WIAA Denies Wisconsin Student Athlete the Growth and Development Offered by Locally Sponsored and Funded Co-curricular Programming
The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) sued the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) and the Baraboo School District for wrongfully preventing a student from participating in school sponsored and funded athletic co-curricular programming. The WIAA determined the student was ineligible for one year due to its subjective “transfer rules” and denied a request to waive those rules. WILL argues the Baraboo School District has unlawfully given control over who may participate in taxpayer-funded co-curricular activities to a purportedly private entity not controlled by any accountable government actor.
The Quotes: WILL Associate Counsel, Skylar Croy, stated, “Our clients live and pay taxes in the school district, and their child has been denied access to programs sponsored and funded by the district because the bureaucrats at the WIAA arbitrarily decided she was not worthy of a ‘waiver’ of their ‘transfer rules.’ We must rein in this illogical decision making to allow children the full opportunity to flourish and develop.”
WILL Client, Emily Weigel, said, “Our daughter is not gaming the system. She simply wants to participate in high school sports and is making the best of her family’s involuntary decision to switch schools. The WIAA has gone too far, and we are fighting back on her behalf and the many other students who have been subject to the arbitrary decision-making of this organization.”
Additional Background: The Weigel family’s oldest daughter began her high school career at a small Christian school in Baraboo which did not offer athletic programming. Shortly after, the Weigel’s youngest child was diagnosed with a rare, but serious, blood condition requiring significant medical care.
The Weigel family made tremendous sacrifices during this time. Their daughter spent nine weeks in the hospital and her mother Emily quit her full-time job in order to be able to provide their youngest daughter with the care needed for her continued recovery. However, with significant medical care needs and the stark loss of Emily’s employment income, the Weigel family made the decision to transfer their other daughter from private school into their residential school district–where the family has lived for generations.
This change, although difficult, also meant that their daughter could participate in high school sports for the first time. Or so she thought.
Their daughter has a strong passion for softball and has played it for years in a recreational league but has never even had the opportunity to participate in a high school athletics program. Upon transferring to Baraboo High School, she was told she was ineligible to play for a full year because of the WIAA’s transfer rules. The school worked with her to file a waiver request of those rules, and the WIAA rejected her waiver and denied her appeal. The school accepted that decision as final.
WIAA’s Authority: The WIAA purports to be a private entity. Athletic co-curricular programming at public high schools is part of a student’s well-rounded education. The Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction is constitutionally vested with supervisory control over all public instruction in the state. WIAA, and the decisions it makes, are outside of the reach of the Superintendent. Public schools like Baraboo High School who have outsourced to the WIAA the ability to decide which students can and cannot participate in co-curricular activities are violating the law.
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- Complaint, Filed in January 2025
