Ohio may soon let students join other schools’ sports teams

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Clyde High School student Samuel Greenslade was sidelined from his favorite sport, soccer, during his sophomore season.

He wasn't injured or being disciplined. His public high school didn't recruit enough players to field a team.

In Ohio, private school and homeschooled students can play on nearby public schools' teams if their school doesn't offer a sport. Public school students, however, cannot. Ohio High School Athletic Association votes to change that policy failed in 2022, 2023 and again in May.

OSHAA did not respond to a request for comment.

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So, Samuel contacted his local lawmakers, and they took matters into their own hands. On June 10, state legislators approved a change to allow public school students to play sports and extracurricular activities not offered at their home school, starting in the 2026-27 school year.

The changes, if signed by Gov. Mike DeWine, would:

• Require school boards to adopt a policy that allows a student enrolled in a neighboring public high school that does not offer an extracurricular activity to petition to participate in that activity at its high school.
• Require students to try to play their sport at another high school in the same district before participating in a neighboring district.
• Require superintendents from both schools to sign off on any transfer.
• Prohibit students from participating in the same sport at more than one school in the same school year.
• Prohibit athletes from petitioning to participate in a sport solely because the student's school doesn't offer a specific level of competition, such as freshman, junior varsity or varsity sports.
• Allow neighboring school districts to field a combined team if neither has sufficient students for an activity. A sufficient number is defined as enough for a full team plus half that number. That would be eight students for a basketball team, for example.

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One of the lawmakers Samuel contacted, Rep. Gary Click, R-Vickery, said he understands concerns about recruiting a ringer or building a superteam, but lawmakers tried to address those with their language.

"We do want to give kids opportunities. We don’t want them to be limited by their ZIP codes," Click said.

Samuel's efforts prove that even high school students can make big changes, Click said. "You don’t have to have a big-time lobbyist to get something done."

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio may expand public school sports access with 2026 policy change

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