Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

What's the latest on homeschooled student athletes getting into college? Homeschool mom Jeanne Domenech joins Mike Smith for an update, today on Home School Heartbeat.

Mike Smith:


Jeanne, in January, the National Collegiate Athletic Association made an important change to the application process for homeschoolers. These student athletes now obtain a preliminary analysis of their high school subjects before they graduate from high school. Why is this important?


Jeanne Domenech:


Well, Mike, this is important because the NCAA requires students to complete 14 core high school courses in order to practice or compete in Division I and II schools. And in 2002, when Emily started rowing at Virginia, we had to jump through a lot of hoops and we couldn't even start the process until she got on campus. We had to list textbooks and publishers, photocopy the table of contents of those textbooks, and send in samples of her coursework. Now our son Ellis is getting ready to enter college in the fall, and he's a swimmer, and he will only have to sign up on the website ahead of time. We still will have to supply textbooks and publishers and proof that we're homeschooling legally in our state, but we can get a preliminary analysis of his coursework that will show whether or not he is in the right track for compliance. And parents really do need to look at the qualifications for student athletes now, because they're going to need that entire high school period to get those 14 core courses accomplished (and soon they're going to raise it to 16). And this new arrangement is going to help qualified homeschool athletes get through this hoop easily. And we really appreciate the NCAA and HSLDA working on this issue.


Mike:


Well, Jeanne, we appreciate you! Thank you for sharing. And until next time, I'm Mike Smith.

Do you want to get more details about the NCAA rule changes? Visit our website at www.homeschoolheartbeat.com.