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Community Supporting Homeschooling
Why Homeschooling is Still Controversial
By Carma Haley Shoemaker
Children of all ages love to be involved in all types of activities – Scouts, sports, academic competitions, musical or dramatic performances. This gives rise to another controversy: Does a home schooled child have the right to be involved in community activities, organizations or sports?
It varies by area, Ishizuka says. "The rules and regulations differ from state to state, county to county and district to district, as do the feelings toward home schoolers and their children," she says. "Where one district will allow children who are home schooled to belong to clubs that are normally just open to children who attend the public school system, other districts will state that in order to participate in these activities, the child must attend the school."
But home schooled children are still a part of the district, Ishizuka says. "Parents usually need to verify their status of home schooling with the district or school board. This is where the controversy comes in – if they belong to the district then they should have access to all extracurricular activities and programs."
Both the ERIC and Ishizuka recommend that a parent check into these types of concerns prior to registering their children as home schooled. However, there are alternatives to school-related activities. Programs offered at community centers, local teen groups, YMCA and YWCA locations as well as state, county and city home schooling networks all have activities that are open to home schooled children.
