Equal Access Bills Fail

The Alabama legislature declined to approve three bills this year intended to permit students being instructed at home to participate in extracurricular activities at public school. Companion bills House Bill 334 and Senate Bill 329 would have created the “Tim Tebow Act.” This legislation was named after the 2007 winner of the Heisman Trophy, Tim Tebow, a football player for the University of Florida who had been homeschooled. This legislation would have permitted students taught by a private tutor and those taught at home through enrollment in a church school to participate in extracurricular activities at public school. It would also have permitted these students to participate in such activities at a non-public school if the non-public school allowed it. Another bill, Senate Bill 20, would have permitted students taught by private tutors and those enrolled in private and church schools to participate in extracurricular activities at the public school. Under S.B. 20, students enrolled in private and church schools would have been permitted to participate at public school only if the school where they were enrolled did not offer the same extracurricular activities.

Home School Legal Defense Association took a neutral position on these bills.