By Dana Hess

For the S.D. Newspaper Association

An amendment to the constitution of the South Dakota High School Activities Association could change the way students are counted at some schools for the purposes of determining sports classifications.

The SDHSAA board approved the first reading of the amendment at its meeting Wednesday, Jan. 12.

The amendment includes a formula for using a school district’s free and reduced lunch participation to lower its enrollment count. That count is used to determine each school’s classification in SDHSAA activities.

In the formula, a school’s enrollment count could be reduced by 30%. SDHSAA Executive Director Dan Swartos gave an example to the board about a high school with an enrollment of 400 at which 85% of the students were eligible for a free or reduced lunch. Swartos’ formula multiplies 30 by .85 for 25.5. That result is subtracted from 100 giving a percentage of 74.5% or .745. That number is multiplied by the 400 enrollment number to give a result of 298. That 298 number would then be used to determine the school’s classification in sports.

Due to the federal government’s Covid regulations, all students are currently eligible for free lunches. “That’s completely different,” Swartos said, noting that parents of students eligible for the free and reduced lunches still need to fill out paperwork so that the school district can get its federal funding.

SDHSAA rationale for offering the amendment says that schools with a high percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunches have “severe discrepancies in access to equipment and school/personal access to outside training opportunities as compared to similar sized schools with low populations of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch. This multiplier is used in several other states and free and reduced lunch percentages have been widely accepted as a major factor in athletic/activity success. This multiplier would allow schools to remain in a classification level that most appropriately reflects their opportunities.”

Swartos said there are a “handful” of schools in the state where 100% of the students are eligible for free and reduced lunches. Others are in the 50% to 60% range. He said one school has just 3% of its students that qualify.

Board member Eric Denning of Mount Vernon asked if the federal policy of making lunches available to all students has put a crimp in the number of parents filling out the proper paperwork.

“We still pushed them to do it,” said board chairman Tom Culver of Avon. “Our federal funding is based on those numbers.”

Swartos characterized as “sad” the notion that some parents may be more willing to fill out the proper forms if they know that it could change the school’s basketball classification.

If a second reading is approved at the board’s March meeting, the amendment will be on a ballot sent to member schools after its April meeting.