Homeschool Sports Eligibility in Maine
Yes, through the local school unit. Maine law lets a home instruction student try out for extracurricular activities, sports included, that the local school unit sponsors, under the same participation rules as enrolled students.
How homeschool participation works
Title 20-A section 5021 gives a student receiving home instruction the right to try out for extracurricular activities sponsored by the local school unit. The student follows the rules of participation that apply to enrolled students in that activity, and the school unit can ask for the documents that show those rules are met.
Cocurricular activities, the ones tied to a class, work differently. The student or a parent applies in writing to the principal and needs written approval, which may not be unreasonably withheld. The student then agrees to the school's behavior, discipline, and attendance rules.
When the unit has no school for your grade
Some Maine school units do not run a school for every grade. A homeschooler in one of them asks the resident unit for authorization to apply to another unit for its classes or activities. Under local policy, the family or the resident unit pays the tuition, and the receiving unit's eligibility rules apply.
Each school unit must adopt a homeschool policy and give families its participation criteria on request. Appeals go to the school board, whose decision is final.
Rules that decide participation
Written application
You apply to the school unit in writing before tryouts.
Same health and age rules
Your child meets the physical examination, immunization, insurance, age, and semester eligibility requirements that enrolled players meet, and you provide the documents when the school asks.
Equivalent academic standards
Your child meets academic standards equivalent to those set for enrolled players, and you give evidence that your child is meeting them.
Same transportation policy
Your child follows the transportation policy that applies to enrolled players in the activity.
Before the season
First step
Ask your school unit for its homeschool participation criteria and the athletic director for the season's tryout dates.
What can rule a player out
A tuitioned homeschooler attending classes in more than one receiving school unit cannot take part in interscholastic activities at any school unit.
When to start
Apply before tryouts for the season, and keep your yearly Notice of Intent current, since the right to try out belongs to students receiving home instruction.
School that fits around the season
Lessons start at your child's level and go wherever practice and travel do. We grade the work as it is submitted and keep the grades and transcript a school or league may ask to see.
$149/month per child after the trial.