Lawmakers will likely consider Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA)-related legislation in the 2026 session, according to State Sen. Donnie Chesteen (R-Geneva).
AHSAA is currently defending against a lawsuit brought by Gov. Kay Ivey and House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter (R-Rainsville) contesting AHSAA’s rule that transfer students accepting CHOOSE Act funding must sit out a year before competing in athletics.
A Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge granted a temporary restraining order on September 5 against the AHSAA on the issue recently, allowing affected CHOOSE Act students to participate in sports while the lawsuit proceeds. Attorneys representing the AHSAA filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Ivey and Ledbetter on Thursday.
Chesteen, a former high school football coach and athletic director, said during an interview on Alabama Public Television's "Capitol Journal" on Friday that students being ruled ineligible for taking CHOOSE Act funds was never the intent of the school choice law passed in March 2024.
“It goes back to the high school athletic association’s interpretation of a Bona Fide move. You can take the CHOOSE Act dollars with you if you make a Bona Fide move. That’s what was in the law, but for a student to be ruled ineligible for taking the CHOOSE Act dollars, that’s totally not the way the legislation was intended. We’re having kids that are ruled ineligible right now because their parents have used the CHOOSE Act dollars to follow the child into a school of their choice,” Chesteen said. “The high school athletic association has known school choice is coming. It’s out there. It’s been talked about and it’s here. They had an opportunity as an association to sit down with the governor and her staff to talk about how we can make this work, what’s best for the kid. I think we lose sight of that way too many times. What’s in the best interests of this child here? Is going to another school better for this child and their quality of education and if they compete in athletics you’re going to say that they have to sit out a year?”
Chesteen continued, “To say that recruiting is not going on in the state of Alabama right now I would totally disagree with. It’s there. The fact that now you’re going to say, ‘They’re recruiting.’ Well, where have they been for the last several years on these schools that have built these incredible high school programs? Look around, I hear it. That used to be my line of work.”
“For them to have known this was coming, I’ve used the example of the NCAA. The NCAA didn’t address NIL and the portal transfer. It’s been out there. Now basically the NCAA, they’re irrelevant. They don’t have the teeth that they once had because they didn’t step up and address some of these issues that have been coming down the pike for several years. I look at the high school athletic association the same way. They’ve had an opportunity to sit down prior to this season starting and make a ruling on this and they chose not to work with the CHOOSE Act and so now here we are,” Chesteen said. “There’s a lot of talk right now about legislation coming and as I said a minute ago, the high school athletic association had a chance to have a seat at the table and work with us for the best interest of these students and that didn’t happen so I think we’re going to have to take a look at it this session.”
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