How to Fill Out and Submit the UIL Eligibility Form (PAPF)

The UIL eligibility form most families are looking for is the Previous Athletic Participation Form, known as the PAPF. Every student who wants to play UIL athletics at a Texas public school has to complete one, and the school submits it through the UIL Portal along with a small stack of medical and acknowledgment forms. The PAPF collects the student’s residence, enrollment history, and answers to a questionnaire about transfers and prior athletic participation. Get it in, get it clean, and don’t let the student compete until the school confirms clearance — a student who plays before eligibility is finalized risks forfeiting every contest they appeared in.

The Forms That Travel Together

The PAPF is the centerpiece, but it doesn’t stand alone. A student can have a perfect PAPF and still be barred from practice because a health form is missing. Plan on completing all of these before the first day of participation:

Previous Athletic Participation Form (PAPF). Required for every student-athlete, including home-schooled students. This is the main eligibility document covering residency, enrollment history, and transfer questions.
Varsity Team Sport Eligibility Form. Completed in the UIL Portal for each team sport played at the varsity level.
Individual Varsity Sport Eligibility Form. Same idea, for individual varsity competitions like tennis, golf, cross country, or track.
Pre-Participation Physical Evaluation. A medical clearance signed by a licensed healthcare provider, required before any athletic participation.
Concussion Acknowledgment Form. Signed by both the student and a parent each school year, confirming they read the information on concussion prevention, symptoms, treatment, and return-to-play.
Steroid Agreement Form. Signed by the student and parent, acknowledging the UIL random anabolic steroid testing program for grades 9–12.

All of these are handled through the UIL Portal rather than on paper.¹ The concussion acknowledgment is a yearly requirement; last year’s signature doesn’t carry over.² The steroid program is mandated by Texas Education Code Section 33.091 and applies to grades 9–12 regardless of sport, gender, or participation level.³

On the physical evaluation, note one point for 2026: the medical history form contains mandatory language about electrocardiogram (ECG) screening, aligned with Texas Education Code Section 33.096. The student and parent must be informed about sudden cardiac arrest and given the option to request an ECG. Checking “yes” on the ECG question does not by itself prevent participation unless the examining medical professional says so, and the family is responsible for arranging and paying for the ECG. Schools are not required to offer or fund it.⁴

Filling Out the Top of the PAPF

The first block of the form asks for the student’s full name, grade, date of birth, and current street address. Next comes the school information: the new school with its city and whether it is public, charter, or private, and the last school where the student participated in athletics. For each school you also enter the enrollment date and the withdrawal date.

Those dates matter. The UIL tracks whether the student has been continuously enrolled at the new school for one calendar year, because that threshold determines whether a transfer triggers a deeper review.⁵ Guessing on dates or leaving them blank is one of the quickest ways to get the form sent back.

The 18-Question Section

Below the identifying information sits a questionnaire of 18 yes-or-no questions. Read every one before you start marking answers. Several of them catch families off guard, and a “yes” on the wrong question can delay varsity eligibility. The questions cover:

Prior athletic activity — whether the student ever practiced or played in extracurricular athletics at another school in grades 8–12. Even a single practice counts.
Living situation — whether the student lives with one parent, both parents, a guardian, or foster parents, and whether the parents are married, separated, divorced, or deceased.
Residence flags — whether the parents live outside the attendance zone, whether the family changed schools without changing addresses, whether the parents maintain more than one residence, and whether any family members still live at the old address.
Enrollment history — whether the student was in a magnet program, charter school, open-enrollment choice program, or International Baccalaureate program in grades 9–12.
Age and grade progression — whether the student first enrolled in ninth grade more than four years ago, repeated a grade since seventh, or will turn 19 on or before September 1 of the current school year.
Foreign exchange status.
Amateur standing — whether the student has done anything to jeopardize their amateur athletic status.
Recruitment red flags — whether anyone from the new school contacted the student before enrollment, whether the student was ever prohibited from participating at the previous school, and whether the student played on a non-school team and is now transferring to the school where those teammates attend.

A “yes” answer does not automatically mean ineligibility. It means the District Executive Committee will likely review the form and may schedule a hearing before clearing the student for varsity play.⁵ Answering honestly and being ready to explain is far safer than trying to shape answers around the outcome you want.

