sets rules for Katrina transfers|[9/3/05]

From staff reports

The Louisiana High School Athletic Association has issued guidelines for determining the eligibility of athletes displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Effective immediately, any student who previously attended a school in a parish classified as a “storm disaster parish” by the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness will receive a one-time waiver of normal transfer rules and become eligible to play immediately at their new school.

Normal academic, age and attendance rules still apply.

“Effective for only the first semester of the 2005-06 school year, a student who has been attending a school prior to Hurricane Katrina that has been classified a storm disaster parish by the Office of Emergency Preparedness and who has been displaced to a site in another parish shall be considered a “homeless” student for LHSAA purposes and shall become immediately eligible and remain under the Residence and School Transfers Rule at the first school he/she enrolls in and attends in that parish or an adjacent parish…,” LHSAA commissioner Tommy Henry said in a release on the association’s web site on Friday.

The LHSAA also issued guidelines for postponing athletic events in the wake of the storm, which left thousands homeless in southeastern Louisiana.

For cross country and girls’ volleyball – two sports played almost exclusively in South Louisiana – the decision to play or not will be left up to the principal of the home school.

In football, if the two schools are located in non-affected parishes, the game is required to go on as scheduled. Otherwise, the decision to play or not falls to the principal of the home school.

A decision to reschedule the game must also be made no later than the following Monday, and if the home school is in a storm-free parish the game must be played by midnight the following Monday, the release said.