The Bismarck Tribune posted an article describing homeschoolers’ participation in the Bismarck area’s public and private schools.  They need to follow the North Dakota Activities Association rules to join in.  A public school principal says this:

Home-school students are splitting time between home-school and public school

Madler said the approach is similar to the policy that if a private school doesn’t offer a particular activity, students who attend the private school are allowed to participate at a public school.

Another school administrator reshuffled policy when he came on-board.  That open door policy based on open participation administrative attitudes seems to be the case in some individual school districts.

“(Home school students) have a right to participate, whether public or private,” he said. “If they choose Shiloh as a place they would like to participate, we would allow that.”

Only a handful of home-school students have participated in sports at Shiloh, he said. In the past, home school-students were only allowed to participate in specific sports or activities. That hasn’t been the case since Forness has been principal.

LEBANON, Ohio — Kelly and April Kamentz would like to see all of their six children play sports on Lebanon schools teams.

But the 19-year residents of the district may not get that chance because their children are homeschooled, and like other Warren County schools that have high “partial enrollment” requirements, Lebanon requires student-athletes to take at least five classes a year.

“As a resident, as a taxpaying citizen, I’ve invested my life in Lebanon,” Kelly Kamentz said. “I hope that Lebanon will adopt what we consider to be a more reasonable definition of partial enrollment.”

Continue reading Parents of homeschool children want sports, subtitled OHSAA’s rules leave room for interpretation; each school district gets the final say, by Richard Wilson, Staff Writer for the Dayton Daily News in Dayton, Ohio.

The public sports participation bill in, SB 37, passed the Utah state senate, but not without a little bit of mud-slinging.

Senate passes home-school sports bill, 11 February 2008, Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah

Bell’s amendment would have required home schoolers to get independent verification of academic progress before participating in activities. Madsen’s bill only calls for parents to sign an affidavit about their child’s progress.

Bell’s concern is with parents lying to get their kids into sports. …

Madesen, a home-schooler, and other bill supporters said if there’s going to be a third-party process for home-schoolers, it ought to be the same for public school students.

The comments at the site reflect a similar belief that parents will lie for their children.

What strikes me as odd is that communities can have sporting programs for children to which nothing schoolish is attached. Summer baseball and soccer are played without reference to school grades. Bowling leagues get together without worry about school attendance. Recreational programs continue without GPA qualification.

If sport programs are to serve the children of a community through taxpayer funding, then the programs should be divorced from the schools.

If school sports are meant to be farm teams for professional development, then come out and say so. That point needs to be hashed out, if indeed professional development through school teams is the case.

Other information:

• Bill would change home-schooled students’ access to activities, 25 January 2008, HEM News and Commentary
• Home school debate reignited, 6 February 2008, Deseret Morning News, Salt Lake City, Utah

posted by Valerie

Alamogordo Daily News, Alamogordo, New Mexico, 15 April 2007, Homeschoolers have access under new bill

Many homeschoolers in Otero County have not yet been made aware of the passing of Senate Bill 1098, The Home School Student Activities Program Unit, in March. This bill gives a school district funding for homeschoolers who participate in public school activities.

…

The school district shall verify each home school student’s academic eligibility to participate in school district athletic activities. This is a great advancement for homes schoolers since like everyone else, homeschooling families do pay for the funding of the public schools.

Homeschooling families pay for funding public schools just like retirees, empty-nesters, couples without children, and single adults. Homeschoolers receive the same benefit from their tax dollars as the other non-users of the school system: a schooled citizenry. The benefit is one of common good, not of personal payback from the system.

If access-for-all is what the people of a state want, that’s their business, but don’t make it sound as if parents who’ve chosen to remove their children from school are an especially oppressed class.

posted by Valerie

Dateline Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama, 12 April 2007, Panel mulls letting home-schoolers play sports in public schoolsThe Senate Education Committee heard public comments Wednesday on a bill that would allow home-schoolers to participate in extracurricular activities like athletics and band at public schools.

…

State Superintendent of Education Joe Morton said the current rules of only allowing full-time public students to participate in extracurricular activities are “very fair.”

“Public school students have a lot of things they have to adhere to like ‘no pass, no play.’ How do you apply that to a home-schooled child who is educated by mom or dad or a tutor?” he said in an interview. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg of 9,999 questions that public schools and coaches and assistant coaches would have. We wouldn’t have to have any questions if the student would just enroll (in public school) full-time.”

You wouldn’t have any questions either, if sports were divorced from schools and opened to all the kids in the community. Are the sports for the kids, or are the sports for the school’s P.R.?

posted by Valerie

WCBD-TV, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, 22 March 2007, Home School and Extracurriculars

Kathy Carper is president of the South Carolina Association of Independent Home Schools. She says many parents opt to teach their children at home for academic reasons and shouldn’t have to give up sports or other extracurriculars like band.

Why not? Without trying to be a Scrooge, I’m still baffled by the viewpoint that we aren’t responsible for the results of our choices, and the attitude that — despite our choices –whatever someone else has, we ought to have, too.

Compare the above viewpoint with one I saw in the newspaper yesterday about the formation of specialized high schools at Kansas City’s Union Station.

Kansas City Star, Kansas City, Missouri, 22 March 2007, Union Station High School? KC district mulls small, specialized centers, including a science focus at the station. (my emphasis)

The district would have to work out issues of costs and staffing. Students in some cases would have to give up some of the extracurricular activities of large schools. But small-school supporters say students would gain unique experiences and college credit in tighter-knit communities with students and teachers who share their interests.

Any choice involves trade-offs. For most people there is a point where the investment of time and money has to be considered. So, in choosing to homeschool, what probably should be considered is whether the investment in the homeschooling process is worth the loss of whatever the alternate choice offers.

Home Education Magazine, November-December 1997, Hanging On To What Makes Homeschooling Distinctive

When we send children to school, even for something as seemingly wholesome as band, we risk having our family getting caught up in the limitations of the school mentality. What is music? For homeschoolers, it’s lullabies, silly songs, friends and neighbors making music for their own enjoyment, informal concerts, maybe formal concerts, and the opportunity to truly develop their musical talent. Why would people want to trade such richness for band uniforms, directors stuck with a limited repertoire (no matter how much they love music), and competition for first chair? Some people may argue that band offers the opportunity to play with a large group of other people. This is important, to be sure. However, if people didn’t send their children to school for music, they would have more incentive to make their own, organize community bands or just get together informally to play whatever they want. In addition, people who take control of their own music are more likely to make music a meaningful part of their whole lives. If conventional schools’ approach to music works, why are there so many children in school bands and so few adults who make music?

posted by Valerie