DALLAS -- A law that allows Texas school districts to decide which advanced courses fall under the no-pass, no-play rule has created inconsistencies across the state, according to a newspaper analysis of state records.

In the past 12 years, some districts have created no-pass, no-play exemptions for classes ranging from calculus to cooking and auto repair. Others allow no exemptions.

“I don’t think we ever would have envisioned [competing] schools being allowed to exempt different classes,” said former state Rep. Paul Sadler, who chaired the House education committee when the no-pass, no-play law was altered in 1995.

“It creates an uneven playing field,” he said.

First enacted in 1984, the no-pass, no-play law banned students who failed a course from practicing or playing in extracurricular activities for six weeks.

The law allowed some exemptions for courses deemed advanced by the state, but the 1995 modification of the law resulted in school districts getting more authority to exempt additional courses that they labeled advanced.

A Dallas Morning News review of hundreds of documents from the University Interscholastic League found disparities in how districts handle exemptions. No one at the state level has the power to grant or deny the exemptions, according to the newspaper.

The state classifies Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, dual-college enrollment and some other top-level courses as eligible for no-pass, no-play exemption. A district can add courses to the state’s list as long as the district considers them to be advanced or honors courses.

The districts’ decisions vary widely. The Austin school district exempts 166 courses, according to UIL records, while the Southlake Carroll district exempts none.

“There is kind of a broad range of allowance there,” said Bill Farney, executive director of UIL, which regulates sports and other extracurricular activities. “We don’t have a master list of courses they can and cannot exempt. Trying to make one rule fit everybody ends up with some discrepancy and some difference in interpretation or application.”

The Austin district exempts all honors or advanced courses that give students extra points for taking them.

“We know it’s a higher level course. And we know you’re going to have to work harder,” said Ann Smisko, Austin’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.”

Kelly Callaway, director of advanced academics for the Texas Education Agency, said it’s up to local school districts to determine their no-pass, no-play exemptions.

“We would certainly expect that an honors class would go into greater depth or rigor, but we don’t have any state guidelines on that issue,” she said.

Mark Cousins, who supervises the no-pass, no-play rule for UIL, said larger districts often exempt more classes because they offer a wider variety of courses than smaller districts. That doesn’t necessarily give students in the bigger district’s an advantage, he said.

“It’s tough to say just because one school exempts 40 and one exempts two that one has an advantage over another,” Cousins said.  “It would depend upon the circumstances of that school district.”