Forsyth — The Georgia High School Association executive committee voted Monday to allow Clayton County students to transfer outside the school district and gain immediate eligibility in sports if the Clayton school system loses accreditation on Sept. 1.

But the mere threat of losing accreditation will not ensure eligibility in a new district, meaning students transferring this summer while still living in Clayton are taking a risk.

"If a student changes schools without changing residence, and the only thing they offer [as a reason] is being afraid of losing accreditation, the student would be ineligible for varsity competition for one year [or until accreditation is lost officially]," said Ralph Swearngin, the GHSA's executive director. "But I have feeling that by time schools open in August that the hand-writing will be on wall, and everybody will see whether there's high likelihood of accreditation or not."

GHSA bylaws stipulate that all students who transfer after Sept. 1 are eligible for sports if they make a legal change in residence or win a hardship appeal.

On Saturday, the National Accreditation Commission voted to revoke the Clayton County school district's accreditation on Sept. 1, unless the school system takes satisfactory corrective measures.

Unless Clayton salvages its accreditation, the GHSA will handle Clayton transfers by the hardship appeals process outlined in its constitution.

Under hardship rules, the GHSA allows transfers to be eligible at their new schools even if they don't move residences if their former schools put them at an academic disadvantage. Loss of accreditation could mean the loss of Hope scholarships for Clayton students.

In the General Assembly, Senate Bill 458, approved March 5 and sent to the House, would entitle a student from a system without accreditation to attend another public school or receive a scholarship to attend a private school without having to change residences.

But until accreditation is lost officially, other school systems are not obliged to accept transfers who have not moved into their districts.

In other GHSA business, the executive committee voted to:

• Allow schools to use portable seating for playoff games to meet GHSA minimum seating requirements.

• Give the executive director the authority to select venues for the third round of the state basketball tournament after the second round to ensure more central sites.

• Approve an official fine structure for GHSA rules violations to ensure consistency in penalties. It will be published for the first time in the 2008-09 GHSA bylaws.

• Increase the cost per school for the GHSA's catastrophic insurance policy by $50 for a Class A school and $110 for a AAAAA school. The GHSA's premium is $600,000 per year, an increase from $475,000.

• Offer executive director Swearngin a four-year contract extension through 2012 and approve a 5 percent raise to GHSA staff members.

• Make it illegal for a high school coach to conduct a clinic or coach in a competitive setting with eighth graders during the school year.

• Change the start dates of track and field, wrestling and volleyball due to changes in the availability of venues or format changes in these sports. The girls state track meet will be held after the boys' meet in even-numbered years.

• Mandate that every region award a sportsmanship award to a member school each spring.

The GHSA denied:

• A request to allow junior-varsity basketball teams to play more than one night preceding a school day.

• A proposal to play the first three rounds of the state basketball tournament at the higher seed's school.

• An amendment to allow JV football teams to schedule as many as eight games.

• A proposal to move slow-pitch softball to the spring.