Local Schools Can Allow Home-Schooled Students To Play Sports

Local public school districts must develop a policy if they choose to allow home-schooled students to participate in district sports, according to the state scholastic sports governing body.

On Nov. 9, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association made an about-face on a previous, long-standing policy that disallowed homeschooled students from participating in scholastic sports programs run out of their home districts.

While some school districts, including Brick Township, are moving forward on formulating policies consistent with the NJSIAA’s guidelines, Lacey Township is not currently considering making changes.

“We have so many things on the horizon right now and this is not one of them,” Superintendent Sandra Brower said.

About four to five years ago, the issue arose, President of Board of Education Jack Martenak said. “Nothing amounted of it.”

State law originally gave schools the option to allow homeschooled students to participate but the NJSIAA prohibited it, Executive Director Steven Timko said. The NJSIAA’s new law is in compliance with the states.

The Lacey school district does not currently have standing policy to allow homeschooled students to participate in extracurricular activities and sports, Assistant Superintendent Vanessa Clark said. If they decided to make that change, they would have to create a policy.

Brick schools Superintendent Walter Hrycenko said the decision has left many school district leaders scrambling to formulate policies consistent with the NJSIAA decision before the winter sports season begins in early December.

"According to the NJSIAA, you can't just say, 'Today, everybody can play,' " Hrycenko said. "We have to develop criteria to evaluate."

The NJSIAA will allow homeschooled students to participate in district athletic programs provided that they meet nine criteria, mostly having to do with a student's academic eligibility to play. The local school board must also approve participation, and the building principal from where the sports program originates must also be notified.

Parents of homeschooled students who want to participate in sports must also demonstrate their child's "academic equivalency" to others in the same age and grade level.

Developing the formula by which academic equivalency can be judged will most likely prove to be the most difficult task in the entire matter, Hrycenko said.

"It's easy to verify what's being done in the school," he said. "It's not easy to verify what's being done in home school."

Hrycenko said there is no official state curriculum, standardized tests or grading system that parents of homeschooled students must adhere to.

The NJSIAA's memo is attached to the PDF section of this story.