Updated 4/30/2025
2025-2026 VEX Robotics Programs Team Registration Fee: $200 per team
2025-2026 Aerial Drone Competition Team Registration Fee: $200 per team
A limited amount of funding may be made available for organizations who are eligible for the Team Registration Fee Waiver program, which is explained below.
Visit the Organizational Policy in the RECF Library for more information about how organizations are defined.
Beginning in June 2025, school-based organizations and non-profit organizations will not be able to register for events without proper documentation that is approved by the Regional Support Manager.
Please note: the deadline to register teams for the 2025-2026 VEX competition season is December 19, 2025.
Team Registration Fee Waiver Eligibility Requirements
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The organization must be either:
- A “public school” or “charter school” as designated by the National Center for Education Statistics.
- A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization as recognized by the IRS effective on or before 4/29/25.
- Must be a returning organization. An organization is considered “returning” if they registered and paid for teams in the 2024-2025 season.
- Must have had more than six (6) active teams in the 2024-2025 season. Active teams are defined as teams that registered for at least one (1) qualifying event in the season.
- Must register and pay for at least six (6) registered teams for the 2025-2026 season.
- (VEX Program Specific): No organization that has received a fee waiver may include a team that attends more than two (2) Signature Events in the 2025-2026 season.
Team Registration Fee Waiver Application Procedure
- The Team Registration Fee Waiver application opens soon, and will be located in the “My Teams” section of RobotEvents (circled in red in the screenshot below).
- An organization must:
- Register and pay for 6 teams that were active in the previous season, and must use the same team numbers as the previous season (marked as paid in RobotEvents).
- Upon confirmation of full payment, additional teams within an organization may be considered for a fee waiver.
- An approved organization may request a fee waiver for additional teams up to the total number of “active teams" it had for the 2024-2025 season. An active team is defined as a team that registered for at least one (1) qualifying event. This is automatically determined by RobotEvents.
- Example: an organization had 10 “active teams” last season. If they pay for the first 6, they may be eligible for a fee waiver for 4 additional teams.
- Organizations must submit proof of eligibility for a fee waiver.
- School-based organizations must upload a statement of affiliation from a public or charter school administrator on school letterhead.
- Non-profit organizations must upload a copy of their 501(c)(3) documentation as evidence of non-profit status.
- The Regional Support Manager will mark the approved additional teams as paid upon confirmation of eligibility and available funds.
- Organizations that do not meet the requirements for the waiver will see a message to that effect when they begin the application process (see screenshot below).
- Organizations that meet the requirements for the waiver will be asked to select teams from a picklist like the one shown in the screenshot below.
- The deadline to submit a Team Registration Fee Waiver application is November 14, 2025. Waivers will not be awarded after this date, or after funding runs out (whichever comes first).
- If a Coach has multiple organizations/programs, a separate application will be required for each.
- For help with team registration or the fee waiver application, contact your Regional Support Manager.
- Awards are contingent upon available funding and are for the current season only.
Rationale for Increased Documentation for School-Based Organizations
- New School-Based Organization initiatives require more reliable/accurate data
- Starting in the 2025-2026 season, we are starting two new initiatives targeted to incentivize school-based organizations and events: School-Based Tournaments and the Conference Pilot. Both of these initiatives require accurate organization identification in RobotEvents.com to ensure the proper organizations are allowed to participate in those event types. As we continue to expand opportunities for school-based organizations, we have to ensure that organizations are properly identifying themselves. In addition, when we promote our initiatives to school-based organizations that may not currently be connected with our programs, we want to ensure that what we are promoting is backed by reliable data.
- Protection of School-Based Organizations
- The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF) is seeing an increase in organizations claiming to have school-based affiliation and support when in reality that is not true. We have reached out to several schools regarding Code of Conduct concerns, questions about program operations, etc., and are often met with responses indicating that the school is not aware of, nor has any connection to the robotics program the Primary Coach listed in RobotEvents.com. This is both a concern for us and for the organization the Primary Coach is falsely representing.
The RECF understands that requiring this documentation is one extra step for school-based organizations. We hope that the rationale for this process clearly states why this is necessary to ensure our school-based organization initiatives are properly implemented and protected.