Homeschoolers Now Permitted to Play Sports at Public Schools with Some Limitations

Homeschool students can now participate in extracurricular activities under some circumstances thanks to a new bill signed into law.

Governor Brian Kemp recently signed Senate Bill 42, which allows home school students in grades six through 12 to participate in extracurricular and interscholastic activities in the student’s resident public school system.

Specifically, the bill:

  • Requires students to attend one course in their resident school (A resident school is defined as the school the student would attend if he/she were enrolled) in middle and high school for each semester they wish to play sports. The student must enroll 30 days priors to the start of the semester
  • Permits the course to be virtual or face-to-face
  • Allows dual enrollment classes to be considered qualifying courses for extracurricular activities
  • Requires that the home study student provide proof of satisfactory progress in other courses taken outside of the resident school
  • Requires the home school student to participate in the ‘try out’ process just as other students do
  • Stipulates that if a student withdrawals from school to go to home study, they cannot participate in extracurricular for a period of 12 months
  • Prohibits a school or school system from barring a home school student from participation if the student meets all of the aforementioned requirements

Senate Bill 42 was a vehicle bill during the 2021 legislative session – meaning it entailed different legislation with alternative verbiage when it was initially filed. After Crossover Day, lawmakers removed the original language of SB 142, which addressed school climate ratings, and replaced it with the language that ultimately passed because that language failed to make its way through the process in time. In this case, it was House Bill 545.

“I was incredibly honored to stand beside Governor Kemp as he signed Senate Bill 42, also known as the Dexter Mosely Act, into law,” Senator Bruce Thompson said of the legislation. Thompson is a Republican in Cherokee County. “This legislation is six years in the making and will expand athletic opportunities to more of Georgia’s youth. While homeschooled students are typically taught the same subjects as their peers in public schools, they have previously been deemed ineligible from participating in team sports, solely because they are homeschooled. Additionally, their parents pay the same taxes that fund these public schools. Thanks to this new law, homeschooled students will now have the same opportunities that their public school friends have.”

You can read the bill here.

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Jessica Szilagyi

Jessica Szilagyi is Publisher of TGV News. She focuses primarily on state and local politics as well as issues in law enforcement and corrections. She has a background in Political Science with a focus in local government and has a Master of Public Administration from the University of Georgia.

Jessica is a "Like It Or Not" contributor for Fox5 in Atlanta and co-creator of the Peabody Award-nominated podcast 'Prison Town.'

Sign up for her weekly newsletter: http://eepurl.com/gzYAZT

10 Comments

  1. Jessica, I’m curious about the 5th bullet point in your article. You stat “ Stipulates that if a student withdrawals from school to go to home study, they cannot participate in extracurricular for a period of 12 months”. However line 84 of the bill specifically says “students who withdraws from PUBLIC school” must wait a year to participate in extracurricular activities. There is no mention of a waiting period for kids that withdraw from private school to home school needing to wait the 12 months. Do you know if kids moving from private school to home school require to wait 12 months? As I said above the Bill is specific about Public to home school kids.

  2. This does not support homeschoolers. We should never be required to take a class from a public school or to be excluded if we move to homeschool. This bill makes it “look” like they’ve given homeschoolers an opportunity when in fact they’ve just changed the red tape around.

    • I agree with Jenna Collins. This isn’t helpful to the homeschool students and families. This makes us just jump through more hoops.

  3. Does only taking a physical education class qualify the student to participate in the sports teams? It seems to me it should have to be an academic class.

  4. This bill seems to punish public school students that wish to become home schooled. They have to completely miss out a year of participation in their sport. Totally unfair!

  5. My son and daughter go to GACA homeschool. Is there only certain homeschool programs that accept this or are all homeschoolers in GA are eligible?

    • My kids did too but in order for them to play ftball , they had to either go to the virtual school for the county or go in person.

  6. Couple follow up questions below

    Can student that withdrawals from private school still be able to play sports at the same school without sitting out a year?

    Can student that leaves private school and moves to another country public school system have to sit out a year?

  7. This bill does not help homeschoolers. If they learn better online why are they being punished for taking classes online and then having to wait a whole year to be eligible is definitely not helpful to the student especially if they are a senior.

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