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homeschool friendly state for playing sports


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Hi

 

My family will be moving- we don't know where yet. May be VA, NC, IN, IA, MN, NV, NM, OH or PA. Yes- crazy- I know.

 

I have kids who homeschool but usually take 1-2 classes at the high school and want to play sports at the schools. Please weigh in here and let me know which states will allow you to play sports/activities as a homeschooler. I know MN and IA do allow it- others?

 

Thanks!

 

Kathy

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Candid- what do people in NC do? Unfortunately (from the homeschooling standpoint anyway) that is a more likely option for our move. Are there homeschool leagues? There have to be other homeschool kids playing sports

 

There are home school leagues, but it is spotty both in terms of location and sports available.

 

Basketball has a lot of teams, football, less, and baseball very, very few. There are other smaller team sports, but again very spotty.

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PA law allows HSers to access extracurriculars, provided they can otherwise make the team. Getting a school to allow HSd students to take classes would be trickier. I know of a few districts that offer that to HSers, so it does happen.

 

Often politely pointing out that your other option is enrolling in a public cyber-charter at $8K a year on the district's dime is enough to open doors, bless their hearts.

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Never mind I was wrong abou KY. I found this info on my state homeschool association website.

 

If you live in one of the following states, your homeschooled student is allowed to participate in athletics in your local public school: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, and Washington.

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Indiana is regulated by the IHSAA. They have a no homeschoolers policy. In order to be eligible for sports you have to actually attend at least 3 classes on campus and then the rest can be dual credit enrollment at a local college.

As far as just taking a few classes here and there, it depends on the school. The high school where my kids practice swimming, is very open to homeschoolers. The principal is very friendly and lets them come in and take whatever they like.

IHSAA has reviewed allowing homeschoolers to participate, but as of last year they were still anti.

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Virginia still doesn't allow it. But the homeschoolers fight for it every legislative session and I think the support is gradually increasing. In your case, where you already have high schoolers, I wouldn't move here. With my kids being as young as they are, I'm still hoping that we will have sports access by the time it applies to us.

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NC does not allow it...the public schools there are very unfriendly to anything regarding homeschooling. Most of the bigger cities have HS Sports associations, that offer the teams sports. Football, baseball, soccer, basketball. I know Asheville and Charlotte, for sure, have those....not sure about other cities in NC.

 

But you can cross the border, and in SC, it just got passed this past spring! So you could live in the SC side of Charlotte, aka the suburbs, and get all the fun benefits of living close to Charlotte, yet pay the cheaper taxes, cheaper gas, and play in public school sports in SC :)!

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We haven't pursued those types of options, but I have read the laws for NV. The law provides for homeschooled students to take classes, engage in clubs & play sports at the public schools. However, I can't say how hard or easy it might be to actually do this. Also, our homeschooling laws are very, very liberal -- no testing, no real requirements -- you just file a Notice of Intent to Homeschool one time, and you're done.

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Virginia still doesn't allow it. But the homeschoolers fight for it every legislative session and I think the support is gradually increasing. In your case, where you already have high schoolers, I wouldn't move here. With my kids being as young as they are, I'm still hoping that we will have sports access by the time it applies to us.

 

Depending on the sport and area, there are some strong home school teams in VA. We're in Northern VA and our area has several homeschool teams of differing levels in various sports. Some are stronger than others. The league our cross country team is in includes homeschool teams, community youth running clubs (usually just for middle school, where there isn't a formal cross country option at school), and private schools. The Catholic schools seem to have their own league. (The organization that governs VA public high school athletics does not allow private or homeschool participation.)

 

I found our team by chasing down a lot of little references. I started by searching for "homeschool cross country team" and the name of our county. I found some lists on one of the state homeschool organization websites. I sent out a lot of emails and asked on a lot of lists.

 

FWIW, you might also look for groups that do other sports and ask if they might add the sport you're interested in. Our little cross country team started last year, because a couple families were interested. This year, we hosted our own race and won a trophy in the end of season tournament.

 

There are also some sports where the main competition is outside the schools. My eldest swims. While there are high school swim teams, he gets longer (and imo better) training through his year round club team. I wish he could have the experience of high school team rapport, but he gets that through summer league instead.

 

 

 

At least in our area, homeschoolers can do partial enrollment. However in practice, that is a committment to being in class each time the class is held. Since our area uses block scheduling, that creates a rotating schedule of which days of the week a certain class meets. (One week might be M/W/F with the next being T/TH. To my mind, that would mean, not only would my kid have to be slepped to and from the school (disrupting the rest of the day) but I couldn't plan on using things like coops or homeschool support groups, because we wouldn't be able to commit to being there the same day each week.

 

I don't know about other parts of VA, but around NoVa, there are several support group options to choose from. You could almost create a smorgasbord of courses and teach little at home. (This isn't something we've pursued, but I seem many who are taking advantage of this.)

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I'm in VA too in the Tidewater area. There are places in our area for some hs teams also.

 

 

and you can do some classes at the ps.

 

And there are some pretty good coops in our area too.

 

Depending on the sport and area, there are some strong home school teams in VA. We're in Northern VA and our area has several homeschool teams of differing levels in various sports. Some are stronger than others. The league our cross country team is in includes homeschool teams, community youth running clubs (usually just for middle school, where there isn't a formal cross country option at school), and private schools. The Catholic schools seem to have their own league. (The organization that governs VA public high school athletics does not allow private or homeschool participation.)

 

I found our team by chasing down a lot of little references. I started by searching for "homeschool cross country team" and the name of our county. I found some lists on one of the state homeschool organization websites. I sent out a lot of emails and asked on a lot of lists.

 

FWIW, you might also look for groups that do other sports and ask if they might add the sport you're interested in. Our little cross country team started last year, because a couple families were interested. This year, we hosted our own race and won a trophy in the end of season tournament.

 

There are also some sports where the main competition is outside the schools. My eldest swims. While there are high school swim teams, he gets longer (and imo better) training through his year round club team. I wish he could have the experience of high school team rapport, but he gets that through summer league instead.

 

 

 

At least in our area, homeschoolers can do partial enrollment. However in practice, that is a committment to being in class each time the class is held. Since our area uses block scheduling, that creates a rotating schedule of which days of the week a certain class meets. (One week might be M/W/F with the next being T/TH. To my mind, that would mean, not only would my kid have to be slepped to and from the school (disrupting the rest of the day) but I couldn't plan on using things like coops or homeschool support groups, because we wouldn't be able to commit to being there the same day each week.

 

I don't know about other parts of VA, but around NoVa, there are several support group options to choose from. You could almost create a smorgasbord of courses and teach little at home. (This isn't something we've pursued, but I seem many who are taking advantage of this.)

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