Arturo

Yes, their parents pay taxes. If not, then allow them a tax voucher.

Brian

They should have access already. My son has access to the speech program. I know our friends play sports at bpth public and private schools.

Efrain

Yes, they should.
How ever if I were the public school.
I would have the parent sign a waver. Saying the school
can not be sued. And is not responsible if the child is hurt
or injured while playing.

I’m a homeschooling mother. I would be happy to sign it.
Olivia

Janelle

I think they should. People pay plenty of tax money for their kids to receive the benefits of public school. I feel they should be allowed to partake in what they want to partake in. I was a competitive swimmer for 6 years on a private team because I wasn’t allowed to swim varsity. I know several homeschooled kids who tried to and got denied. Their parents are paying taxes (some quite a lot), and they weren’t allowed to receive the benefits of what they were paying for (without a choice). In addition, their parents were forking over EXTRA money in order to homeschool and pay for a private swim team.

Yes, they definitely should be allowed.

Thalia

Yes, I believe that the government is using our tax money to pay for school sports, bands, etc..so homeschoolers should be allowed to use them.

Galilea

Here in Michigan, the schools have to allow you kid to be in band, sports, etc. First reason, if your paying taxes, which everyone is, that money goes to fund that school. So if I’m paying for it, I should be able to use it. Next, if a kid is a very gifted musician or athlete, the public school classes are going to give him/her access to scholarship, and other means to expand that gift. This also applies to the AP classes for a child that may need to be more challenged and the parents can’t afford a tutor. Gives the child a chance to make friends outside of the “home school circle” so to speak. Gives the parents a chance to talk with the child about issues that may not have come up otherwise. However a child might have a hard time making friends if he is only in a class for one hour and then leaves. That’s my two cents.

Autumn

I would say no to sports. Being on a sports team is not just an afternoon activity. Students develop relationships and bond through out the school day as they are a part of a community. They share school pride, etc. I think the homer schooler would be the odd man out. That is a difficult position to be in. Shared experiences foster social skills, a sense of belonging, etc. There are certain minimum standards in order to be part of a group. I don’t think home schoolers meet this standard.

The tax money argument is bogus. Some one who is childless doesn’t get money back from the governmental school system. There are many government programs that are based on need or want. The government has provided schools for children to attend. Opting out of public schooling indicates you don’t want or need the service. Actions have consequences both good and bad. Opting out of the system means sports and such are no longer an option. There is no entitlement. If you want to be part of group you need to lend support and get involved. There are children’s sports available in the private sector. Private music instruction should be pursued as well. Those are the options to pursue.

Why in the world would a home schooler want to take advanced classes? Home schoolers are schooled AT HOME.

Access isn’t equal. Access is based on want or need. I need/want some things but not others. I don’t begrudge those who benefit from services I don’t need or don’t want

To benefit from a society one must be invested in that society. If a child is ready for sports, advanced classes and band that child should make the transition from home schooling to public or private schooling.

If sports, advanced classes and band are

Kiley

I think one aspect to look at is how homeschoolers are viewed legally. In a place where they are considered private schools, it doesn’t make sense to allow them to participate because that means that private schooled students are able to go participate as well. That would seriously and negatively complicate matters.

Another thing against the idea of allowing homeschoolers to be allowed into public school sports is that I’ve never heard of a public school allowing a student from another school to participate on a sports team. Part of being on the team is school spirit and identity.

Yet another problem I see is that, at least here, schools are funded based on the students enrolled. A basic home education high school student here is not allowed to enroll in classes in a school board they are not registered with. The other school board receives no funding whatsoever for that student.

Otoh, the way it works here, a student can do a form of at-home program and meeting certain criteria, IS allowed to take classes at a school in the same board. I don’t know about sports or band. There are so many community sports here and even homeschool bands whose schedules are better suited to homeschoolers than school schedules, I’m not sure many homeschoolers think about whether they can do it with a school or not.

As a homeschooling parent, I made a choice to NOT put my children in public school. I don’t see why I should have any sense of entitlement to public school activity access when I’ve rejected the school in the first place.

ADDED: The tax argument isn’t a very strong one. Here, even if you send your kids to private school, you still pay education taxes. Doesn’t mean your private schooled student should be allowed to go take classes and sports at the public school! People who don’t have kids have to pay taxes, too. The reality is that those taxes go to schools based on enrollment numbers. If your child is not enrolled in that school, the school does not get money for your child.

Aliza

They are allowed in my state (Florida) to attend sports and activities like band, probably because our taxes do help pay for them.

If home schoolers want to participate or if they do not want to participate, why not let them choose? If they want to attend public school or home school, why not? I personally would always like to allow one to attend or not as one chooses and not have rules forcing one to attend or not allow one to attend, esp. if one’s taxes are helping to pay for the schools or programs (which in my state they are).

