Louisiana: Bill Amended for Homeschool Participation in Public School Sports

Some Senators managed very localized exemptions in this state bill.

Senate passes amended bill for home schoolers to play public school sports by Bill Barrow, The Times-Picayune June 18, 2009

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Senate today approved a measure to allow home-schooled youths to participate in public school sports, though several senators won amendments exempting some local school systems from the proposal.

Homeschoolers in a “home school program” must have state approval to try out. The independent homeschooling family control would likely be lost with that approval. It’s a choice that some Louisiana families must make, while hopefully understanding the consequences.

Homeschoolers are the only ones eligible to participate, as the private school participation allowance was negotiated out of this bill.

From the Legislature: Senate passes home-schooled athlete bill The Daily Advertiser

Legislation heads back to House

Mike Hasten June 19, 2009

The bill no longer would allow participation at nonpublic schools, as passed by the House, only applies to athletics, not all extracurricular activities, and exempts some school systems. Also, the affected students could apply to participate in sports only at the schools they would normally attend if they were in public schools.

There was also the inevitable discussion (and subsequent bill amendment) concerning grades and cheating homeschool parents:

State Sen. Nick Gautreaux, D-Meaux, got the Senate to unanimously approve an amendment that would penalize parents who falsified records and the schools that benefited from an ineligible player.

“This makes it unlawful for a home-schooled student to submit false grades,” he said. The student would be banned from further participation and the school would suffer the same Louisiana High School Athletic Association penalty for any ineligible player – cancellation of any victories while the student was playing.

“Yes, they have grades,” Gautreaux said.

Like public school students, homeschoolers take a core curriculum, are graded each week on their progress and take standardized tests administered by certified teachers, he said.

School inclusion bill moves 2TheAdvocate – Michelle Millhollon Jun 19, 2009

Home-schooled students in Zachary and Baker would be eligible to play sports on their local public high school teams under legislation that cleared the state Senate Thursday.

The rest of East Baton Rouge Parish, including the Central school system, is excluded from House Bill 531. The legislation also would not apply to the parishes of Livingston, St. Mary, Acadia, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis and Cameron.

Why the Question of Homeschoolers’ Playing Public School Sports Affects All Homeschoolers - Larry and Susan Kaseman May-June 2000

Why Can’t Homeschoolers Play on School Sports Teams? 2/15/08
By Ann Zeise

As my mother used to say, “You can’t have your cake and eat it, too!” (I always thought that didn’t make much sense, because when she gave me a piece of cake I always managed to eat it, too.)

At some point we all have to decide what is most important to us.

Update about concerns:
Questions building over home school eligibility issue
The Daily Advertiser – Kevin Foote June 20, 2009

Henderson verified that current LHSAA rules allow home-schoolers to participate, but they must be “enrolled” at an LHSAA member school. All other students must be “enrolled and attending” an LHSAA member school.

In other words, if the proposed bill becomes law, it could actually render a home-schooler currently participating in LHSAA events at a private school ineligible in the future.

“If this becomes law, we’re going to have to get our lawyers to determine whether or not our current rule (on home-schooling) is still valid,” Henderson said.

Henderson said he has no idea how many home-schoolers are currently participating, because his office doesn’t ask schools to report such information.

Tags: homeschoolers and sports, Louisiana homeschooling, public school sports, sports participation, The Times-Picayune, Tim Tebow

This entry was posted on June 19, 2009 at 8:42 am and is filed under Articles About Homeschooling, News-Commentary, Public School Participation, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.