Dear Hicksville Public School Community,

We hope you are enjoying the start of summer! We are writing to inform you that the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is proposing changes related to mixed sports competition and the athletic placement process that has the potential to negatively impact our female athletes. We don’t often ask our community to get involved in state-level decisions, but we feel it's important for parents, students, and community members to be aware of these proposals and understand their possible implications.

The proposed amendments would allow boys to play on girls’ sports teams and girls to play on boys’ sports teams in certain situations. One major concern is that schools would no longer have the authority to determine if a male athlete’s participation would have a "significant adverse effect" on female athletes. The ability of schools to have local authority in these cases is critical to ensure that the integrity of female participation is maintained. For example, it is important to ensure female student-athletes are not displaced by allowing unrestricted access for all male student-athletes to try out for a team when a male equivalent sport is not offered (i.e., field hockey, volleyball, gymnastics, flag football, etc.). Furthermore, the proposed changes may violate Title IX protections and equity for female athletics.

We encourage you to read the letter from the New York State Athletic Administrators Association, as well as the proposed amendments from NYSED for additional information.

If you have concerns, we encourage you to reach out to NYSED during this 60-day comment period, which ends on July 22. Your feedback is valuable and can be sent to REGCOMMENTS@nysed.gov. The proposed changes will be presented to the Board of Regents for a vote on September 25.

Thank you for taking the time to engage with this important issue and for your continued support of our athletic programs.

Sincerely,

The Hicksville Public Schools Board of Education

Hicksville Public Schools

BOE Community Communications

Hicksville Public Schools

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