Published on
By: Amaris Garber*
I. Introduction
“I know what you’re thinking. Homeschooled kids are freaks.”[1] So says the protagonist Cady Heron in the original 2004 movie, “Mean Girls.”[2] In a montage of exaggerated caricatures, “Mean Girls” winked at the general public’s perceptions of a subculture that has experienced striking growth in recent years: homeschooling.[3] Influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic[4] and reinforced by parental interests in controlling the environment in which they raise their child,[5] homeschooling is here to stay. Already inherently amorphous by its individualized nature, homeschooling has continued to evolve, reflecting the diversity of those who choose to homeschool their children.[6] As homeschooling expands its cultural audience and legal reach, it implicates certain legal issues, and the Missouri Legislature has not been passively witnessing on the sidelines. Rather, the most recent venture into homeschool legislation from the Missouri Legislature seeks to expand homeschooling beyond the walls of the home and into the walls of a public school—or, more aptly described, onto their football fields.[7]
Missouri Senate Bill 819 would prohibit any school district from denying homeschool students the opportunity to participate “in any event or activity offered by the school district,” or imposing certain course-load requirements for student participation in events or activities.[8] Further, the bill would repeal Missouri Revised Statute § 167.042, which states that parents “may provide [notice of intent to homeschool] to the recorder of deeds of the county where the child legally resides” when homeschooling their child.[9]
This Law Summary explores the homeschooling quest for extracurricular access, how Senate Bill 819 seeks to alter the current constraints on homeschooling, and the confusion embedded in the proposed bill. Part II examines the homeschooling phenomenon, investigating its cultural development and legal framework nationwide. Part III examines the recent developments in Missouri homeschooling trends, including its cultural changes and past legislative attempts at expanding homeschooling opportunities in extracurricular participation. Finally, Part IV posits that Senate Bill 819 is ripe for confusion and conflict not simply for its unclear distinctions between new terminology but for the way it imposes unrealistic expectations for homeschool parents to carry out public school policies regarding academic performance and attendance as well as curtailing reasonable record keeping in the public school.
II. Legal Background
A. History of Homeschooling: A Broad Cultural Overview
When examining the history of homeschooling, academics disagree on its genesis.[10] Some consider homeschooling a newer phenomenon.[11] Others claim it is the oldest form of education in existence.[12] The disparity between these arguments stems from how one characterizes homeschooling: either motivated by necessity due to lack of educational access or by ideological or pedagogical convictions.[13] The argument that homeschooling is a modern trend highlights the choice to homeschool based on fears of discrimination, critiques of traditional education, and the desire for flexibility and control in a child’s development.[14] Further, this understanding highlights the association between homeschooling and conservative and religious fundamentalism.[15] Alternatively, the argument that homeschooling is long-lasting focuses on the most literal form of the educational method: as Tanya K. Dumas writes, “Parents have always taught their children at home.”[16]
Until Massachusetts enacted the first compulsory attendance legislation in 1852, education fell within the realm of the home and under parental supervision.[17] America’s education laws predating 1852 emphasized parental responsibility as opposed to schools’ purview.[18] These reflected an English tradition from the 16th and 17th centuries that sought to shape children into participating citizens within a trade or profession.[19] This motivation regarding the instruction of children to form citizens persisted even after Massachusetts passed the first compulsory attendance law, but it shifted the responsibility for education to schools as opposed to parents; by 1918, all states had compulsory school laws.[20] Driven by a nativist impulse, late 19th-century Americans supported compulsory schooling to promote citizenship and active participation in both society and the economy, viewing immigrant parental control over their children’s education as “disorderly” and culturally destructive.[21] Compulsory education as a manner of social reform established the elaborate public school system in America today.
