By Dana Hess
For the S.D. Newspaper Association
PIERRE — On Wednesday South Dakota High School Activities Association board members got a lesson in how home-schooled students will be included in extracurricular activities.
During the 2021 legislative session, lawmakers passed SB177, which streamlines the notification process for parents who want to home-school their children, removes some testing requirements, strengthens truancy accountability and allows home-schooled students entry into the extracurricular activities of public schools.
At its annual strategic planning session, the SDHSAA board of directors heard about how the new law inspired changes to the association’s eligibility requirements. Prior to the new law, the ability of home-school students to participate in extracurricular activities was left up to the individual school districts. Some allowed participation and others did not.
SDHSAA Executive Director Dan Swartos told board members that in order to participate in extracurricular activities, parents of home-schooled students must provide proof of age as well as a transcript of grades to the school district in which they reside. Those students are also held to the same training and eligibility standards as regularly enrolled students.
Swartos explained that home-schooled students are allowed to try out for sports but there are no guarantees about making the team.
“They’re not guaranteed playing time, starting time,” Swartos said.
Swartos said he is concerned about a rule that allows a regularly enrolled student to switch to home-schooling during a sports season. According to the rule, the student would be ineligible to play that sport for the remainder of the season. In the past, that ineligibility would have lasted a calendar year.
Swartos said a student who’s flunking may opt for home-schooling to maintain athletic eligibility. “That’s the one loophole I see in there,” Swartos said. “We’re going to track that data this year.”
Home-schooled students who want to participate in chorus, orchestra, band and the arts must be enrolled in those classes, Swartos said, explaining that those students need to be tied to a director just as a football player is tied to a coach.
Parents who represent the state’s home-schooling organizations want to see the rules followed, Swartos said. “They don’t want to see people abusing this.”
After this first year of statewide eligibility for home-schooled students, there may be a need to make tweaks in the law. According to Swartos, legislators will be open to making those changes.
Asked about other legislative issues in the coming year, Swartos said he was sure there would be legislation designed to supplant the association’s eligibility rules for transgender students.
“I expect there will be more transgender legislation coming,” Swartos said, explaining that a Connecticut lawsuit that he had hoped would provide some direction has been thrown out of court.
“The policy we have is as legally sound as possible,” Swartos said.