Why the Residence Questions Carry So Much Weight

The single biggest eligibility issue for transfer students is Section 442 of the UIL Constitution, which governs where the student’s parents actually live. A first-year transfer can be varsity-eligible if the parents have a bona fide residence in the new school’s attendance zone, or if the student qualifies for an exception under Section 440, or receives a hardship waiver under Section 403.⁶ Without one of those, the student is ineligible for varsity sports for one calendar year from the date of initial enrollment at the new school.

A bona fide residence is the family’s fixed, permanent, and principal home. Renting an apartment in the new zone while keeping the old house does not qualify. Section 442 lays out six criteria school officials use to test whether the move is genuine:

Housing documentation showing the parents purchased, leased, or rented a home in the new attendance zone.
Furniture and personal belongings moved to the new address, with nothing left at the old one.
Mail arriving at the new address, with a change-of-address filed at the post office.
Updated voter registration for any parent who was registered at the old address.
Signs the family intends to stay: the new home accommodates the entire family, the old house is listed for sale at a reasonable price or sold or the old lease terminated, all utilities and phone service at the old address are disconnected or no longer in the family’s name, and all licensed drivers have updated their address with the Texas DPS.
A one-year commitment: if the parents move out of the district or attendance zone before the student has been enrolled for one calendar year, the student loses varsity eligibility and stays ineligible until the year is up.

These criteria are why the PAPF asks whether the family maintains more than one residence and whether family members still live at the old address. Either “yes” is a red flag that invites a closer look.⁷ If the move was real, keep documentation ready: lease or deed, utility disconnection at the old address, DPS address update, voter registration card, and change-of-address confirmation.

Signatures and What They Commit You To

The PAPF requires signatures from three parties: the student, a parent or guardian, and an administrator at the new school. By signing, the student and parent certify that the student is not changing schools for athletic purposes and that all information on the form is true and correct. The form warns explicitly that incorrect or untrue information could cause the student to be declared ineligible and result in forfeiture of any contests already competed in, along with other penalties.⁵

The new school administrator signs to certify that the school has reviewed the student’s records and that the information on the form is accurate to the best of their knowledge. Section 1205 of the UIL Constitution goes further: failure to furnish correct and complete information may itself be grounds for suspension upon request by the proper committee.⁸ The signatures are the mechanism that triggers penalties if something turns out to be wrong. Treat them accordingly.

Submitting Through the UIL Portal

Families complete their part of the PAPF and hand it to the school. The school handles submission through the UIL Portal, where staff enter the data, upload supporting documents, and route the form for review. The varsity eligibility forms and the PAPF are all completed inside the portal rather than on paper.¹

For the 2026–2027 school year the UIL is transitioning the portal to a new system built by Rank One, scheduled to go live in June 2026. Schools were instructed to download any in-progress PAPFs and waiver documents from the old portal before 4:00 p.m. on May 8, 2026, and to hold off on starting new PAPFs for 2026–2027 until the new system launches. Districts that don’t already use Rank One will still be able to access all UIL components within the new portal. Schools with urgent eligibility situations during the transition can contact uilportal@uiltexas.org.⁹ If your student’s file was in progress in the old portal, expect the school to re-enter it in the new one, and save your own PDF copy of anything already filled in.

What Happens After the School Submits

Once the PAPF is in the portal, the path splits based on the answers. If the form is clean — the student has lived in the attendance zone for at least a year, no prior athletic participation at another school, no red-flag answers — the school can typically clear the student for competition. If the form contains “yes” answers that implicate the residence or transfer rules, the District Executive Committee gets involved.

