ORLANDO, Fla. — The Florida High School Athletic Association Board of Directors has voted to remove questions regarding female athletes’ menstrual history on school forms.
The board voted 14-2 on Thursday regarding the removal of questions on the EL-2 form regarding menstrual cycle information.
New forms will be in effect for the upcoming school year.
The Board of Directors voted during an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.
What You Need To Know
- FHSAA votes voted to remove questions regarding female athletes’ menstrual history on school forms.
- The Florida High School Athletic Association Board of Directors held an emergency meeting Thursday
- The board recently received backlash over student athlete eligibility forms that would require female athletes to disclose their menstrual history in order to compete
- PREVIOUS: Parents react to high school sports menstrual period questions
Now, the executive director of the Florida High School Athletic Association is recommending that most personal information revealed on medical history forms stay at the doctor’s office and not be stored at school.
An earlier version of the form, which had mandatory questions about students’ menstrual histories, had been recommended by an advisory committee of the association. It “created concerns and questions from parents, school district administrators, school board members and coaches regarding the health privacy of student-athletes,” according to the agenda for Thursday’s meeting.
During the association’s emergency meeting, members voted to adopt the four-page form — which would remove questions that force student-athletes to share details about their menstruation cycles in order to be participate in sports.
Under the new recommendation, answers to additional questions about mental health, alcohol and drug use, and family health history would stay in the offices of the health care practitioner who conducted the medical screening.
“Therefore, this recommendation provides pertinent medical history to the qualified health care practitioner and gives schools the medical authorization necessary for allowing athletic participation, while protecting the privacy of the student-athlete,” the agenda item said.
Thursday’s meeting was held after a group of Democratic state lawmakers sent a letter this week to John Gerdes, the association’s president, calling the reporting requirements in the earlier proposed form “highly invasive.” The letter said, “no girl should be forced to disclose her bodily functions to someone who is not her mother, father, caretaker, or physician.”
The state lawmakers said they were concerned that, if the schools had the information, a coach or athletic director would be able to get access to it. With the current form, such questions are optional, not mandatory; in the revised form under consideration, they would be scrapped.
“There is absolutely no reason for FHSAA to collect such private information and no reason why the schools need it,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
The public can provide input to the FHSAA regarding the proposed EL2 form by emailing questions, comments or concerns to the FHSAA Board of Directors at questions@fhsaa.org. Emails must be receievd by 7 a.m. Thursday to allow board members to review them for consideration.
The public can watch the meeting on the FHSAA YouTube channel.