Home School Kids in Extracurricular Activities

None by KCPW

Should They Get Involved at Public Schools?

(KCPW News) Utah families who choose to home-school their children gathered at Capitol Hill this morning to promote a bill that would allow their children to participate in extracurricular activities at public schools. Jon Yarrington of the Utah Home Education Association supports the bill due to personal experience:

"There's no reason for us to be excluded. There's no reason for the children to be excluded. We pay our taxes just like everyone else does. We would encourage you to level this playing field. Take care of this problem. Make it enforced as it should be. Make it so kids can participate as they should be able to."

Currently, only a few districts allow home-school children to get involved in public school affairs. The bill provides that home-school children everywhere are eligible for involvement.

According to the bill, a home-school student must try-out and prove academic eligibility in order to participate in extracurricular activities. The bill's sponsor, Republican Senator Mark Madsen, stresses another restriction:

"There's not team-shopping that goes on among the home-school students. They're allowed to participate, but they're only allowed to participate in schools that are within their geographical boundaries or schools at which they would otherwise be able to attend through open enrollment."

Opponents of the bill told the Senate Education Committee that home-school students are already being allowed to get involved in public schools. The committee members were confused as to why this was a compelling reason for opposition, and they unanimously passed the bill to the full Senate.

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