Where compulsory attendance began as a manner of cultural control, modern homeschooling arose as a countercultural response to traditional education in the 1960s and 70s.[22] The cultural phenomenon of modern homeschooling can be traced to two veins: (1) an approach that sought out flexibility and child-guided learning and (2) an approach that sought traditional, classical education.[23] The more flexible approach to homeschooling, known as “unschooling,” is led by a child’s natural curiosity.[24] The New York Times says of the pedagogy: “[It] is premised on letting your kid sleep in, read whatever they like (or not) and learn math (or not) through baking, elaborate Lego creations, or wandering the internet rather than working through a textbook.”[25] The phenomenon arose from criticism of mainstream education that sees it as squashing curiosity and individual expression.[26] Premised on the assumption that public schools confine children’s natural curiosity, founder of the “unschooling” movement John Holt stated that by allowing children to control what they want to learn, “they will make for themselves a better path into the world than we could make for them.”[27] In contrast, another form of homeschooling arose from a more conservative impetus, where parents saw public schools as a threat to their religious beliefs.[28] Organizations like the Home School Legal Defense Association (“HSLDA”) establish the right to homeschool from the fundamental right of parental control over a child’s education.[29]
Yet, given its amorphous nature, homeschooling has continued to evolve; specifically, COVID-19 has further altered the makeup of the homeschool world.[30] One aspect of homeschooling that has changed in the past five years is the number of homeschoolers, driven mainly by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent public school closings.[31] During the height of COVID-19, nearly 124,000 schools (both public and private) were closed, affecting at least 55.1 million students.[32] Between March and September 2020, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that the number of homeschooled families doubled from 5.4% to 11%.[33] Homeschooling increased by 63% in the 2020-2021 school year; it decreased by 17% in the 2021-2022 school year.[34] Missouri was not exempt from national trends: from 5.6% in 2020-2021 to 7.7% in 2023-2024, homeschooling became more popular in the past five years.[35] In 2023, Missouri made up nearly 10% of all homeschoolers.[36] That same year, Missouri’s public and private school enrollment rates were also lower than national rates.[37]
Increases in homeschooling across the nation have not persisted solely because of closed schools but because parents have found success in homeschooling to adapt to their children’s distinctive needs.[38] Homeschooling enables parents to tailor education to fit their child’s identity, including factors such as religion, race, or learning disabilities.[39] One parent reported: “I think a lot of Black families realized that when we had to go to remote learning, they realized exactly what was being taught. And a lot of that doesn’t involve us.”[40] Another Black parent stated that she began homeschooling after her son reported being mistreated by an administrator; accordingly, she turned to the National Black Home Educators for curriculum to teach her son from their home.[41] Religion, although always at least an undercurrent if not an overt motivator in homeschooling, continues to influence the parental choice to educate at home. One parent describes beginning to homeschool after COVID-19: “I felt God was holding my hand.”[42] Notably, recent data on homeschoolers demonstrated a more balanced split between Democrats and Republicans.[43]
Trends on a national level are on full display in Missouri. One Missouri parent reported homeschooling to explore new interests: she cited the benefit of “being able to have more autonomy in our child’s education, what you consider safe and just what you want, and not to trust somebody else is doing it.”[44] Though the cultural evolution of homeschooling has adapted to new circumstances and encompassed more diverse pedagogies, the trends indicate that homeschooling is here to stay.
B. State Homeschool Legislative Schemes
While homeschooling is legal in every state,[45] not all state regulatory statutes are made equal.[46] Just as the cultural makeup of homeschooling resists broad generalizations and reflects its complex makeup, academics have created interpretive schemes to aid in succinctly analyzing state laws regulating (or not regulating) homeschooling.[47] The typical regime divides legislation into three types: private school laws, equivalency laws, and home education laws.[48]
The first regime does not distinguish home education from private school for regulation and compulsory attendance.[49] “These states tend to have broad qualification statutes and minimal interference in the school once it qualifies as a private school.”[50] Language in these types of statutory schemes does not differentiate homeschooling as a separate exemption from private schools.[51] Statutory language includes homeschooling in categories such as “church school,”[52] “private tutor,”[53] or “private school where children are taught the branches of education taught to children of corresponding age and grade in the public schools.”[54] Statutes that follow this regulatory approach typically do not impose homeschool-specific regulations once a home educator qualifies as a private school.[55] These laws require home education to comport with general private school requirements but do not extensively impose greater regulations than that.[56] As long as homeschooling is a “private school,” the government does not interfere.
Equivalency laws require that homeschool curriculum must be equivalent to public schools as opposed to private schools.[57] A distinction between these laws and private school laws is the amount of paperwork and governmental oversight required.[58] Connecticut exemplifies this approach as its compulsory attendance law exempts students whose parents can “show that the child is elsewhere receiving equivalent instruction in the studies taught in the public schools.”[59] Notice to the government and curriculum review are optional.[60] Alternatively, Massachusetts adopts equivalency laws but imposes a notice requirement.[61] In Massachusetts, school districts oversee homeschooling plans with distinct criteria for approval.[62] Finally, home education laws subject homeschoolers to specific regulations as a distinct form of education.[63] These laws vary from state to state.[64] South Carolina, for example, has a statute that imposes regulations on homeschool programs.[65] To homeschool, parents must prove to the district board of trustees that they hold a high school diploma or GED certificate or have earned a baccalaureate degree; their homeschooling program meets the requisite time requirements of the statute; and their curriculum includes reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies.[66] Further, parents must keep detailed records of their children’s school work, ensure their children have access to library facilities, have their children participate in statewide testing, and agree in writing to exculpate the district board of trustees from liability for any educational deficiencies that may occur.[67]