Edit: Re: glurpy’s comment “those taxes go to schools based on enrollment numbers. If your child is not enrolled in that school, the school does not get money for your child.” here in Florida if you are a home schooler, when my son did participate in 2nd grade, they did count him as a student, they told me the certain date that he needed to be there so that they would make sure to have him counted so that they would receive funding for him, so they do receive tax money for home schoolers. So they do not lose money as a consequence of this policy, which I could see would be a drawback if they did not count them and fund home schoolers as they do here. Glurpy do you live in Canada rather than in America though so that is true in your country (I think I remember reading that, but could be wrong)?

Noemi

The problem I see with public schools allowing home school students to play in their sports program is that they would probably want to get a ‘report card’ from home school. Students have to maintain passing grades to play sports in public school. Now granted, many of those who maintain those grades do so by having friends do their work for them, but it is a ‘rule’. (Don’t argue with me on this one, I have seen it and it happens regularly.) (Sorry to get off subject.)
Anyway, that is my reason for not wanting my son to play on a public school team. I do not want the school system to evaluate his education.
Our community is very fortunate to have community leagues and home school leagues. I suppose if the public school coaches saw some of the talent on those teams, they would be fighting to have the rule bent to allow the student to play on school team. That goes the same for band and advanced classes.
Colleges are figuring it out.

Janessa

As the name says it “public” school, paid for by ALL taxpayers.
Home schooled students should therefore have the choice if they would like to participate in these or not.

One of the reasons we home school is because we do not have the desire to participate in such, but that does not mean others who do, should be prohibited from doing so.

What debate? Are they going to redefine “public”.

Public:
The people - of, belonging to, or concerning the people as a whole; of, or by the community at large, for the use or benefit of all.

Lilly

Here in my district, students can be “dually enrolled” in both HS and PS so they can take courses like foreign language, music, driver’s ed, AP, etc. HS’s are considered private schools, but they allow this dual enrolling.

The way I see it is it’s no different than being dually enrolled in community college when you’re in high school. It’s just that you attend “two schools” at the same time.

FWIW, it’s not always the school districts that are the issue with sports - it’s the state activities associations. They have rules against “non students” on the teams. Sometimes HS kids *can* play on a team or be part of a band, but they cannot participate in tournaments or state competitions. If the associations allowed it, then public schools could “pull” gifted and talented kids in from private schools (including HS’s) and beef up their teams/groups.

It’s really all a complicated issue and it’s not all about taxes.

Our district allows out-of-district students to “self pay” to attend their schools. The neighboring districts are awful and so parents pay up to $3000 to send their kids to our district. In that case the students are “legally” enrolled in the school.

Sergio

Homeschooled students should be allowed to participate in all that the school has to offer regular students. That includes sports, social events, and which ever classes the parent feels unprepared to teach. The parents are still paying the taxes that support those activities so the children should have access to them.

Ana

I believe they should be allowed to participate! Here they aren’t allowed either. The rec dept we have is really good but my son couldn’t play sports past the age of 14 because the schools offered it. Not fair to the homeschoolers!!

Deshaun

If they are paying taxes, then yes they should be allowed.

Michaela

Absolutely!
It’s a PUBLIC school. Public means everyone can go, like a public pool or a public golf course.
Also, the public pays for it. The school gets money to teach the children in its area. Homeschoolers are actually saving the school money and decreasing class sizes by not attending full time.

Dillan

-I believe that all and any afterschool activities should be available to home schooled students. Sports activities are generally conducted afterschool. Although, there may be some tax breaks for those who teach their children at home, I believe those tax breaks only cover the academics and not the athletics. The parents of the home schooled students still continue to pay city, state and federal taxes. There is no reason to penalize the child by refusing participation in school sports. However, I would investigate the concerns of liability from sports injury and who should pay for medical treatment if needed.

Jaquan

Since home schooled families pay the same amount of taxes as public schooled families, and since those tax dollars are what pay for public school athletics, then don’t you think that these equal tax payers have the right to use what their money is being used for. Also, many great athletes were or are home schooled. Look at Tim Tebow, currently the University of Florida Gators starting quarterback, he was home schooled and became the number one prospect in high school football during his senior year. If he lived in Georgia (only an hour away from his house) or in Alabama, then he would not have been able to play high school football. The argument against it is that it allows home schoolers to pay more attention to athletics because they aren’t in school all day, kind of like the argument of allowing Russia to compete in the Olympics when it was only amateurs, because it was a socialist country, the athletes could devote all of their time to training. However, in the case of home schooling, you are still required to do the same amount of work in each course as you would in public school. When I took two years of Latin, I had to do a certain number of translations, I needed a certain number of poems, historical events, mythology, and so on and so forth. Therefore, they need to work just as hard or even harder because they know that their parents will know about the grades (because they give it) and they know they can’t hide their progress reports. Because of this, they are given no extra time to practice, giving both public schoolers and home schoolers the same advantage in training. I think there are no legitimate arguments against the issue of allowing home schoolers, which can hold up. So that in it of it self is a pro to the argument of allowing homeschoolers. Hope I helped!

Sage

No. Those sports are for children who attend that school. There are different programs for kids to go and play sports, like park district teams. Not to be mean or anything, but I think that that is the only solution.