Each school district board of directors is hereby granted and shall exercise the authority to control, supervise and regulate the conduct of interschool athletic activities and other interschool extracurricular activities of an athletic, cultural, social or recreational nature for students of the district. A board of directors may delegate control, supervision and regulation of any such activity to the Washington interscholastic activities association or any other voluntary nonprofit entity and compensate such entity for services provided, subject to the following conditions:

(1) The voluntary nonprofit entity shall not discriminate in connection with employment or membership upon its governing board, or otherwise in connection with any function it performs, on the basis of race, creed, national origin, sex or marital status;

(2)(a) Any rules and policies adopted and applied by the voluntary nonprofit entity that governs student participation in any interschool activity shall be written; and

(b) Such rules and policies shall provide for notice of the reasons and a fair opportunity to contest such reasons prior to a final determination to reject a student's request to participate in or to continue in an interschool activity.

(3)(a) The association or other voluntary nonprofit entity is authorized to impose penalties for rules violations upon coaches, school district administrators, school administrators, and students, as appropriate, to punish the offending party or parties;

(b) No penalty may be imposed on a student or students unless the student or students knowingly violated the rules or unless a student gained a significant competitive advantage or materially disadvantaged another student through a rule violation;

(c) Any penalty that is imposed for rules violations must be proportional to the offense;

(d) Any decision resulting in a penalty shall be considered a decision of the school district conducting the activity in which the student seeks to participate or was participating and may be appealed pursuant to RCW 28A.600.205 and 28A.645.010 through 28A.645.030.

(4) The school districts, Washington interscholastic activities association districts, and leagues that participate in the interschool extracurricular activities shall not impose more severe penalties for rule violations than can be imposed by the rules of the association or the voluntary nonprofit entity.

(5) As used in this section and RCW 28A.600.205, "knowingly" means having actual knowledge of or acting with deliberate ignorance or reckless disregard for the prohibition involved.

Finding—Intent—2012 c 155: "The legislature finds that the mission of the Washington interscholastic activities association is to assist member schools in operating student programs that foster achievement, respect, equity, enthusiasm, and excellence in a safe and organized environment. The legislature intends to ensure that this mission is successfully carried out so that arbitrary sanctions that result in students unfairly being denied to participate or cause students' achievements to be diminished do not occur. It is the intent of the legislature to impact the association's current processes for establishing penalties for rules violations and to redefine the scope of penalties that are permitted to be imposed. It is further the intent of the legislature to build protections into state law so that punishment, when necessary, is meted out to the appropriate party and in a proportional manner. The legislature further intends to ensure that state and local rules relating to interschool extracurricular activities be consistent with one another, promote fairness, and allow for a clear process of appeal." [ 2012 c 155 § 1.]

Short title—2012 c 155: "This act may be known and cited as the Knight act." [ 2012 c 155 § 4.]

Findings—Purpose—Part headings not law—2006 c 263: See notes following RCW 28A.150.230.

School buses, transport of general public to interscholastic activities—Limitations: RCW 28A.160.100.