Embedded into these statutory schemes are a myriad of other distinctive factors. Some states impose notice requirements for homeschoolers, requiring parents to report their choice to homeschool to the state.[68] Another factor is an assessment requirement mandating standardized testing or evaluation by a licensed professional.[69] A final and notable characteristic of homeschool regulation nationwide is access to public school facilities.[70] Laws allowing homeschoolers to participate in sports at public schools are called Tim Tebow laws in reference to the well-known homeschooled athlete.[71] Tim Tebow laws fall into three categorizations.[72] First, some states allow homeschoolers access to interscholastic activities but impose the same requirements on homeschoolers that are imposed on public schoolers to participate.[73] Such participation requirements often include “registration, age eligibility, fees, physical condition, standards of behavior, and passing grades.”[74] Alternatively, some states mandate access to both extracurricular and interscholastic activities.[75] Finally, some states expand access even further: homeschoolers have access to curricular, extracurricular, and interscholastic activities.[76]
III. Recent Developments
A. Current Missouri Homeschool Legal Scheme
Missouri’s homeschool legislative scheme is best characterized as a home education regime because it includes homeschooling as its own distinct categorization.[77] Missouri compulsory attendance legislation includes homeschooling alongside private, parochial, or parish schools as forms of education to which attendance requirements apply.[78]
Missouri’s homeschool legislative scheme defines homeschooling by three characteristics: (1) its private purpose is to provide private or religious-based instruction; (2) it enrolls its students from the required age in accordance with the state’s compulsory attendance; and (3) it does not charge tuition.[79] Missourians must maintain records of their homeschooled student’s education, including a written record of curriculum, a portfolio of samples of their academic work, and a record of evaluations of their child’s progress.[80] Notably, Missouri imposes no notification requirements.[81] Missouri Revised Statute §167.042 provides that a parent who homeschools their child “may provide to the recorder of deed of the county where the child legally resides. . . a written declaration of enrollment stating their intent for the child to attend a homeschool within thirty days after the establishment of the home school. . .”[82] Such declaration should include: (1) the name and age of the homeschooled children; (2) the address and phone number; (3) the name of the parent teaching; and (4) the name, address, and signature of whoever is making the declaration of enrollment.[83]
B. Missouri’s Current Homeschooling Access to Extracurriculars
The Missouri State High School Activities Association (“MSHSAA”) is an association that oversees interscholastic activities within the state.[84] MSHSAA is a “voluntary, nonprofit, educational association of secondary schools established for the purpose of working collaboratively to develop and adopt standards of supervision and administration to regulate the diverse interscholastic activities and contests. . .”[85] First established in 1927, the organization promulgates rules and by-laws governing Missouri student participation in interscholastic activities.[86] Its mission statement follows: “MSHSAA promotes the value of participation, sportsmanship, team play, and personal excellence to develop citizens who make positive contributions to their community and support the democratic principles of our state and nation.”[87]
MSHSAA’s relationship with homeschoolers is fraught.[88] The membership section of MSHSAA’s Official Handbook of 2023-24 expressly states that homeschool associations do not qualify for membership.[89] Although homeschool associations may still compete against MSHSAA members as long as they meet a series of nine criteria, they are not able to participate as a MSHSAA member in the same capacity as a school.[90]
To participate in interscholastic activities through a MSHSAA membership school, a child must qualify as a bona fide student or one who meets MSHSAA’s eligibility requirements.[91] To meet this eligibility, a student must earn 3.0 units of credit or earn credit in 80% of the maximum allowable classes for which the student can be enrolled for a semester, whichever is greater.[92] School districts may be more restrictive of homeschool access if they desire.[93] The result of the MSHSAA policy and the discretion of local schools is that homeschooled students can only participate in interscholastic activities through a public school if they forfeit their homeschool status in some manner by taking a certain level of classes.[94]
C. Senate Bill 819
Missouri Senate Bill 819, pre-filed by Senator Ben Brown from Washington, Missouri, is ambitiously lengthy.[95] The bill was originally two pages long and focused solely on homeschool access to public school sports and clubs.[96] Now, it spans fifty-two pages and incorporates changes to attendance officers’ authority over homeschoolers and mandates virtual courses offered by each school district or charter school.[97] The original tenet of the proposed bill—homeschool access to extracurricular—is buried in the new provisions.[98]
To understand Senate Bill 819’s approach to extracurricular access in proposed § 167.790, one must start with proposed § 167.031, which introduces new terminology for Missouri homeschoolers.[99] Sprinkled through the fifty-two pages of the bill is the term “FLEX” school, standing for “Family Led Education eXperience school.”[100] FLEX schools meet the three provided criteria for homeschooling, regardless of incorporation status.[101] Further, they may enroll pupils that participate in the Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Program (an educational tax credit program) and participate in events and activities offered by public schools.[102] The qualification as a FLEX school is important to enable access to public school extracurriculars, but the statute makes clear that such access does not “grant regulatory oversight or rulemaking authority over FLEX schools” to state agencies.[103]
Based on this framework, proposed § 167.790 sustains the issue of access to public school activities.[104] The section begins by defining “integrated cocurricular activities” as “activities that are outside of the regular school curriculum but complement and supplement curriculum.”[105] “Fine arts activities” refers to “any student activities that include dance, theatre, vocal music, performance of music or visual arts.”[106] After defining these terms, the bill continues, stating that no school district may be a member of a statewide activities association which:
Prohibits a student who is receiving instruction at a FLEX school or at a virtual school as a full- time equivalent student from having the opportunity to participate in any event or activity offered by the school district or an attendance center of the school district in which the student resides and where the statewide activities association exercises authority, rules, or guidelines for participating in such events or activities for any reason relating to such student’s FLEX or virtual instruction.[107]
Additionally, the bill requires that a school district may not be a member of an organization which would require a FLEX student to qualify as a full-time equivalent student . . . to participate in any event or activity offered by the school district . . .”[108] The bill qualifies that such proscriptions shall not interfere with a school district’s establishment of attendance policies for “rehearsals, practice sessions, or training sessions.”[109] Further, school disciplinary and attendance policies that would apply to preclude a student from participating in an event or activity shall apply equally to FLEX students; the parent providing FLEX education is “responsible for oversight of academic standards relating to the student’s participation in an event or activity” at the public school.[110]
FLEX terminology is unique to Senate Bill 819, but the impetus to advocate for homeschool access to extracurriculars is not.[111] Expanding Missourian homeschoolers’ access to public school activities is not a 2024 development.[112] Similar acts have appeared in both the Missouri House and Senate in 2022, 2021, 2020, and 2019.[113] No bill has successfully passed.
