ALBUQUERQUE – New Mexico high school student-athletes will be allowed to transfer schools once without facing an eligibility penalty under a major rule change approved by the state’s governing body.
Starting with the 2026-27 school year, students can make a first-time transfer to the school of their choice and be immediately eligible to compete.
The New Mexico Activities Association member schools finalized the change to Section 6 of the NMAA Handbook with a 67-60 referendum vote. The measure had previously been approved by both the NMAA Commission and the NMAA Board of Directors.
While the rules provide immediate eligibility for a student’s first transfer, standard home school and charter school statutes still apply. The association also emphasized that regulations regarding recruitment and undue influence remain firmly in place.
“This change reflects the membership’s desire to provide students and families with greater flexibility while maintaining the safeguards that protect the integrity of interscholastic activities,” NMAA Executive Director Dusty Young said. “The transfer process has been one of the most discussed topics among our schools in recent years, and this adjustment creates a pathway for students making their first transfer.”
The NMAA provided a breakdown of how member schools across the state voted on the referendum. Of the nine San Juan County High Schools, eight approved the measure with Navajo Prep abstaining from the vote. The school-by-school voting tally can be found here.
There were over 30 schools statewide that did not cast a vote, the majority of those schools that did not vote were in Class 1A or Class 2A.
The new transfer regulations mirror those of several other states which have enacted similar athletic bylaws that allow high school students a one-time, penalty-free transfer with immediate eligibility.
Florida has some of the most permissive open-enrollment and athletic transfer laws in the nation. Under state law, students may transfer to any school that has academic capacity and are immediately eligible to participate in sports, provided they did not participate in a practice or competition for the same sport at their previous school during that school year.
“I think the foundational belief for high school athletics used to be you play where you live,” Young said prior to the voting process by member schools. “Things have changed. Society is a lot different now. Families are moving all the time. We’re just trying to adapt and ensure that we’re doing the due diligence for our student-athletes based on those changes that are happening around us.”