Student Well-Being

Illinois Boosts Academic Standards for High School Student-Athletes

By Bryan Toporek — January 11, 2012 1 min read
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Illinois high school students now must pass one more class per semester to remain eligible for school sports, due to a proposal certified last week among a package of 14 changes from the state high school association.

Proposal 7, as it was called, required student-athletes to “be doing passing work” in 25 credit hours (the equivalent of five classes) per week in a given semester to remain eligible. The Illinois High School Association passed on a 309-189 vote.

A concurrent proposal, Proposal 8, requires students to have “received credit for passing work” in 25 credit hours the previous semester to remain eligible. It passed on a similar 304-195 vote.

For both proposals, physical education can be counted as one of the five courses, even if the school doesn’t award credit for it.

“It’s possible now in many schools for a student to be eligible to participate in IHSA sports for four years, but not have enough credits to graduate,” said District 308 Superintendent Jim Dunnan, the author of these proposals, to the .

A version of this news article first appeared in the Schooled in Sports blog.