IV. Discussion
At a March 2023 hearing, Senator Ben Brown stated, “As a former athlete myself whose childhood was greatly impacted by my participation in the sport of wrestling, I feel strongly that it is wrong to deny these potentially life-changing opportunities to children.”[114] The policy rationale thus becomes clear: homeschoolers (or, as Brown would have it, “FLEX” students) should have access to extracurriculars for their edification.[115]
This impulse, though, is not as simple as letting homeschoolers play sports. This proposed bill implicates several issues, including: the authority of MSHSAA and its legal right of regulation; parental rights and public-school oversight; and a question of whether homeschoolers, who actively choose to remove their children from the public school system, even want the right to enter back. While the concept is straightforward, Senate Bill 819 is ripe with confusion and conflict.
This Discussion explores such issues. Part A examines the legal status of extracurricular sports as privileges as opposed to a right. Part B investigates how Bill 819 creates confusing expectations for homeschooling parents to follow public school policies while not being a part of their institution. The ultimate result of Bill 819 is an impractical and ambitious attempt at introducing homeschoolers back into public schools where many homeschoolers may not want to go.
A. Extracurriculars: A Privilege or a Right?
MSHSAA, as one of its objectives, states that one of its missions is “to formulate minimum uniform and equitable standards of eligibility that must be met by students to attain the privilege of representing their schools in interscholastic activities.”[116] (Emphasis added). Their handbook further states:
Participation: Eligibility to represent a school in interscholastic activities is a privilege to be attained by meeting the standards of eligibility cooperatively set by the member schools through this association and any additional standards set by a member school for its own students.[117] (Emphasis added).
Before Senate Bill 819 sought to expand homeschooling access to sports through legislative reform, MSSHAA’s approach to extracurriculars and athletics as privileges rather than rights have been attacked on constitutional grounds.[118] In re U.S. ex rel. Missouri State High School Activities Ass’n (1982)involved three Missouri students challenging MSSHAA’s transfer rule, which holds that transferring schools makes a student athlete ineligible to play for one year following the transfer.[119] The students argued that the rule violated their Equal Protection rights, specifically interfering with their right to interstate travel, their freedom of association since the rule penalizes changes of school, and the freedom of parents to choose a nonpublic education.[120] The 8th Circuit rejected all of these claims.[121] Applying a rational basis test, the Court found that MSHHA’s regulation intends to prevent recruitment of high school athletes.[122]
The students also challenged MSSHAA’s regulation as a violation of their Due Process rights.[123] Given MSSHA’s specific procedures and avoidance of arbitrariness, the court rejected this claim.[124] Then the court wrote, “Participation in interscholastic athletics is an important part of the educational process. Nonetheless, education has not been deemed a fundamental right under the Fourteenth Amendment requiring application of strict judicial scrutiny.”[125]
Although In re U.S. re. Missouri State High School Activities Ass’n did not explicitly incorporate homeschool athletes, the case lays the groundwork for understanding MSHAA’s relationships with homeschool students. The outcome of this case indicates that extracurriculars or sports are not fundamental rights; where policies are not arbitrary and dictated by clear policies, courts will not upset MSHAA’s regulations.[126]
B. Senate Bill 819’s Confusion Over the Scope of a District’s Oversight and a Homeschool Parent’s Authority
MSHAA encourages districts to create requirements for academic performance but states that high school activities “should not be looked upon as a reward for academic success.”[127] Given that academic performance requirements to participate in sports are within Missouri school districts’ discretion, the proposed bill addresses academic performance and discipline in relation to homeschool students.[128] It states:
If a student whose academic performance or disciplinary status would preclude such student from eligibility to participate in extracurricular events or activities in his resident school district disenrolls from such school district in order to receive instruction at a FLEX school or at a virtual school as a full-time equivalent student, such student shall not be eligible to participate in public school events or activities in the district of such student’s disenrollment for twelve calendar months from the date of disenrollment.[129]
The following section states that the parent or legal guardian educating the homeschool student “is responsible for oversight of academic standards relating to the student’s participation in an event or activity [.]”[130]
This scenario, which this section attempts to address, is not unreasonable nor impossible to imagine. If a student attending a MSHHA-member public school drops below the required GPA threshold of their district to continue playing their sport, their parent may simply choose to “homeschool” that child in order to allow them to continue playing but under the protection of the FLEX student status. This section admirably seeks to curtail this: if this were to happen, a student will not be able to participate until twelve calendar months after their disenrollment.[131]
Yet the problems with this hypothetical scenario are not so neatly fixed by the bill. A defining theme of Senate Bill 819 is shielding Missouri homeschoolers from regulation.[132] The bill explicitly states that it “shall not be construed to grant regulatory oversight or rulemaking authority over FLEX schools or FLEX school pupils to any state agency[.]”[133] Reducing government regulation is further exemplified by the bill’s elimination of § 167.042, which stated a homeschooling parent “may” provide the state a notice of their intent to homeschool.[134]
In accordance with this theme, the bill places oversight of a homeschool student’s compliance with a school district’s academic requirements to participate with the parent or legal guardian.[135] It states that any school district records relating to the homeschool student’s academic performance may not be disclosed for any purpose, creating a vacuum between the homeschool parent and the school district.[136] Under this scheme, the school district communicates its requirements to the homeschool parent, and the parent in turn must enforce their policies. How such enforcement would work is not described.
