Homeschool Sports Eligibility in Utah
Yes. Under Utah Code 53G-6-703, a home school student may take part in extracurricular activities, including sports, at the public school whose boundaries the family lives in or the school the student left to homeschool.
How the state law works
The law makes a home school student eligible on the same standards that apply to a fully enrolled student at that school, for that activity. A district or school may not add requirements that enrolled students do not face, and eligibility rules based on school attendance do not apply to a home school student.
Another public school may accept your child only if your child meets its enrollment rules and, for athletics, the Utah High School Activities Association's rules for students who first establish eligibility in grade 9 or 10.
Academic eligibility by affidavit
A home school student meets academic eligibility by mastering the material in each subject and making satisfactory progress. Whoever teaches your child signs an affidavit saying so, and it holds for that activity season.
Rules that decide participation
The right school
Your child plays at the school whose attendance boundaries you live in, or the school your child withdrew from to homeschool, unless another school accepts your child.
Season affidavit
The parent, teacher, or organization teaching your child files the academic eligibility affidavit with the principal each season.
Same standards and fees
Your child meets the standards a fully enrolled student meets for the activity and pays the same participation fees.
Before the season
First step
Ask the principal at your boundary school for the season's affidavit process and the activity's tryout dates.
What can rule a player out
If someone with probable cause challenges the affidavit, a three-member panel reviews test scores or a portfolio and decides eligibility for the season. A public school student declared academically ineligible who switches to home school cannot regain eligibility in that same season.
When to start
Have the affidavit in before tryouts begin.
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.