Lancaster County boards set the rules to keep girls’ teams for girls
Conestoga Valley has 180 days to turn its girls’ sports rule into guidelines, potentially before spring sports, while parents wait to learn how it will work.
Girls' teams belong to girls, and two Lancaster County school boards put that in writing on Monday night, Oct. 19. Conestoga Valley's board voted 7-1 to approve a policy requiring student athletes to compete on teams that align with their sex at birth, not their gender identity. Elanco's board voted unanimously the same evening to bar transgender athletes from teams that don't align with their biological sex3. Hempfield was first in Pennsylvania to adopt such a policy, and Penn Manor and Elizabethtown Area followed in 2024 and 2025, LNP reports2. With Monday's votes, Lancaster County has five districts with similar policies1.
So why bother?
Title IX allows sex-based teams
Both policies make a girl's sex, not a student's gender identity, the test for who plays where1. Elanco's policy requires every district-provided athletic activity to be designated male, female or coed, and it defines sex by the "immutable characteristics of the reproductive system." Students assigned male at birth are barred from teams designated female3.
Conestoga Valley's policy lets athletes assigned female at birth try out for a boys' team when no comparable girls' team exists, but not the reverse, and LNP's example is a transgender girl who would not be allowed to try out for the softball team2.
Resident Rhonda Garman put the Title IX stake in the room: she argued that an athlete assigned male at birth on a girls' team could violate girls' Title IX rights2. That is biological reality written into a roster rule, and it tells a girl and her parents which team the district will field for her.
Clear rules protect girls before disputes
Garman's answer to "why bother?" was one line: "You don’t wait for a fire and then start asking where we put fire extinguishers." Parent and football coach Joel Lapp said the policy is "just giving boundaries and clarity," telling athletes which sport they can play2. A girl's family should learn which team is hers before tryouts, not after a dispute has cost her a place.
Waiting has a price, and Conestoga Valley paid it: LNP says the board needed three years of discussion to reach this vote4. A written rule also lasts: after Democrats secured a 6-3 majority in 2023, Hempfield's board ended its relationship with the Independence Law Center, but its athletics policy remains in place2.
Sports rules are not racial segregation
Conestoga Valley Education Association President Tom Richard told the board the policy is "unnecessarily discriminatory," and he cited fewer than 10 transgender athletes among half a million NCAA students in 20242. His number comes from college rosters, while the board was writing a rule for the girls on its own teams.
Resident Clifton Keenan compared the policy to racial segregation, saying he was the first generation of his family to attend an integrated school and that his mother was segregated with other Black students. Segregation shut children out of a school, but this rule keeps every student in the school and decides only which team a student tries out for. After the vote, Keenan joked that the board should next protect students from lightning strikes2. Lightning never takes a girl's spot on a roster.
Parents should demand timely guidelines
Conestoga Valley's vote sets the rule, but the district has to make it work. Superintendent Daniel Hartman and Athletic Director Frank Hawkins are to develop guidelines within 180 days, potentially in time for spring sports. District spokesperson Katie O'Dell said after the vote that the process for determining a student's sex assigned at birth had not been determined and would be worked out by the administration. Even the lone no vote, board member Idette Groff, said her objection was that the policy is poorly constructed, not the underlying issue2.
At Elanco, the board folded its policy into a single action with other agenda items and approved it without public comment from audience or board members. Elanco's policy language is meant to guide how its teams are coded as male, female or coed, beginning in spring5. Asked how transgender men would be affected, Superintendent Michael Snopkowski said only that it was "written as it was written3."
Parents in both districts should put four questions to their boards and superintendents, and ask for yes or no answers. Will Conestoga Valley's policy take effect before Hartman and Hawkins finish their guidelines, yes or no? Will those guidelines be public and ready before spring sports begin, yes or no? Will they say how the district determines a student's sex assigned at birth, yes or no? Will Elanco state in writing which teams each student may try out for, yes or no?
Sources
- Conestoga Valley, Elanco to vote on policies to restrict transgender student athletes | Local News | lancasteronline.com
- Conestoga Valley approves policy limiting transgender athletes, ending 3 years of discussion | Local News | lancasteronline.com
- Elanco limits transgender athletes from competing on sports teams | Local News | lancasteronline.com
- @LancasterOnline on X, 2026-10-20: New from our news team: Conestoga Valley approves policy limiting transgender athletes, ending 3 years of discussion https://lanc.news/3VSy7Q9, 2026-10-20
- Elanco superintendent introduces policy based on sex-based distinctions in athletics | Community News | lancasteronline.com
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