In theory, this system addresses the concerns of all parties involved. MSHAA schools may still create academic requirements to play sports while homeschool students still maintain autonomy and freedom from regulation. Unfortunately, the logistics of such a system fail to satisfy the natural end of the hypothetical scenario previously raised; a parent willing to disenroll a student to participate in sports as a “FLEX” student will have no reason to try to enforce a school district’s policy that resulted in their child’s ineligibility to play sports.
Perhaps a more likely hypothetical scenario is one where a homeschool student was already previously homeschooled and is now looking to join the local public school’s extracurricular activities. Yet the same potential issues arise. A school may impose a specific requirement that a student must have a threshold GPA to participate. Under the bill, the homeschooling parent is responsible for determining that their child meets the requisite grades.[137]
This presents the same conflicts of interest proposed by the earlier hypothetical. It is hard to imagine a scenario in which a parent chooses to have their child participate in public school activities and then states that their child fails to qualify under the academic requirements. Further, a parent home-educating chooses how to teach their children which may not even adopt the same educational metrics as their public school district, producing even more complications.
Thus, the question arises: How can school districts ensure that homeschool parents are enforcing their eligibility requirements at the same time Senate Bill 819 promises lessened oversight? The question remains unanswered. What is clear is that Senate Bill 819 wants homeschool oversight lessened in Missouri. When homeschooler parents’ oversight is pitted against public school district’s discretionary requirements, homeschoolers will be favored, undermining any academic requirements imposed by a school district. The proposed bill seeks to have its cake and eat it too, allowing homeschoolers access to public school activities without subjecting them to the oversight that all other participants must adhere to.
There is another side to this story, though. An initial reading of Senate Bill 819 may imply to some readers that homeschooling opportunities in Missouri are fraught and on the defense from MSHSAA and other local entities. Senator Brown himself appears to subscribe to this idea: “As a former athlete myself whose childhood was greatly impacted by my participation in the sport of wrestling, I feel strongly that it is wrong to deny these potentially life-changing opportunities to children.”[138] Evidently, the Missouri Legislature, at least to some extent, sees homeschoolers as isolated and poor in opportunities for activities.
Yet, this is not the case. St. Charles County Parks and Recreation offers a homeschool curriculum (“Homeschool Skill-Builder”) that includes “soapmaking, pumpkin carving, hiking[.]”[139] “While churches have long hosted home-school programming, now parks departments, universities and local businesses are openly marketing to home-schooling families.”[140] Maryville University of St. Louis allows homeschool students to take six-week classes in “robotics, Lego and animations in their interactive STEM studio.”[141] From trampoline parks to book fairs at public schools, classes and clubs abound for Missouri homeschoolers.[142]
Further, Missouri homeschooling teams for volleyball, basketball, soccer, baseball, football, and cross country exist across the state.[143] There are dance and cheer, robotics, and ultimate frisbee programs.[144] Despite Senator Brown’s concerns that homeschool students are being left to the wayside in sports, a flourishing subculture exists for homeschool sports in Missouri.[145] Senate Bill 819, in its quest to ensure public school extracurricular access for homeschoolers, ignores the very vibrant homeschooling communities across the state.
With all the activities available to homeschoolers across the state, the question remains: do Missouri homeschoolers even want this bill? Kim Quon, a regional director from Families for Home Education (“FHE”), reports a spectrum of responses.[146] Though FHE’s stance on the proposed bill is currently neutral, the same is not true for all Missouri homeschoolers.[147] For some, access to public school amenities is a matter of fairness on the basis that their tax dollars help fund them.[148] For others, privacy is their central concern, and allowing their children into the public school system even in a confined capacity sparks concerns.[149] Additionally, the FLEX language of the proposed bill makes others wary given how it introduces foreign terminology into the dialogue between homeschoolers and public schools.[150]
By its nature, homeschooling is countercultural.[151] Removing students from a traditional schooling environment to tailor it to their needs and a parent’s pedagogical and ideological beliefs can establish greater control and influence over a child’s life.[152] Consequently, seeking to reintroduce those same students back into a system they rejected while attempting to avoid forfeiting complete parental control over the homeschooled child, as this bill attempts, poses feasibility concerns and impractical logistical problems.
