Homeschool Sports Eligibility in Minnesota
Yes, through the resident district. Minnesota law requires the school board to let resident homeschooled students fully participate in extracurricular activities, sports included, on the same basis as public school students.
How homeschool participation works
Minnesota Statutes 123B.49, subdivision 4, makes a resident homeschooled student eligible to fully participate in the district's extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities are those not offered for school credit or required for graduation and held mostly outside school hours, which covers interscholastic sports.
The Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) applies the same rule in Bylaw 104.3: a homeschooled student is eligible for League-sponsored activities at the public school in the resident district's attendance area. The League's transfer guide lists a second route, in which a home school with grades 10, 11, or 12 joins the League as its own member school.
Because participation is on the same basis as public school students, the League's eligibility bylaws and the school's own activity rules apply to a homeschooler as they do to any other player.
Rules that decide participation
Resident attendance area
Your child lives in the district and plays for the public school whose attendance area includes your home.
Register for each activity
Your child registers separately for each activity.
League eligibility bylaws
Your child meets the MSHSL eligibility bylaws that enrolled players meet.
Before the season
First step
Contact the activities director at your resident public school, cite Minn. Stat. 123B.49, subdivision 4, and ask how to register your child for the season.
What can rule a player out
The League treats any change of school, including a move into or out of homeschooling, as a transfer, and its transfer rules can limit varsity eligibility for a time.
When to start
Register for each activity before its season, on the school's schedule for enrolled students.
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.