Article: Home-schoolers allowed one sport

This is a good article that explains homeschooler participation in sports in public schools. If you have experiences this year relating to this new law please write me and let me know good or bad so that we can pass the information on to other families!--Tabitha

http://www.news-bulletin.com/sports/72673-07-11-07.html
Home-schoolers allowed one sport

Impact new law will have is unknown

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

A new law passed by the New Mexico Legislature in its 2007 regular session allows home-schooled athletes to participate in one sport per school year.

Senate bill 1098 permits home-schooled athletes to participate in "one school district athletic activity at the public school in the attendance zone in which the student resides," in accordance with New Mexico Activities Association guidelines, the bill states.

After a parent meeting for athletics held recently, former Belen High School athletic director Robert Chavez met briefly with the parents of a handful of home-schooled athletes. He informed them of the new law, as little legislation had previously addressed home-school participation in high school athletics.

"This doesn't hurt a kid who tries out for a team and doesn't make it," said Chavez. "Home-schooled parents and kids only need to choose a sport if they make the team."

The law also states it is a school district's responsibility to verify academic eligibility. A new edition of the New Mexico Activities Association handbook, posted on the Web site www.nmact.org, states eligibility "must be verified by the public school's athletic director at the same time all students are ruled eligible or ineligible for athletic participation."
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