V. Conclusion
Homeschooling has much to offer. Instilling religious and cultural traditions in children, establishing consistent and tailored curriculums, and letting a child’s curiosity dictate the school day are only a few reasons many people find fulfillment with home education.[153] For Missouri residents specifically, homeschooling is a thriving and vibrant presence. For those who choose to educate at home outside of a traditional school setting, opportunities for community and personal development through clubs and sports exist for homeschoolers who wish to maintain their privacy and autonomy. When privacy and autonomy are the aim, these opportunities strengthen the homeschooling experience.
Senate Bill 819 complicates these clear avenues both for homeschooling families and public schools. The impetus to create opportunities for all children is worthwhile, but reducing public school districts’ ability to enforce their own participation requirements and leaving unanswered questions about the scope of all parties involved leaves Senate Bill 819 ripe for confusion. Distilling these concerns, the alternative to Bill 819 should not be to eliminate all opportunities for homeschool students to participate in public school activities. Rather, the greatest lesson learned from Senate Bill 819 is one that all those who played sports must learn at some point: everyone must play by the same rules.
* B.A., Major in History, Minor in Spanish for the Professions, Truman State University, Kirksville, MO, 2021; J.D. Candidate, University of Missouri School of Law, 2025; Associate Member, 2023-2024, Note and Comment Editor, 2024-2025, Missouri Law Review. Amaris thanks Professor Rachel Wechsler for her insights and generosity; all those in Missouri Law Review who helped shape this article into what it is today; and her friends and family for their support. Most importantly, Amaris thanks her mother who chose to homeschool her and to whom Amaris owes everything.
[1] Alissa Wilkinson, ‘Mean Girls’ and the New (Home-Schooled) Kid in Class, N.Y. Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/14/movies/mean-girls-home-school.html (Jan. 14, 2024).
[2] Id.
[3] Peter Jamison, et. al., Home schooling’s rise from fringe to fastest-growing form of education, Wash. Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2023/homeschooling-growth-data-by-district/ (Oct. 31, 2023).
[4] David Crary, Sparked by pandemic fallout, homeschooling surges across US, AP News, https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-homeschooling-2f0ac73aa4b9fbfc5f2179103f1a14c4 (July 25, 2021).
[5] Id.
[6] Michael McShane, Homeschooling in Missouri Nearly Doubled in 2020, Show-Me-Institute, (Apr. 2, 2021) https://showmeinstitute.org/blog/education/homeschooling-in-missouri-nearly-doubled-in-2020/.
[7] S. 819, 102nd Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Mo. 2024).
[8] Id. at 30.
[9] Id. at 50–51.
[10] Cf. Elizabeth Bartholet, Homeschooling: Parent Rights Absolutism vs. Child Rights to Education & Protection, 62 Ariz. L. Rev. 1, 8–9 (2020); Tanya K. Dumas et. al., Evidence for Homeschooling: Constitutional Analysis in Light of Social Science Research, 16 Widener L. Rev. 63, 68 (2010).
[11] Bartholet, supra note 10 at 8–9.
[12] Dumas, supra note 10 at 68.
[13] Cf., e.g., Elizabeth Bartholet, Homeschooling: Parent Rights Absolutism vs. Child Rights to Education & Protection, 62 Ariz. L. Rev. 1, 8–9 (2020); Tanya K. Dumas et. al., Evidence for Homeschooling: Constitutional Analysis in Light of Social Science Research, 16 Widener L. Rev. 63, 64 (2010).
[14] Bartholet, supra note 10 at 10.
[15] Dumas, supra note 10 at 69.
[16] Id. at 68.
[17] Christina Sim Keddie, Homeschoolers and Public School Facilities: Proposals for Providing Fairer Access, 10 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 603, 607 (2007).
[18] Id.
[19] Gerald B. Lotzer, Texas Homeschooling: An Unresolved Conflict Between Parents and Educators, 39 Baylor L. Rev. 469, 470 (1987).
[20] Id. at 471.
[21] David B. Tyack, Ways of Seeing: An Essay on the History of Compulsory Schooling, 46 Harv. Educ. Rev., No. 3, 363 (1976).
[22] J. Gary Knowles, et. al, From Pedagogy to Ideology: Origins and Phases of Home Education in the United States, 1970-1990, Am. J. of Ed.100, no. 2 (1992): 195, 195.
[23] Id.
[24] Molly Worthen, ‘When you get into Unschooling, It’s Almost like a Religion’, N.Y. Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/opinion/sunday/unschooling-homeschooling-remote-learning.html (Sept. 25, 2020).
[25] Id.
[26] Id.
[27] Christina Sim Keddie, Homeschoolers and Public School Facilities: Proposals for Providing Fairer Access, 10 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 603, 610 (2007) (quoting John Holt, How Children Learn 157 (rev. ed., Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence 1983)).
