Petition for NYS to Open School Sports to Homeschoolers

[Malam]

https://ol.reddit.com/r/homeschool/comments/1e5dr3n/petition_for_nys_to_open_school_sports_to/

[ScoutTN]

My state has this and it has plusses and minuses. It opens many opportunities, but also has  killed several homeschool athletics programs. Ours also only applies at the high school level. Here it is only sports, not marching band or any other ECs.
 

How many states have ps spirts open to homeschoolers? 

Edited July 17 by ScoutTN

[freesia]

3 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

My state has this and it has plusses and minuses. It opens many opportunities, but also has  killed several homeschool athletics programs. Ours also only applies at the high school level. Here it is only sports, not marching band or any other ECs.
 

How many states have ps spirts open to homeschoolers? 

In many places in NY there are no homeschool athletics at all. That was our experience. We lived in a fairly densely populated area but there were few homeschoolers. High school there’s could only compete if they went to club. And that was $$$. We moved to a state last year where dd can compete and it’s been wonderful. 

[freesia]

I’ve always heard 26 states allow it, but a quick googling shows up to 30. Idk the details of each state. 

[Clemsondana]

This was huge for us - there are good homeschool teams for basketball, volleyball, and cross country (maybe track, too, I'm not sure) but if your kid plays baseball or football you had to do it through the public schools.  I think a lot came down to facilities - it's easy to find a church gym, but it costs $$ to maintain a baseball field and football requires a lot of kids.  I wish they'd open up band, too, although if you umbrella at a school that has it you can participate there.  Middle schoolers can participate at their umbrella (and many middle school sports are less regulated) but high schoolers would have to pay full tuition at the private school to be allowed to play there.  I know that it's to stop people from gaming the system, but it can be so frustrating - most kids aren't good enough that private schools are going to be recruiting them, and many small schools would love to have some more kids playing so that they can field a reasonable team.  

[EKS]

10 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

How many states have ps spirts open to homeschoolers? 

WA does.  In fact, WA allows homeschoolers to access all public school programs as much or as little as they choose.

[ScoutTN]

8 minutes ago, EKS said:

WA does.  In fact, WA allows homeschoolers to access all public school programs as much or as little as they choose.

I wish my state did this!

[EKS]

55 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

I wish my state did this!

It was really helpful!

[Brittany1116]

IIRC, FL allows HS kids to participate in middle and high school level sports and band in PS and private schools. I need to look into it bc I have a teen wanting to try out for basketball at a nearby school. 

[Frances]

11 hours ago, freesia said:

In many places in NY there are no homeschool athletics at all. That was our experience. We lived in a fairly densely populated area but there were few homeschoolers. High school there’s could only compete if they went to club. And that was $$$. We moved to a state last year where dd can compete and it’s been wonderful. 

Although my state has lots of homeschoolers, even in densely populated areas I’ve never heard of homeschool sports leagues. But then again, here homeschoolers can compete in any interscholastic activities, not just sports, so orchestra, band, choir, drama, speech and debate, etc. Plus, at the discretion of local high school principals, can also take classes.

[Frances]

4 hours ago, EKS said:

WA does.  In fact, WA allows homeschoolers to access all public school programs as much or as little as they choose.

Basically the same in Oregon.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

Our state technically allows this, but it’s up to individual ISDs which means that in reality only superstar recruitment-worthy players would ever be allowed… or that strong players with failing grades are encouraged to “drop out & homeschool” to get around No Pass, No Play rules 😒

[Lori D.]

1 hour ago, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

Our state technically allows this, but it’s up to individual ISDs which means that in reality only superstar recruitment-worthy players would ever be allowed… or that strong players with failing grades are encouraged to “drop out & homeschool” to get around No Pass, No Play rules 😒

In our state, homeschool students had to be able to perform at the level to "make the cut-off" for varsity sports, just as the public school students did. That may be what is happening at your state's individual high schools -- when so many students try out for the team (and when so many are strong athletes attending the school), they are only have room to take the best of the best, whether public schooled or homeschooled.

Also, some sports are more popular, and thus harder to participate in as a homeschooler, unless you are athletically gifted. Football, basketball, and baseball were those sports at our local high school. Lesser sports, such as some track events; tennis; and golf are often easier to get on the team, as fewer students are trying out for those sports.

If we had lived in a different district, DSs would not have been able to play high school tennis, as several of the wealthier public schools had loads of talented tennis players whose parents had been paying for lessons and coaching for them for years. We happened to live in the district for a high school with a very small, weak tennis team, so DSs made the cut-off and got to play,. 😄 
 

1 hour ago, Shoes+Ships+SealingWax said:

... or that strong players with failing grades are encouraged to “drop out & homeschool” to get around No Pass, No Play rules 😒

Of course every state is different, so might be possible in your state. But I would guess most states have pretty strict division eligibility rules, partly so that schools will enforce the rules so the school is eligible for division play, but also because NCAA (college athletics) eligibility actually starts in high school, so it's important for students who want to play Division I or II sports in college to make sure they are meeting the state's high school division requirements, which often align with NCAA requirements.

As a side note: there would be no way strong players with failing grades could "drop out and homeschool" and still get to play sports in our state.

High schools here must strictly adhere to the state athletic division rules in order to maintain eligibility for division play, and part of those requirements are that students must maintain a minimum GPA throughout the sport season. Any student (homeschool or attending the public school) had to provide courses, grades-to-date, and GPA to date every 4.5 weeks. That was easy for the public school students as the school registrar automatically generated that and sent that in. As my DSs' administrator, I had to generate a transcript every 4.5 weeks with that information and turn that in to the school registrar so that DSs continued to prove eligibility to play on the varsity tennis team.

DSs also had to pay the same fee as the public school students, and had to have the same physician's release form filled out, from a doctor visit no more than 3 months before the start of the sport season.

Another regulation that must be adhered to whether homeschool or public school student is where you live. You must play for the school in whose district you live, and if your family moves to another district during high school, you have to sit out a year before being eligible for the new school. That is precisely to discourage recruiting.
 

But again, that's just my state. If your state is differently and allows looking the other way to get around rules, and is not very welcoming to homeschoolers... I'm sorry. That would be extremely frustrating.

Edited July 24 by Lori D.