Assembly Bill 2958: "Home-schooled" Sports Access

This bill requires school districts to allow "home-schooled" students and students who attend charter schools to participate in interscholastic sports programs in the student’s resident district.

Although HSLDA usually remains neutral on legislative issues relating to access to public school services, this bill contains language that could potentially cause severe problems for all New Jersey homeschoolers if passed. Instead of using the term currently found in law to refer to homeschooling—"equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school"—this bill uses the colloquial term "home-schooling." If this legally undefined term makes its way into law, it creates the likelihood that at some point a judge or legislative official will find it necessary to provide a definition for it, with potentially dire consequences.

Until the term "home-school" in the bill is replaced with "equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school," HSLDA will oppose this bill.