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General

CHSAA to Host Legislative Council Meeting on Wednesday, April 22

AURORA - The Colorado High School Activities Association is presenting new bylaw proposals and committee reports to the CHSAA’s Legislative Council, the democratic arm of the association, on Wednesday, April 22, at the DCSD Legacy Campus.

The meeting will kick off at 9 a.m., with doors opening for Legislative Council voting members, athletic and activities directors, superintendents, principals, school administrators, media members and any other attendees at 8 a.m. Anyone unable to make the meeting can watch a live stream of the event or follow along by a live blog.

Find a complete list of bylaw proposals and committee reports here.
 
During the meeting, CHSAA will present new bylaw proposals and committee reports to the Legislative Council, a member group of 75 representatives from across the state of Colorado. Each primary league has representation, in addition to representation from the Colorado Association of School Executives, Colorado Association of School Boards, and the Colorado Athletic Directors Association. This diverse group is tasked with making decisions that they feel best for all student-participants across the state.
 
CHSAA has two Legislative Council meetings per year, with the Winter Legislative Council meeting was held on Tuesday, Feb. 3.

 
Some of the specific bylaw proposals and committee report proposals are as follows:
 
Constitutional (requires 2/3 vote for approval, unless otherwise noted) and Administrative and Athletic Proposals (requires majority vote for approval, unless otherwise noted) are:
  • ADM 1: New School Membership Fee - Increase the membership fee for all new schools (charter of private) to $10,000, plus the standard activity fees as required. This is a one-time fee that has not increased in eight years. 
  • ADM 2: Eligibility Lists - The CHSAA office does not need to hold or store student names and information with regards to eligibility. This requirement is outdated and schools are ultimately responsible for ensuring that its student-participants are eligible to compete. If a school does find that an ineligible student participated, appropriate steps are taken. It is not necessary to have a student listed or not listed on an electronic roster.
  • ADM 3: Restricted Varsity Timeline - Adjust the 365-day rule to be from when the actual competitive season ends, not when a team's season ends (with exceptions for injury). 
  • ADM 4: Clarifying Recruiting Definition - Cleary define "recruiting" and set parameters on acceptable contact. Seeks to help advise membership and staff on appropriate and not-appropriate contact with schools and students.
  • ADM 5: Contact with Non-High School Aged Students - Better, and more specifically clarifies the appropriate contact non-high school aged students and the contact they may have with high schools and coaches. Specifically, they may only have contact with students in their schools district attendance area, families that reach out directly to the school’s athletic director. Schools may not initiate direct communication in any form with non-prospective students with regards to athletics.
  • ADM 6: Coach Ejection Timeline - Gives a specific timeline for a coach to complete their ejection coursework.
  • ADM 7: Spectator Behavior - As fan behavior continues to be a major concern across the state, strengthening this bylaw further empowers schools to manage their crowds and punish disruptive and negative behavior. This approach is proactive and seeks to improve fan behavior across the state, as opposed to reacting to negative interactions. The bylaw changes create an opportunity for school administration and/or coaches to clearly communicate expectations and potential consequences for negative behavior prior to contests.
  • ATH 1: Postseason Field Size (requires 60% approval) - Establish a 40–50% range in playoff field sizes across classifications to allow CHSAA to align postseason brackets with the CLOC while promoting competitive equity among classifications. 
  • ATH 2: Team Declaration Reporting Timelines - Clarify the process and dates for when schools add or drop a program. 
  • ATH 3: Wrestling Dual Days - Increase the ability to wrestle more duals. 
Other major changes coming from the committee reports include:
  • Budget - Budget will be tighter next year because of venue changes, increasing costs and taking on a new loan for the building. In addition, the CHSAA card will increase $10 per card. At most, this would have an impact of $150 per school. 
  • CLOC - Approve the 2026-28 winter sports classifications and amend the splits for basketball.
  • Music - Raise mileage reimbursement for adjudicators to $0.45/mile beginning in the 2026-27 school year and raise it again to $0.50/mile beginning in the 2027-28 school year. 
  • Speech & Debate - Implement an AI policy
  • Basketball - Create an 18-game minimum for qualification into playoffs, update the 5A-6A seeding criteria to only look at league matchups in the first round and for 1A-6A, allow the committee to move the team that is closest to them in MaxPreps rating, either up or down one seed, to resolve a league conflict. 
  • Tackle Football - Approve seven-man official crews to work all 11-man semifinal games, set automatic qualifying bids for multi-classification leagues, amend the coaches boxes from the 25-to-25 yard lines to 10-to-10 yard lines. 
  • Ice Hockey - Increase the number of 4A postseason qualifying teams from 10 to 12. 
  • Spirit - New markings on the dance floor, 4A and 5A coed moving to a combined 4A/5A division and 4A/5A game day cheer moving to 4A and 5A divisions
  • Track and Field - 1A classification will move from 10 qualifiers to 12 qualifiers in all field events. This will take place for the 2027 season. 
  • Wrestling - Amend the seeding criteria to create consistency, transparency and competitive balance for the state tournament.