[28] See generally Peter Jaimeson, The revolt of the Christian home-schoolers, Wash. Post (May 30, 2024, at 8:52 a.m.) https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/interactive/2023/christian-home-schoolers-revolt/.
[29] Christina Sim Keddie, Homeschoolers and Public School Facilities: Proposals for Providing Fairer Access, 10 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 603, 609–11 (2007). The organization focuses on advocacy for parental rights and religious freedom, known as “the most influential homeschool organization in the world.” Jaimeson, supra note 28.
[30] Crary, supra note 4.
[31] Map: Coronavirus and School Closures in 2019-2020, Ed. Week, https://www.edweek.org/leadership/map-coronavirus-and-school-closures-in-2019-2020/2020/03 (Oct. 13, 2021).
[32] Id.
[33] Crary, supra note 4.
[34] Carolyn Thompson, Homeschooling surge continues despite schools reopening, AP News, https://apnews.com/article/covid-business-health-buffalo-education-d37f4f1d12e57b72e5ddf67d4f897d9a (April 14, 2022).
[35] Blyth Bernhard and Josh Renaud, Pandemic Shift to Home-schooling Goes Mainstream in Missouri, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/pandemic-shift-to-home-schooling-goes-mainstream-in-missouri/article_0c93d338-6e96-11ee-8690-6f2bdb3ece6d.html#:~:text=But%20Missouri%20appears%20to%20have,household%20with%20kids%20in%20school (Oct. 23, 2023).
[36] Id.
[37] Id.
[38] Crary, supra note 4.
[39] Id.
[40] Thompson, supra note 34.
[41] Crary, supra note 4.
[42] Id.
[43] Bernhard, supra note 35.
[44] Bernhard, supra note 35.
[45] See Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 403 (1923) (invalidating a state statute that mandated all subjects to be taught in English as an unreasonable interference in an individual’s Fourteenth Amendment right relating to educational choice); Pierce v. Soc’y of the Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534 (1925) (finding that a statute compelling attendance at public schools interferes with the right of parents to choose where to educate their children); Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972) (holding that an Amish community could take their children out of school despite compulsory school attendance statutes for religious purposes).
[46] Judith G. Mcmullen, Behind Closed Doors: Should States Regulate Homeschooling?, 54 S.C. L. Rev. 75, 87 (2002).
[47] Keddie, supra note 17 at 611–13. See also McMullen, supra note 46 at 87–91.
[48] Christina Sim Keddie, Homeschoolers and Public-School Facilities: Proposals for Providing Fairer Access, 10 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 603, 611–13 (2007). See also Judith G. McMullen, Behind Closed Doors: Should States Regulate Homeschooling?, 54 S.C. L. Rev. 75, 87–91 (2002).
[49] Christina Sim Keddie, Homeschoolers and Public-School Facilities: Proposals for Providing Fairer Access, 10 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 603, 611–12 (2007).
[50] Id.
[51] Id.
[52] Ala. Code § 16-28-1 (2023).
[53] Id. at § 16-28-5.
[54] 105 Ill. Comp. Stat. Ann. 5/26-1 (2023).
[55] McMullen, supra note 46 at 87.
[56] Id. at 88.
[57] Keddie, supra note 17 at 611–13.
[58] Id.
[59] Conn. Gen. Stat. Ann. § 10-184 (2021).
[60] How to Comply with Connecticut’s Homeschool Law, Home School Legal Defense Association, https://hslda.org/post/how-to-comply-with-connecticuts-homeschool-law (Aug. 01, 2020).
[61] Home Schooling, Mass. Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Educ., https://www.doe.mass.edu/homeschool/.
[62] Id.
[63] Keddie, supra note 17 at 611–13.
[64] Id.
[65] S.C. Code Ann. § 59-65-40 (2023).
[66] Id.
[67] Id.
[68] Tayler G. Hansford, Education Law-the Traveler’s Guide to Homeschool Regulation in the United States, 43 Am. J. Trial Advoc. 513, 514 (2020).
[69] Id. at 516–17.
[70] Id. at 517–18.
[71] Id. at 517.
[72] Keddie, supra note 17 at 615–17.
[73] Keddie, supra note 17 at 615-617. See, e.g. Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 15-802.01 (“Notwithstanding any other law, a child who resides within the attendance area of a public school and who is homeschooled shall be allowed to try out for interscholastic activities on behalf of the public school in the same manner as a pupil who is enrolled in that public school.”).
[74] Id.
[75] Id. at 617. Minnesota statutorily defines extracurricular using a list of three characteristics: (1) not offered for school credit nor required for graduation; (2) generally conducted outside school hours; and (3) the content is determined by students under the guidance of a staff member or adult. Minn. Stat. Ann. § 123B.49. All homeschools students are eligible to participate in extracurricular activities “on the same basis as public school students.” Id.
[76] Keddie, supra note 17 at 617–18. See e.g., N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann § 193:1-c (“Nonpublic, public chartered school, or home educated pupils shall have access to curricular courses and cocurricular programs offered by the school district in which the pupil resides.”).
