The classification process for Colorado high schools is in uncharted territory.
With a 52-22 vote (with one voter abstaining) at a special session on Tuesday, the CHSAA Legislative Council voted to add a multiplier of 1.5 to the enrollment of private school athletic programs that meet certain criteria. Following the initial vote, a role call vote was requested and the count was confirmed.
The proposal, known as ADM-3, reads as follows:
This is a legislative vote that came from the membership of Colorado high schools on the Legislative Council. This is not a proposal that came from the CHSAA office. The CHSAA staff had no vote in the matter.
The passing of ADM-3, marks a significant shift in the classification process. For years, the primary basis of classification has been by enrollment number, with programs being able to advocate to play down for competitive reasons.
In April, the LC passed ADM-4, which will place dominant programs up in classification. It was the first legislation that prompted a forced move upward in classification. That vote passed 38-34 with one voter abstaining. That margin was 54% for and 46% against.
Today’s vote of ADM-3 shaped out to 69% for and 30% against.
Ahead of the vote, several private schools expressed their concerns over ADM-3, ranging from the way the proposal was brought forward to the perceived inequity of success that the legislation placed.
The significance of the passage of ADM-3 is the acknowledgment by the membership that not all schools are on equal footing.
Revamping the classification process has been a two-year process dating back to October 2023, when a task force was formed to evaluate the enrollment number used for classification. In the process, a more streamlined approach was used to get numbers directly from the Colorado Department of Education and to use a three-year average for that number instead of a one-time reported number that is two years out of date by the time a new cycle starts.
During that process, other classification issues came up within the membership which resulted in both ADM-3 and ADM-4 coming to the table.
ADM-4 was passed in April while ADM-3 was pulled to clear up the language, which had originally included charter schools.
With the vote in place, the CHSAA can now begin sifting through the information it needs to determine classification splits and placement for the 2026-28 cycle.
And if the last few months have been an indicator of anything, the classification process will continue to evolve as the implications of this legislation ripple through the membership.
