An appellate court ruled against homeschoolers who sought access to public school interscholastic sports. Bradstreet v. Sobol, 650 N.Y.S.2d 402 (A.D. 3 Dept. 1996). The Commissioner of Education’s Regulations pertaining to interscholastic athletic competitions, Section 135.4(c)(7)(ii)(b)(2), requires that students in grades 9–12 must be a “bona fide student, enrolled during the first 15 days of such semester, is registered in the equivalent of three regular courses, is meeting the physical education requirement, and has been in regular attendance 80 percent of the school time...” to be eligible for interscholastic competition in public school sports.

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 therefore refer to association rules of particular importance in a number of entries.

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.