59-9-120. (A) Notwithstanding any athlete transfer rules and policies adopted by the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity, a student who attends a school outside of his attendance zone may immediately participate in interscholastic competitions if the student is otherwise academically eligible and the following conditions are met:

(1) for students enrolled in middle school, the interscholastic athletic association shall allow a one-time transfer after eligibility is established in the seventh grade; and

(2) for students enrolled in high school, the interscholastic athletic association shall allow a one-time transfer after eligibility is established in the ninth grade.

(B) This section does not apply if the student transfers because of a bona fide residency change and a student may not participate in any interscholastic competitions or practices of a school until he is registered in the school.

Section 59-9-130. (A) The interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity shall establish an appeals process through which appeals of decisions by the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity may be made to a disinterested third-party appellate panel. The panel must consist of seven members who serve four-year terms, with one person appointed by the delegation of each congressional district.

(B)(1) A member of the panel shall serve until his successor is appointed and qualified. A vacancy on the panel must be filled in the manner of the original appointment.

(2) Members of the appellate panel may not concurrently serve as officers of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity and may not have served as a member of the executive committee within the three-year period immediately preceding their appointment to the appellate panel.

(3) Principals and superintendents may appeal a ruling of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity to the panel. The appellate panel also must provide the final ruling in any appeal brought against a decision of the interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity.

(C) The interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity shall establish and ensure a procedure for emergency appeals to be held and decided upon in an expedited manner if the normal appellate process would prohibit the participation of a student, team, program, or school in an athletic event, to include competitions and practices.

SECTION 3. Section 2-2-10(1) of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

(1) "Agency" means an authority, board, branch, commission, committee, department, division, or other instrumentality of the executive or judicial departments of state government, including administrative bodies. "Agency" includes a body corporate and politic established as an instrumentality of the State. "Agency" may include other such entities as prescribed by law. "Agency" does not include:

(a) the legislative department of state government; or

(b) a political subdivision.

SECTION 4. Section 2-15-50 of the S.C. Code is amended to read:

Section 2-15-50. For the purpose of this chapter "state agencies" means all officers, departments, boards, commissions, institutions, universities, colleges, bodies politic and corporate of the State and any other person, or any other administrative unit of state government or corporate outgrowth of state government or any interscholastic athletic association, body, or entity as prescribed by law, expending or encumbering state funds by virtue of an appropriation from the General Assembly, or handling money on behalf of the State, or holding any trust funds from any source derived, but does not mean or include counties.

For the purposes of this chapter, "audit" means a full-scope examination of and investigation into all state agency matters necessary to make a determination of:

(a)(1) whether the entity is acquiring, protecting, and using its resources, such as personnel, property, and space, economically and efficiently;

(2) the causes of inefficiencies or uneconomical practices; and

(3) whether the entity has complied with laws and regulations concerning matters of economy and efficiency; and

(b)(1) the extent to which the desired results or benefits established by the General Assembly or other authorizing body are achieved;

(2) the effectiveness of organizations, programs, activities, or functions and whether these organizations, programs, activities, or functions should be continued, revised, or eliminated; and

(3) whether the entity has complied with laws and regulations applicable to the program.

SECTION 5. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

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