Mahwah May 2, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Home-schooled students to be barred from sports by Frank J. McMahon The Mahwah Board of Education has voted to adopt a policy that will prohibit home-schooled students from participating in the district’s high school athletic programs. The school board voted unanimously to adopt the policy after Interim Superintendent Karen Lake advised that the majority of the board’s Policy Committee had agreed that home-schooled students should not be eligible to participate in the interscholastic sports program. Lake was questioned about the policy by a Lenape Meadows elementary and Ramapo Ridge middle school parent who suggested that home-schooled students often do as well as or better than students in the public schools because of smaller class size and individual attention, although they lack interaction with other students in the community. Lake agreed with the parent to some extent because she knows home-schooled students who have won awards. However, she added that there is no way to check if homeschooled students are maintaining their academic scores and to be certain that a home-schooled student is achieving according to the school district’s academic standards. She pointed out that, while some home-schooled students do very well, the school district’s students must pass the High School Proficiency Test, which home-schooled students cannot be compelled to take. While she said she does not question the motivation of home-schooled students, she asked rhetorically, “How do you say to kids with certain standards that kids without those standards are better than you (athletically) and so we have to take them over you?” Lake pointed out that the district’s high school students receive certain credits which home-schooled students do not receive, and home-schooled students do not always behave according to the district’s disciplinary code that is embedded in the high school athletic program. A New Jersey Department of Education policy permits a board of education to allow a child educated elsewhere than at school to participate in curricular and extracurricular activities or sports activities. A 2011 change in the bylaws of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association made it clear that a board of education could, using its discretion, allow home-schooled students to compete in interscholastic sports provided both the school and the home-schooled student comply with NJSIAA guidelines. The NJSIAA has emphasized that a local board of education must decide whether it will permit home-schooled students to participate in sports. If participation is allowed, it must occur in accordance with the NJSIAA homeschooler guidelines to ensure that homeschoolers who participate in sports meet the same eligibility requirements as other student athletes. A survey taken by Roger Pelletier, the high school director of athletics, indicates that 23 school districts do not permit home-schooled students to participate in district (continued on page 25)