PIAA notebook: New policy lets some private school students play sports at home public school district

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, October 16, 2025 | 3:32 AM

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Students attending a “faith-based” private school can play sports at their home public school district under a new PIAA policy.

The policy — adopted to settle a federal lawsuit brought by a religious rights group — applies only when the students’ faith-based private school doesn’t offer a particular sport that their home district does. However, the policy does not apply to students at private schools not deemed “faith-based” — such as WPIAL members Shady Side Academy or Sewickley Academy.

The PIAA policy defines a private faith-based school as a “Pennsylvania nonpublic school that integrates religious beliefs into their educational programs and activities.”

Why does the new policy apply only to some private schools and not all?

PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi on Wednesday said the PIAA board chose not to expand the policy beyond what specifically was requested in the settled lawsuit. The board officially adopted the policy last week.

Litigation filed in late July by the Religious Rights Foundation of PA noted that students at charter schools already were allowed to play sports at their home districts, a discrepancy it said violated the constitutional rights of faith-based private school students.

The Religious Rights Foundation and the PIAA reached a settlement last month with a consent order that “does not affect PIAA’s rules relative to non-faith based schools nor does it permit any student athlete to participate in a public school district other than the student’s home school district.”

The legal challenge to the PIAA was backed by attorneys from the Thomas More Society, a public-interest law firm that settled a similar lawsuit filed two years earlier against State College Area School District.

The new PIAA policy notes another option for private schools.

Rather than have faith-based private school students return to their home districts, the PIAA would prefer to see more co-op teams created. If a faith-based private school forms or already has a combined team with a nearby high school, students enrolled at the private school must play for that co-op team, not their home district.

Conversely, Lombardi said the PIAA would be concerned if a private school drops a sports program to intentionally allow its athletes to return to their home districts under the new policy.

“We would monitor that to see if that is actually happening,” he said. “If there is, maybe the board will revisit this and have some other type of amendment to it.”

Shot clock support

A plan to add a shot clock to high school basketball must pass one more vote to take effect, and PIAA board president Frank Majikes predicted the final vote will be unanimous.

The board voted unanimously in favor last week on a second reading. The first vote in July was 22-9.

“Everybody’s in place on this, and we’re moving forward,” Majikes said. “I doubt there will be a change in that unanimous vote.”

The board reconvenes Dec. 3.

There was some debate when the PIAA basketball steering committee met in late September, including a failed motion made by Majikes to not move forward with the shot clock, according to meeting minutes. PIAA assistant executive director Jennifer Grassel, a former college basketball player and assistant coach at Shippensburg, credited the basketball committee for engaging in good discussion.

“In any decisions we make, there’s always two sides and people are always going to look at two sides,” Grassel said. “In the end, you see what the board did. You see where everybody stands. (But) I think that’s what the steering committee is supposed to do: see both sides.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.