As the popularity of home schooling grows, its supporters increasingly seek opportunities for their children to access programming offered by their local public school districts. Home-schooling parents have been most vocal in their wish for their children to participate in extracurricular activities in public schools—particularly sports.

Because parents who homeschool have failed in litigation regarding their children’s ability to participate in extracurricular activities, they have turned their efforts to state legislative action with a fair degree of success. In fact, when the Ohio General Assembly (2013) recently enacted a statute directing school boards to allow participation in sports and other extracurricular activities by children who are home-schooled and who can meet the same requirements as their peers who attend public schools, it joined the ranks of a growing number of states with similar laws in place.

Based on the most recent updates of their statutes, states such as Arizona (2011), Arkansas (2013), Colorado (2013), Florida (2012), Maine (2013), Minnesota (2004), Nevada (2004), New Hampshire (2004), New Mexico (2012), North Dakota (2001), Oregon (2003), Utah (2011), and Vermont (2013) allow students who are homeschooled to participate in extracurricular activities, including sports. Yet permitting students to participate raises important equity issues about the appropriateness of allowing children whose academic progress may not be measured as stringently as in public schools in light of the eligibility requirements of the state athletic association.