The Third Department determined the rules promulgated by respondent NY Public High School Athletic Association concerning restrictions on the eligibility of transfer students to participate in school sports were valid:
… [I]t is settled that “courts should not interfere with the internal affairs, proceedings, rules and orders of a high school athletic association unless there is evidence of acts which are arbitrary, capricious or an abuse of discretion” … . Such “determination rests on whether the athletic association’s actions have a sound basis in reason and a foundation in fact” … .
We find that petitioners have failed to demonstrate that the actions taken by respondent warrant our interference. The purpose of the transfer rule, which was promulgated by respondent pursuant to its constitution and by authority delegated to it through the regulations of the Commissioner of Education … , is to deter athletic school-shopping and the recruitment of high school athletes by schools. By establishing an objective standard for eligibility that prohibits, with certain limited exceptions, immediate eligibility upon a transfer not accompanied by a parental change of residence, the transfer rule reasonably and rationally furthers these legitimate goals. Indeed, “[t]he absence of such a rule might reasonably invite strategically motivated transfers thinly disguised as transfers in the best (nonathletic) interest of the student” … . Matter of Albany Academies v New York State Pub. High Sch. Athletic Assn., 2016 NY Slip Op 08290, 3rd Dept 12-8-16
EDUCATION-SCHOOL LAW (RESTRICTIONS ON PARTICIPATION IN HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS BY TRANSFER STUDENTS UPHELD)/TRANSFER STUDENTS (RESTRICTIONS ON PARTICIPATION IN HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS BY TRANSFER STUDENTS UPHELD)