Special to the WJH High school athletes who change schools twice after the ninth grade will be ineligible for a year under new GHSA bylaws expected to get final approval next month.
Other bylaw changes aimed at policing transfers would require schools to send the GHSA copies of driver’s licenses, utility bills and lease agreements from the families of transferring athletes to prove they have moved into their new school zones and relinquished previous residences.
“We’re an educationbased organization, and we want to make sure when student-athletes move, they’re not moving for athletic purposes,” GHSA executive director Tim Scott said Monday. “Situations change, and families move due to job changes or whatever, so we’ve added a few things to make sure it’s not just for athletics.”
One high-profile recent athlete who transferred twice as a high schooler was Jacob Wilkins, an incoming freshman at UGA and the son of Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins. Jacob Wilkins played at Heritage-Conyers as a freshman, Parkview as a sophomore and Grayson as a junior and senior. Another was Clemson freshman offensive lineman Brayden Jacobs, who won a football state title at Milton last year after playing at Buford and St. Francis.
Almost all football and basketball state champions in the higher classifications have significant transfers. Jesse McMillan, whose Norcross boys basketball teams have won three state titles in his 17 seasons, said initial feedback he has received from his basketball colleagues has not been positive.
“There are questions regarding the overall wording and the harshness of the possible loss of eligibility for multi-time transfers,” McMillan said. “As is, it seems this proposal could disproportionally affect transient Metro Atlanta communities more than other parts of the state.”
Students who change schools generally must make what the GHSA calls
a bona fide move in residence. The driver’s license requirement is designed to confirm that transferring students and their guardians are living at a legal address inside the new school zone.
Eligibility in most cases also requires a transferring student’s family has relinquished, or put up for sale at market price, the previous residence and moved as a full family unit. Now, the school must provide to the GHSA evidence of terminating a lease agreement and turning off utilities when applicable.
“These are things you do if you’re moving from any county to another, things that you provide your new school,” GHSA eligibility chairman and Gwinnett County Schools athletic direct o r Jason Holcombe said. “We’re just making sure everyone is following these processes correctly and these moves are legitimate.”
Another bylaw change would make transfers ineligible if they move from one parent’s residence to the other in a different school district unless both parents are on the student’s birth certificate.
Those declared ineligible under any transfer bylaw would have three opportunities to appeal under the GHSA’s hardship rule. Scott said about two-thirds of transfer hardships were approved in the 2024-25 academic year.
However, appealing to be eligible after a second transfer will face more inspection and must show the move was “beyond the control of the school, the student, and/or his parents,” according to the new bylaw.
Scott said about 59,000 of the GHSA’s approximately 460,000 athletes, or about one in eight, were transfers during 2024-25.
“Academically, it’s not good to have a lot of moves,” Scott said. “We understand some students have to move for many reasons, but we want to continue to stress we’re education-based, and the most important thing is to prepare students for postsecondary education.”
The GHSA’s board of trustees voted 11-1 to approve the new transfer bylaws. As with all GHSA constitutional changes, the board must approve the bylaws a second time, in July, before they go into effect August 1.
