Classification of Michigan high schools for MHSAA tournaments is the responsibility of the Representative Council and is based on enrollment as reported by member schools on their Enrollment Declaration forms. Classification is necessary before any school is permitted to compete in MHSAA Meets or Tournaments.
Schools may choose to play at any higher classification in a sport for a minimum of two years.

Applications for fall sports must be submitted by April 15.
Applications for winter sports must be submitted by August 15.
Applications for spring sports must be submitted by October 15.

The determination of enrollment is based on the following:
1. Students shall be counted two weeks after the State of Michigan second semester pupil accounting date or, if the State of Michigan does not require a second semester count date, on the first Friday of February.
2. Private and Parochial schools not required to prepare an official count for State Department of Education purposes are to use the same date as public schools (see #1) MHSAA enrollment day.
3. Students who are 19 years of age prior to September 1 of the current school year, are not to be counted for classification purposes.
4. All students enrolled in school (and not 19 years of age or older before September 1 of the current school year) on the official count date and substantiated by either their presence in school on that date, or through knowledge of their whereabouts with intention of attending on a daily basis, are to be included in the count.
5. Each student shall be counted as one (1), regardless of the percentage of hours enrolled.
6. Students who are certified by Individual Educational Program Committees (IEPC) and assigned to another school for more than 50% of the school day shall not be counted for athletic eligibility purposes by either the sending or receiving school. Any IEPC student who remains in his or her home (original) school must be counted for athletic purposes.
7. Students enrolled in a “Consortium” or on a “Shared Time” basis shall be counted by the school where the permanent records are on file. In a school which sponsors an alternative education program for its students only, all those students must be counted if any of them are permitted to participate on that school’s interscholastic teams.
8. If, under Interpretation No. 50, a school allows one of its students to remain eligible for its interscholastic teams after enrolling at another MHSAA member school which it has determined has a specialized curriculum under Interpretation No. 51, then the school must count all similarly situated students. That is, it must count all of its former students who are enrolled at that school.
9. Students enrolled in a high school and taking classes at the college level shall be counted by the high school.
10. In schools where the enrollment is made up of seventy-five percent (75%) or more of one sex, the enrollment of the majority sex is doubled for classification purposes for that sex. This could provide a double classification for that school.
11. All high schools must report and count their ninth grade enrollment UNLESS the ninth grade is part of a junior high/middle school in a separate building under separate administration.
12. If the ninth graders of a junior high/middle school are permitted to participate on the high school teams, the entire ninth grade enrollment must be included with grades 10, 11 and 12 of the high school.
13. In cases where a high school consists of grades 10, 11 and 12, or any combination of these grades, the enrollment must be determined on an equated basis for classification purposes. The equated figure is calculated by taking the total enrollment of the high school grades, dividing by 3 and adding that figure to the actual school enrollment. In the event that fractional numbers are involved in connection with the procedure, the next highest number is to be used for addition purposes.

NOTE: The final figure of the official count submitted to the State Department of Education may be different than the count submitted to the MHSAA.

NOTE: After schools are notified by the MHSAA in writing of their classification, there may be no downward change or correction by any school of its submitted enrollment figures.

PRINCIPLES
1. If there are fewer than 32 schools which sponsor a sport in a class, those schools will be combined in a single tournament with another class in that sport.
2. If those two classes combined total fewer than 32 schools which sponsor the sport, those schools will be combined in a single tournament with a third class in that sport. See Boys Swimming and Girls Swimming.
3. If those three classes combined total fewer than 32 schools which sponsor the sport, those schools will be combined in a single tournament with the fourth class. See Girls Gymnastics.
4. When school sponsorship fluctuates and classification groupings may be affected, it will be policy to preserve the status quo until the sport demonstrates several years of one grouping or the other.
5. The Representative Council will consider exceptions to this policy for the tournament in a specific sport after review with comment and/or recommendation by the Classification Committee following affirmative input from the MHSAA staff, tournament management for the sport, the appropriate sport committee, and a survey of member schools that the modified format would better serve the MHSAA membership and that sport. (Adopted May 2, 1994.)