The DEC is made up of the superintendents (or their designated administrators) of each member school in the UIL playing district. It rules on protests and reports of eligibility violations, and for many cases its decision is final with no appeal.¹⁰

When a PAPF triggers a hearing, the DEC must give the student and parents at least five business days’ notice, including the time, date, and location; the specific rule violation alleged; copies of any evidence the committee may consider (including the PAPF); and a list of expected witnesses. The sending school presents first, then the receiving school. The student and parents can testify, present documents, and call witnesses. No cross-examination is allowed; committee members ask questions directly.¹¹

A student cannot play in varsity contests until the DEC hearing is held and a decision is reached. If the family cannot attend the scheduled hearing, notify the DEC chair as soon as possible. The chair may reschedule for good cause, but the student stays off the varsity roster until the matter is resolved. If an ineligible student competes in any contest, the minimum penalty is forfeiture of that game or event.⁸

If the DEC rules a student ineligible, the family can appeal to the UIL State Executive Committee. Start with the “Request to Overturn District Executive Committee Ruling” form, or contact the UIL for a DocuSign link. The completed form and supporting evidence go to the UIL by email or fax and the case is placed on the agenda for the next scheduled SEC meeting. The UIL recommends submitting all documentation at least seven calendar days before the meeting to comply with Open Meetings Act posting requirements. Supporting materials should include the PAPF, the DEC meeting minutes stating the student was ruled ineligible, the evidence the DEC considered, and any new information not previously heard. Each student-athlete appeal is allotted 45 minutes.¹²

Home-Schooled Students Use the Same Form

Under SB 401, Texas school districts must allow home-schooled students to participate in UIL activities unless the school board votes to opt out. For the 2025–2026 school year, the opt-out deadline was September 1, 2025. In subsequent years, school boards must decide by August 1 whether to change their participation status.¹³

A home-schooled student participates at the school they would otherwise attend based on their residential address, as long as that school has not opted out. If the zoned school has opted out, the student may participate at the geographically closest school that allows non-enrolled students. Where the closest eligible district has more than one high school, the DEC decides which campus is closest. Schools that allow home-school participation are not required to accept students from outside their district.

Every home-schooled student must complete a PAPF and follow the same rules as enrolled students, including the 15-day attendance requirement before competing. If the student moved into the attendance zone within the past 12 months, or is participating at a school outside the parents’ zone, the DEC must review the PAPF and may require a full hearing to determine whether the move or school choice was motivated by UIL activities.¹³

Common Mistakes That Delay Clearance

Most eligibility delays are not caused by genuinely ineligible students. They come from paperwork errors that could have been avoided.

Incomplete PAPF. Blank questions or missing information about the previous school force a return trip. Every school attended needs its name, city, enrollment date, and withdrawal date.
Missing medical clearance. The PAPF can be perfect, but a student still can’t practice without a signed physical evaluation, concussion acknowledgment, and steroid agreement.
Late submission during the portal transition. Any PAPF started in the old system after the May 2026 cutoff needs to be re-entered in the new portal. Save a PDF of anything in progress.
Not disclosing prior participation. If the student practiced with a team at a previous school, even without playing in a game, question 1 requires a “yes.” An honest “yes” that gets explained is far better than an omission that surfaces later. Section 1205 makes failure to furnish correct and complete information grounds for suspension.⁸
Competing before clearance. If a student plays in a contest before the eligibility review is final, the minimum penalty is forfeiture of that game. If the paperwork error was inadvertent and the student was actually eligible all along, the DEC has discretion to impose only a reprimand to the school. That is the best-case scenario, not the default.

The core of the process is straightforward: fill out the PAPF completely and honestly, complete the medical and acknowledgment forms, let the school submit through the portal, and keep the student off the field until clearance is confirmed. Transfers with any complicating factors — a recent move, prior athletic participation, a split household — should build in extra time for DEC review and keep the documentation of the move within easy reach.

1
University Interscholastic League. Athletics Forms
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University Interscholastic League. Health and Safety – Concussions
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University Interscholastic League. Health and Safety – Steroid
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University Interscholastic League. Athletic and Marching Band Pre-participation Physical Evaluation
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University Interscholastic League. UIL Previous Athletic Participation Form
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University Interscholastic League. Admission and Enrollment Requirements – Section: Residence Rules
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University Interscholastic League. UIL Constitution and Contest Rules – Subchapter M
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University Interscholastic League. UIL Constitution and Contest Rules – Section 1205 Athletic Eligibility
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University Interscholastic League. UIL Portal
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University Interscholastic League. UIL Constitution and Contest Rules – Section 28 District Executive Committee
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University Interscholastic League. Required Procedures for DEC Hearings
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University Interscholastic League. Appeal Process
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University Interscholastic League. Homeschool Participation