Age, graduation, and four-year rule: choices for v0.2

Status: Non-normative drafting questions.

1. Age. The v0.1 proposal uses UIL’s younger-than-19-on-September-1 rule for athletics. Should this be universal across all high-school activities or limited to athletics? TAPPS’s constitutional wording is “has not reached 19 years of age prior to September 1”; a September 1 birthday may warrant explicit interoperability treatment.
2. Disability exception. What documentation establishes that a disability delayed education? Who decides, and should an exception be limited to a single additional year? UIL has a detailed school-based process that a home-school program cannot simply copy without adaptation.
3. Graduation. How should the protocol distinguish early accumulation of sufficient credits from actual completion? When is a parent-issued transcript or diploma final, and how should an outside high-school completion credential be treated?
4. Postsecondary study. An associate degree or vocational credential need not end a concurrent parent-run high-school program. What evidence shows the two programs are genuinely distinct?
5. Competition grade. What evidence supports the first declaration, and who decides a conflict with earlier school placement? Should a pre-high-school repeat be available only under the same circumstances UIL recognizes, or as an independent protocol option subject to equivalent limits?
6. Time unit. The v0.1 proposal says four consecutive school years. UIL and TAPPS describe four consecutive years or calendar years after ninth-grade entry. Define the start and end dates precisely, especially for summer contests.
7. Exceptions and review. Specify decision authority, proof, deadlines, appeal, and whether any age or four-year exception is recognized for contests with other organizations.
8. Transition for prior eighth-grade competition. Should a student who competed in high-school contests as an eighth grader under a home-school program’s rules before the Standard’s effective date be allowed to complete the ordinary ninth-through-twelfth-grade sequence, even though that produces five years of high-school competition? Define the cutoff date, required contemporaneous records, disclosure, and final sunset. This proposed grandfathering would not give an additional year to a student who first competed in ninth grade. It would not waive age or non-graduation requirements or override an applicable contest organizer’s rules.

Roster, residence, transfer, and recruiting questions remain important but belong in later modules. Academic standing and the § 33.0832 assessment regime belong in a separate academic-conformance option.