Legal / Legislative Updates

TENNESSEE

TSSAA updates policy for homeschooled athletes

On December 1, 2005, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) changed its bylaws to permit its member schools (mostly public schools) to play any secondary school with grades 9 and above in regular season competition. The new bylaws state that a school team may include one or more students in a homeschool or a cooperative of homeschools. It also includes church-related schools in which so many students receiving home instruction are enrolled in Tennessee.

If invited by the TSSAA member school, individual homeschool students are permitted to compete in such events as track meets, wrestling, or golf, not as representatives of the public school but as individual competitors. The change in TSSAA policy does not permit homeschool students to participate in sports activities as members of public school teams.