[77] Mo. Ann. Stat. § 167.031.
[78] Id.
A parent, guardian or other person in this state having charge, control, or custody of a child between the ages of seven years of age and the compulsory attendance age for the district shall cause the child to attend regularly some public, private, parochial, parish, home school or a combination of such schools not less than the entire school term of the school which the child attends. . .
(Emphasis added).
[79] Id.
[80] Id.
[81] Id.
[82] Id. at § 167.042 (Emphasis added).
[83] Id.
[84] 2024-25 MSHSAA Official Handbook, Mo. State High Sch. Activities Ass’n, 1, 13–14 https://www.mshsaa.org/resources/pdf/Official%20Handbook.pdf.
[85] In re U.S. ex rel. Mo. State High Sch. Activities Ass’n, 682 F.2d 147, 149 (8th Cir. 1982).
[86] 2024-25 MSHSAA Official Handbook, Mo. State High Sch. Activities Ass’n, 1, 14 https://www.mshsaa.org/resources/pdf/Official%20Handbook.pdf.
[87] Id. at 15.
[88] Annelise Hanshaw, Missouri Homeschool Families Seek Access to Public School Activities, Teams, Missouri Independent, https://missouriindependent.com/briefs/missouri-homeschool-families-seek-access-to-public-school-activities-teams/ (March 14, 2023).
[89] 2024-25 MSHSAA Official Handbook, Mo. State High Sch. Activities Ass’n, 1, 19 https://www.mshsaa.org/resources/pdf/Official%20Handbook.pdf.
[90] Id. at 29.
[91] Id. at 39.
[92] Id. at 42.
[93] Annelise Hanshaw, Bill Would Open Missouri Public School Sports to Homeschool Students, Missouri Independent, https://missouriindependent.com/2023/12/26/missouri-lawmakers-renew-push-to-open-public-school-sports-to-homeschool-students/ (Dec. 26, 2023).
[94] Hanshaw, supra note 88.
[95] Hanshaw, supra note 93.
[96] Id.
[97] S. 819, 102nd Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Mo. 2024) at 4. See also, Hanshaw, supra note 93.
[98] S. 819, 102nd Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Mo. 2024) at 29–33.
[99] Id. at 24.
[100] Id.
[101] Mo. Ann. Stat. § 167.031 (2024).
[102] S. 819, 102nd Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Mo. 2024) at 24.
[103] Id. at 24.
[104] Id. at 29–33.
[105] Id. at 30.
[106] Id. at 29.
[107] Id. at 30.
[108] Id.
[109] Id. at 31.
[110] Id. at 32.
[111] Id.
[112] S.B. 819, Current Bill Summary, Mo. Senate (2024), available at https://www.senate.mo.gov/24info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=407. “This act is similar to provisions in HB 1905 (2024), HCS/SS/SCS/SBs 411 & 230 (2023), HB 241 (2023), SB 835 (2022), HCS/HB 2369 (2022), HCS/HB 494 (2021), SCS/SB 875 (2020), SCS/HC/HB 1540 (2020), HCS/SS/SCS/SB 528 (2020), HCS/HB 2273 (2020), and SB 130 (2019).”
[113] Id.
[114] Hanshaw, supra note 93.
[115] Id.
[116] 2024-25 MSHSAA Official Handbook, Mo. State High Sch. Activities Ass’n, 1, 17 https://www.mshsaa.org/resources/pdf/Official%20Handbook.pdf.
[117] Id. at 39.
[118] In re U.S. ex rel. Mo. State High Sch. Activities Ass’n, 682 F.2d 147, 150 (8th Cir. 1982).
[119] Id. at 150–151.
[120] Id. at 151.
[121] Id. at 150–151.
[122] Id. at 152.
[123] Id. at 153.
[124] Id. at 153.
[125] Id. at 151.
[126] Id. at 154.
[127] 2024-25 MSHSAA Official Handbook, Mo. State High Sch. Activities Ass’n, 1, 42 https://www.mshsaa.org/resources/pdf/Official%20Handbook.pdf.
[128] Id. at32.
[129] Id.
[130] Id.
[131] Id.
[132] Id. at 24.
[133] Id.
[134] Id. at 50–51.
[135] Id. at 32.
[136] Id.
[137] Id.
[138] Bernhard, supra note 35.
[139] Id.
[140] Id.
[141] Id.
[142] Id.
[143] Homeschool Sports Teams, St. Louis Homeschooling Activities, Resources & Encouragement (SHARE), https://www.homeschool-life.com/283/custom/37566.
[144] Id.
[145] Id.
[146] Hanshaw, supra note 93.
[147] Id.
[148] Id.
[149] Id.
[150] Id.
[151] Margaret Talbot, The New Counterculture, The Atlantic, (Nov. 2001) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/11/the-new-counterculture/302341/.
[152] The Freedom and Fulfillment of Home-Schooling, N.Y. Times, (Aug. 18, 2020) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/parenting/homeschool-families.html#link-4ecfa8da.
[153] Id.