Published: Aug. 5, 2015
School districts adjusting to new law
Academic eligibility among concerns
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
With the passing of a law which opens the door for
home-schooled students to participate in public school sports, school districts
are trying to figure out how to determine those students’ eligibility, among
other issues associated with the law.
On July 22, the WIAA granted temporary relief for member
schools to accommodate state law, which went against more than 100 years of
tradition.
“It’s more than tradition,” said Dave Anderson, WIAA’s
executive director. “There are very sound reasons why we do what we do.”
Before the law was passed along with Gov. Scott Walker’s
budget in July, WIAA’s Rules of Eligibility required students to be enrolled
full time at a school to be eligible for interscholastic athletics.
The law also said school districts couldn’t be connected
with an association, such as the WIAA, that disallows home-schooled students
the opportunity to play sports at the public school in the district where they
reside.
“Because of the state law, which put schools and school
boards between a rock and a hard place, as the board deliberated, the members’
constitution gives the board authority to provide temporary relief,” Anderson
said. “That was the action the board took in order that home-schooled children
could be provided opportunities as mandated by state law and that schools
wouldn’t have been in violation of the WIAA rules.”
Anderson added he was more frustrated than disappointed with
the law. He was also frustrated over the “style and manner” of which the law
was presented and eventually passed.
“It’s not a style of leadership that would work in my job or
in any other principal’s or superintendent’s job,” Anderson said.
From here, the WIAA and its membership is left wondering how
to determine a home-schooled student’s academic eligibility and how long the
law may stick around. “I don’t have a problem with the idea in theory,” said
Josh Schoemann, Hartford Union High School District treasurer. “I think it
makes some sense at some level.
“I think the problem is aligning the rules with the WIAA and
the new legislation.”
Bill Greymont, principal at West Bend high schools, said he
and other administrators in the West Bend School District haven’t had formal
discussions about how to proceed with the new law. But they do plan to address
it.
The same goes for Hartford and most of the other districts
in the county.
At this fall’s area meetings, the WIAA’s executive staff
plans to discuss the new law with its membership to get an idea of where the
membership stands on the topic. “It’s so new,” Anderson said. “(School
administrators) haven’t had any experience with it. There’s going to be a steep
and rapid learning curve to form an opinion.”
Depending on the feedback at the area meetings, the WIAA
could look into avenues such as legal proceedings to challenge the law.
Parents of children displaced by teams of home-schooled
students may also be willing to do the same thing.
Anderson also suggested homeschooled students’ families may
also challenge the law, saying they want to play at a non-public school.
“They are all premature at this point to speculate,”
Anderson said, but acknowledged those are possibilities.
After the area meetings, and depending on any potential
challenges to repeal the law, the membership will vote on changing the WIAA’s
constitution to include the law at April’s annual meeting.
According to the law, home-schooled students, if interested,
will have to provide a report of their academic eligibility. From there, the
law says they must be taken for their word.
“What happens if you have a student that was expelled (from
a public school) and that individual decides to homeschool?” Schoemann asked.
Tomi Fay Forbes, Wisconsin Parents Association
representative for Washinton, Dodge and Ozaukee counties, said in May when the
law was introduced that a home-schooled student’s curriculum is different than
a student’s at a public or nonpublic school.
That was the reason home-schooled students are
home-schooled, she said.
“We haven’t had those conversations yet,” Schoemann said.
“Most of it is we’re waiting to see what the WIAA’s next move is, which set of
rules are we supposed to work off of.
“To date, we haven’t had any requests for involvement.”
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