Hi, Erika
A fundamental question is what the relationship would be between the student and your school or troupe. If she's just looking for someone to take her to the state festival, it would be a question of school policy, chapter policy, and your personal preference. As others have noted, some schools have policies restricting the participation of outside students. It may be a basic issue of insurance coverage or risk management. Also, each chapter has different policies governing eligibility for registration, scholarships, IEs, etc. Some have few requirements; some require students to be affiliated with a member school; some require students to be officially inducted Thespians or Junior Thespians. Of course, all of this assumes that you choose to take responsibility for the student.
If the goal of the student/troupe relationship is affiliation or membership, there are ITS rules that cover that. Often troupe affiliation is the minimum requirement for participation in programs and events. In the troupe handbook's Appendix 3: Guidelines for determining student troupe affiliation, affiliation is defined as, "The student is actively participating in the troupe's program, i.e., a troupe member or actively earning points in the troupe." Other guidelines apply as well. If the student wouldn't be allowed to participate in your productions, she couldn't be officially affiliated with your troupe. However, if she were participating in your productions and didn't have a troupe at her school, she could be considered affiliated with your troupe at the discretion of you and your administration. Whether or not she would be allowed to participate in chapter events would still be determined by chapter policy.
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Brian Benz
Membership Manager
Educational Theatre Association
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Original Message:
Sent: 05-17-2019 10:17
From: Erika Trahan
Subject: Adopting students from another school
Recently a parent whose child does community shows with a local organization has asked if our troupe would adopt her daughter. She will be a Freshman at another local high school that does not have a theatre program.
I haven't spoken to the parent yet, but I believe the goal is for her to attend our state festival and possibly be eligible for scholarships etc when the time comes.
Have any of you done something like this??
What do i need to do? Can it be done?
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Erika TrahanKaplan High School
Speech and Theatre