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Pittsburgh Public Schools raising GPA requirements for student athletes

Post-Gazette

Pittsburgh Public Schools raising GPA requirements for student athletes

Pittsburgh Public School directors on Wednesday changed the minimum GPA student athletes need to obtain to participate in their chosen sport.

Policy 119, which lays out participation requirements for athletics and extracurricular activities, will now require students to have at least a 2.0 GPA in order to take part in certain afterschool activities. That’s a change from the 1.25 GPA previously required.

The increase goes into effect at the start of the 2025-26 school year. The policy originally stated changes would occur at the start of this year’s second semester, which began last week. But, on Wednesday, school Director Jamie Piotrowski made a motion to move the start date to the fall so that changes wouldn’t impact students retroactively.

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Directors unanimously approved the new start date, giving “students and families time to get acclimated to the new changes,” board President Gene Walker said.

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No other discussion took place.

The Interscholastic Athletics/Extra and Co-Curricular Activities policy now reads that students who had a 0 to 1.99 GPA at the end of the previous report period will be considered ineligible to participate in their activity. The student will be required to wait for the next interim report card or end of quarter report card to determine if they can once again participate.

That’s a change from the past several years when students with GPAs between a 1.25 and 1.99 had to attend a mandatory study hall to help raise their grades. During that time, they were still able to participate in sporting events.

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Directors first discussed possible changes to the policy during a November committee meeting after Karen Arnold, Pittsburgh Public’s director of interscholastic athletics, raised concerns that the GPA requirement was low, officials said at the time. Ms. Arnold asked that the GPA required to participate in sports and extracurricular activities be increased to a 2.0 for full participation.

The change also aligns with PIAA requirements.

First Published: January 30, 2025, 2:14 a.m.
Updated: January 30, 2025, 2:51 a.m.

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