Extracurricular Activities

Title Ix

Title IX is legislation that is part of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. In brief, the federal statute prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funds. Title IX is generally associated with extracurricular athletics only. However, the intent and impact of the law is much wider than that. The text of Title IX attempts to ensure that all children will have equal access to all school programs. Nevertheless, in the eyes of many people, Title IX relates primarily to athletics.

In relationship to interscholastic athletics, Title IX requires that school districts that accept federal funds must offer male and female student athletes equal opportunities to participate in sports, and provide male and female students with equal benefits and services in their respective athletic programs.

In regard to the first criterion dealing with equal participation opportunities, Title IX prescribes that within the school, whatever percentage of male to female enrollment exists, the same percentage of athletic participation should also exist. The second criterion, which mandates equal benefits and services, relates to areas such as equipment, locker and practice facilities, practice and game–time scheduling, and compensation and quality of coaches.

Data suggest female participation in interscho–lastic sports has increased since the inception of Title IX. The generally acknowledged physiological and psychological benefits afforded by participation in extracurricular activities are now enjoyed by more and more K–12 students, both male and female. Even though the majority of participants still are males, the positive impact of Title IX cannot be discounted.

Nevertheless, there are critics of the impact of Title IX on interscholastic sports. Issues related to competition for gym use for practice time, fewer dollars spent on male–dominated sports due to increased costs associated with female sports, and in some cases the elimination of a male sport because of a need to add a female sport, have all created some rancor.

Regardless of one's position on the reform issue, the impact of Title IX has been and will remain as one of the major topics related to interscholastic extracurricular activities.

Drugs and Drug Testing

A second major reform issue that has affected scholastic extracurricular activities relates to drugs and drug testing. Drugs and drug use is a predatory problem that plagues society in general. Participants in scholastic extracurricular activities are not exempt from drug use or the potential consequences that can follow. In an attempt to help police and to control drug usage in secondary school populations, some states and some school [Page 363]districts have attempted to enact policy that would allow school officials to drug test athletes. Clearly there are a host of issues related to this endeavor.

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