Any student who receives educational instruction outside a public school classroom is allowed to dual enroll in a public school to participate in any public school program, including nonacademic activities and post-secondary programs. The same behavior, performance, and responsibility standards apply.

Homeschool students seeking to participate in nonacademic public school activities that have an academic qualification must have a standardized test or portfolio showing average performance or performance at the student’s grade level. A test or portfolio makes the student eligible (or ineligible) for the current school year and the following school year. Idaho Code §33-203(4) and (9). Homeschool students are not required to take a class at a public school to participate in the school’s sports program.

Things to keep in mind:

Public school access includes participation in public school classes, sports, activities, etc.

States use a unique vocabulary in this area: “extracurricular,” “cocurricular,” “curricular,” “interscholastic,” “program,” “activity,” etc. Care should be taken to distinguish one from another. When a state defines a word, it is important.

While athletic association rules are not “law,” public schools are generally constrained to operate within them, or their teams could be disqualified.

We strive toward keeping this information 100% up to date in this rapidly changing area of the law. However, this post should not be considered authoritative because of the possibility of unobserved changes in association rules, statutes, regulations, or case decisions, and because of lag time between changes and the publication of updates.