Survey: Should public schools welcome home-schooled athletes?

In November, Coach and Athletic Director asked readers whether home-schooled students should be permitted to play sports at their local public high schools. Here are the results along with some comments from respondents.

• Home school students do not have the same academic accountability as traditional students, nor do they have the same discipline structure.

• If you want to play on the school team, then go to school with your teammates and supporters. Develop a bond with those you are playing with and at school and on the court. We already have home-school teams. They’re called AAU.

• Florida has been allowing this for many years and it has been well received by the public schools as they get more athletes for their teams.

• The issue here is socialization. Unless the home-schooled student has participated in competitive sports previously, public school coaches do not have the time to “babysit.” We have enough societal issues with which to deal as it is.

• Under no circumstance. Athletics is an extension of the school day. If a young adult is not a student at the school, they should not be an athlete at the school.

• This is a tough one, but I lean in the direction of the “yes” vote. I really feel students being home schooled aren’t getting all of the socialization that they need and if we truly believe that as coaches we have a responsibility to help develop well-rounded student-athletes then part of our responsibility would be to help socialize these student-athletes. Being part of a team is a great instrument for this type of development as well as physical development.

• I have coached for several years and have had six or seven home-schooled students on my teams. It is tough socially for most of these kids. As soon as they get over the anxiety of the coach getting on them, they begin to fit into your program. Some home-schooling kids have a harder time adjusting to the stress and constant commitment issues and decide it is not for them.

• Home schooled parents try to use a false address to put their child in a program they do not belong in. Many schools have been sanctioned because of these students.

• If they are not a part of the school environment, for whatever reason, I do not believe that they should be able to participate in school sports. The students of a school need to meet certain requirements, such as discipline and grades, where those can be different if you are home-schooled.