The strength of an NFL district is based on the strength of its chapter schools, which are based on the number of individual members enrolled and degree levels achieved. Click here to read more about individual student/coach membership, as well as school/chapter membership.

1. Provisional chapter schools (those within three years of joining the league, or re-joining the league after more than five years' absence) count as one-half (1/2) a charter for purposes of computing minimum charters required. Member chapter schools (those who have not met renewal requirements of 50 degrees for schools with 500+ students or 25 degrees for schools with less than 500 students) do NOT count toward charter totals.
2. A district with fewer than 8 charter chapter schools is not allowed to hold a district tournament; however, schools in that district may petition to attend another tournament in a contiguous district.
3. Districts will be required to maintain 16 charter chapters or 700 district tournament entries over a three-year period (sum of both district congress and speech/debate entries). Maintaining this minimum requirement will be considered GREEN status.
4. If a district does not meet the minimum size/entry requirements, it moves to YELLOW status for one year.
5. After one year at YELLOW status, a district that meets the minimum size/entry requirements is placed on YELLOW/GREEN status for five years.
6. After one year at YELLOW status, a district that still does not meet the minimum size/entry requirements moves to RED status until it meets minimum size/entry requirements. Once a RED status district meets minimum size/entry requirements, it moves to YELLOW/GREEN status for five years.
7. If a district maintains minimum size/entry requirements for five consecutive years while at YELLOW/GREEN status, the district returns to GREEN status. If at anytime while on YELLOW/GREEN status, the district does not meet either the minimum size or entry requirements, it immediately moves to RED status.
8. NOTE: A district in RED status is limited to one qualifier to the National Tournament in each main event, assuming there are at least four entries in each category.
9. No district is allowed to split into two districts unless it has established 40 paid chapters for two consecutive years or 1,200 district entries over a three-year period.

District tournaments qualify national entrants in debate and speech events according to the number of actual participants in each event, using the following chart (this does not affect Congress, which has its own quota system):

Level 1

All districts that earned 1200 or more new members and degrees (from both charter and affiliate chapters) during the previous school year will automatically qualify to send 3 entries in each event to the National Tournament, as long as ALL events at that District Tournament have enough entries to qualify 2 under the quota system above (12-Speech/LD, 10-Team Events). If one or more events have enough entries to qualify 4 entries to Nationals on the current system that event(s) will be allowed the 4th entry. However, if even one event does not have enough entries to qualify 2 under the current system, no bonus is allowed, and all categories will be determined on the quota system above.

Level 2

All districts that earned 900 or more new members and degrees (from both charter and affiliate chapters) during the previous school year will automatically qualify to send 2 entries in each event to the National Tournament, as long as ALL events have enough entries to qualify 1 on the quota system above (4-Speech/LD, 4-Team Events). If one or more events have enough entries to qualify 3 or 4 entries to Nationals on the current system that event(s) will be allowed the 3rd or 4th entry. However, if even one event does not have enough entries to qualify 1 under the current system, no bonus is allowed, and all categories will be determined on the current quota system.

Any district that earned 899 or fewer new members and degrees during the previous school year which increases its new members and degrees for the current school year by 20% prior to April 1st of the current school year, will qualify to send 2 entries in each event to the National Tournament, as long as all events have enough entries to qualify 1 under the current quota system. If a district holds its tournament prior to April 1, the district may continue to earn new members and degrees, and the alternates may move up if the 20% increase is achieved on or before April 1st.

Level 3 (no bonus)

Any district that does not qualify for any of the above bonuses and is not in RED status will use the current quota system to determine the number of National Qualifiers per event.

Level 4 (Red exemption)

Any district in RED status that shows a 15% increase in new members and degrees (from both charter and affiliate chapters) over its total for the previous school year will qualify for the quota system above (exempting them from RED status entry restrictions for the current school year).

• Click here to learn more about our District Impact Grants program, which can help a district build chapter membership.