Board still exploring home-schoolers/extra-curricular law

Florida passed a law in 1996 that allows home-schoolers to participate in extra-curricular activites at public and private schools. The most sought after high school senior football player in the nation this year was Tim Tebow. Tim was home-schooled but played football at a public school in St Johns County, Florida. The only naysayers in this case were the other public schools that wished they had a Tim Tebow on their team.
To deny home-schoolers equal access is wrong. Just think of all the Tim Tebows out there waiting to turn around those losing high school sports teams.
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Excerpts from :The Florida Times-Union

January 1, 2006

By CHASE GOODBREAD

In 1996, Brenda Dickinson won a two-year battle in the Florida legislature that allowed home-schooled students to participate in extracurricular activities at public high schools, including athletics. Tebow, the Times-Union's 2005 Super 24 Player of the Year, is the last of five Tebow children to be home-schooled and competed at Nease under the Craig Dickinson Act, named for Dickinson's late husband.

"There was a lot of resentment [in the Florida High School Athletic Association] for the whole idea when we were trying to get it passed," Dickinson said. "And I think to some extent, there still is. Their stance was that home-schoolers had no right to take a [roster] spot from public school students that had, as they called it, paid their dues. We argued that the FHSAA basically had monopolized athletics to the exclusion of children that were being lawfully schooled at home. If the school system is truly public, those children have every right to benefit from after-school clubs, sports, the marching band or anything else that's offered."

Private schools can choose to not offer extracurricular activities to home-schooled children, but may engage in agreements to do so. Tebow, in fact, played at Trinity Christian, a Westside private school, while being home-schooled in 2002-03 before transferring to Nease for the next three years.

A recent ESPN report on home-schooling cited estimates of 1.5 million home-schooled children nationally, and in states where laws allow, many participate in athletics.

A key element to Dickinson's stance on extracurricular activities is that home-schooling parents support public schools with their tax dollars, and therefore have a right to benefit from elements of the school system while maintaining the right to educate from the home.

"I think we have a right to use a part of the school," said Bob Tebow, Tim's father. "And a high school coach doesn't have to take a home-schooled athlete: He only has to give that kid a chance. He can cut them like anyone else.... If a 55-year-old taxpayer with no kids wants to check out a book at a public school library, he should be allowed to do that."

That logic hasn't flown everywhere.



This story can be found on Jacksonville.com at http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories... .

I think they are more afraid we may rub off on the PS kids. They may go home and ask to be home schooled. Parents will hang out with us at games.

And don't forget they may in fact loose a little of the control they have over our children and their beliefs , They wouldn't want them to question their policies or not follow blindly along .Yeah I am biased I was home schooled as well as PS . Guess which I preferred ? Home School but back then you had to buy the required curriculum and we couldn't afford it . Spent my savings for the one year we did home school . It was very liberating to not be peer pressured or manipulated that year . that was 7th grade the next year I took a test and was advanced one grade , finished the 9th grade and during my 10th grade yr I quit school and took my GED . If you did the math you noticed I had obviously been held back 1st grade my teacher Mrs. Potts rarely spoke English to me and daily I got the board , once got taken to kindergarten class , sat on a stool and wore an actual dunce hat. Still a bad memory and in the 7Th grade because the JISD refused to accept my credits from , can you guess which school it was , I'll tell you CLASS Christian Liberty Academy Satellite School !By H.S. it was clear how the System worked so I quit. I believe this is why I think and question all things more than those educated people who know no better.

I did some editing and as you see I left "the next year at the 7Th grade" reference part in the wrong place .. it was after my second time thru the 7th grade so much for my GED LOL

If other parents had the money to pursue legal action against school districts for denying homeschool children the right to participate in extra-curricular activities, this would not be an issue any longer in any state.