DIAA Regulations outline the requirements and standards that govern interscholastic athletics and student activities in Delaware.
To make it easier to review and understand DIAA Regulations, we’ve compiled all current DIAA Regulations along with the Transfer Tracking Law (Senate Bill 281) into one easy-to-use flipbook. DIAA Regulations – FlippingBook
Use the table of contents on the left side of the screen to quickly navigate to specific regulations, or take advantage of the search bar in the top right to look up key words and find exactly what you’re looking for—fast.
| Dead Periods for the 2025-2026 academic year are as follows: |
- FALL PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for ALL SPORTS is July 28 – August 4.
- IN-SEASON FALL DEAD PERIOD – For football schools (any school that has a football team, even if you are choosing NOT to start on August 4). The dead period is from August 4 to September 1 for Winter and Spring Sports.
- If your school does not have football, your dead period for Winter and Spring Sports is from August 11 to September 8.
- WINTER PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for ALL SPORTS is November 3 – November 10.
- IN-SEASON WINTER DEAD PERIOD – For all schools – dead period for Fall and Spring Sports is November 10 to December 8.
- SPRING PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for ALL SPORTS is February 23 – March 2.
- IN-SEASON SPRING DEAD PERIOD – For all schools – Fall and Winter Sports dead period is March 2 to March 30.
A dead period is a specific time when most athletic-related activities and instructional contact between coaches and student-athletes are not allowed. These periods are designed to give athletes rest, promote multi-sport participation, and prevent year-round pressure in a single sport. Dead periods include informal instruction, open gyms, school sponsored camps or clinics, team-associated commercial camps or clinics, and school sponsored league play.
Pre-season dead period:
- Occurs during the 7 days before the official start of the fall, winter, and spring sports seasons (as defined in 14 DE Admin. Code 1035).
- Coaches may not have any instructional contact with athletes during this time.
- The only activity allowed is non-instructional meetings (for example: handing out tryout schedules, medical forms, and permission slips).
- No practices, workouts, or skill instruction may take place.
In-season dead period:
- Begins on the first permissible practice date of a sports season and ends 4 weeks after that date.
- During these 4 weeks, coaches of sports not currently in season have limited activity options.
- They may lead workouts and conditioning sessions (as defined in Section 8.0), but no skill instruction or sport-specific drills are allowed.
- These periods apply as follows:
- Fall sports in-season dead period – applies to all winter and spring sports teams. If a school’s football team starts early for a “week zero” game, that date starts the dead period for the entire school.
- Winter sports in-season dead period – applies to all fall and spring sports teams.
- Spring sports in-season dead period – applies to all fall and winter sports teams.
| Dead Periods for the 2026-2027 academic year are as follows: |
- FALL PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – For football schools – dead period for ALL SPORTS is August 6 – August 13.
- FALL IN-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – For football schools – The dead period is from August 13 to September 10 for Winter and Spring Sports.
- FALL PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – For schools WITHOUT football – dead period for ALL SPORTS is August 10 – August 17.
- FALL IN-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – For schools WITHOUT football- The dead period is from August 17 to September 14 for Winter and Spring Sports.
- WINTER PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for ALL SPORTS is November 2 – November 9.
- WINTER IN-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for Fall and Spring Sports is November 9 to December 7.
- SPRING PRE-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for ALL SPORTS is February 22 – March 1.
- SPRING IN-SEASON DEAD PERIOD – dead period for Fall and Winter Sports is March 1 to March 29.
