Homeschool sports bill advances in General Assembly

In what could presage a major victory for Virginia homeschoolers, the state House of Delegates education committee last week backed a bill that would allow those high school-age students a chance to participate in interscholastic sports.

On Wednesday, the committee voted, 14 to 8, to send the proposal to the full House, which probably will act on it this week, said Del. Mark L. Cole (R-Fredericksburg), an education committee member who backed the measure.

“I’m hopeful it will pass in the House,” said Cole, who represents a portion of southern Fauquier County. “What the Senate does is anybody’s guess.”

To become law, a bill must receive the support of both chambers and the governor’s signature.

“I think it’s a reasonable provision, because the parents of these kids are paying taxes for these sports,” he said. “They have to make academic progress and be monitored” by the local school division.

The proposed legislation would apply to homeschoolers who submit their curriculum to a school superintendent for approval and agreed to reviews and standardized testing, Cole said.

Like enrolled public school students, they must satisfy academic standards to participate in sports, he said.

Youngsters who receive a religious exemption to be homeschooled would be unable to participate because they do not submit curriculums to a superintendent for approval or submit to testing, Cole said.

“I’ve had a lot of positive feedback from homeschoolers,” he said.

He’s heard little opposition to the bill. One person suggested that the possibility that a home-schooled student “would take away a spot on a team from a kid who goes to the school,” Cole said.

The delegate stressed that the bill, if approved, would homeschoolers a chance to try out for teams, not a guarantee that they would make teams.

Del. Michael J. Webert (R-Marshall) said he has “mixed feelings” about the bill.

While “it’s good for participation” because “you would have more kids playing sports,” Webert remains uncertain about how a coach would discipline homeschoolers since they operate outside of the public school system. He also wonders whether homeschoolers would be free to try out for teams based on the strength of sports programs, regardless of where they live.

“There’s nothing that states a kid from Marshall could go to Liberty [High School]” rather than Fauquier High School, “because it has a better football team,” Webert said.

He’d like those issues addressed as the bill makes its way through the legislature.

“It’s a work in progress,” said Webert, who favors the concept.

The Homeschool Legal Defense Association has taken no position on the matter because it’s members are divided over the proposal, said Scott Woodruff, senior counsel for the Loudoun County-based nonprofit group.

While some welcome the opportunity, others prefer to disassociate themselves entirely from the public education system, Woodruff said.

“I think there are a lot of homeschool families who are content with what they have” without access to public school sports activities, he said.

He said he’s tracked the Virginia bill and has no objection to it as proposed.

Woodruff said 17 states permit home-schooled children to participate in public school sports activities. “It’s been non-problematic” for them, he said. “None have repealed it.”

About 2 million children are homeschooled across the nation, with about 64,000 in Virginia, according to the association.