Hello,
We are in need of example policies for a CT public school system that is resistant to homeschoolers and other blended opportunities to join the school team.
Does anyone have policies for the school system that deals with disicpline/injuries… Do you have waivers of liability to protect the school from “non-public schooled” team members?
We are in CT. I’ve already emailed CT teams 176 (Windsor Locks) and Team 1124 (Hartford, CT area). I’m searching for more blended teams that run directly out of a public school setting but allows homeschooled kids to participate.
Specifically looking for policies related to discipline, membership, liability (including waivers). Thank you in advance!
Sherri
This is why my school district does not allow us to host a blended team. Too many issues out of our control. I would be interested in seeing how many teams there are that allow a blended team of this nature.
In our school we have several homeschoolers on our team.
Our FRC team is run through the State High School Athletic association. With this any homeschooled student who resides within the district boundaries can participate on our or any school sports teams. With this they are covered like any other student for liability etc…
I’m not sure about specifics (it’s been about 10 years since I had to deal with it) but the Philadelphia School District has a clause that specifically allows home-schooled students participate in afterschool programs at the local high school. I remember when we inquired about it, the local school had to consult the district lawyers, because they hadn’t had to deal with something like that before.
IIRC they didn’t care about waivers or such, we were treated like any other public school students. Though, home-schooled students in Philadelphia have a prior relationship with their local high schools, seeing that the local high school oversees student progress and does a year end portfolio/check up. That may weigh in to this a bit.
Feel free to PM me if you have more questions, I could try to track down some of the policy and paperwork we had to go through.
In CT, homeschoolers do not have to account to their local school system. We are free to homeschool how we want without the red tap of portfolio reviews unless we choose to.
I suspect PA school systems allow homeschoolers to participate due to the fact that the state has more control over homeschool so they allow them to join.
I would think a simple clause would do the trick. I would love any policies sent to jakers22@yahoo.com
I’ve also considered developing a separate 4H robotics club which could “Partner” with the public school system. This way, participants not directly at the public school system would be covered for liability and there are added benefits to joining 4H. But we would be one team that consists of the public school team plus the 4H club. Interesting way around the issue…
343 runs just like a sports team where any student of age is allowed to join the team, including home/private school students. I do not know what the law is in CT, however in SC anyone of student age can participate in sports teams at the school they would go to if they were in public school and if that school does not have a team for the sport they wish to participate in they are allowed to participate at the nearest school which does field a team for that sport. I would suggest seeing if there is such a law in CT.
Hi Sherri! I’m not able to help a whole lot being in college, but I let a member of 1991 know and they will get in touch as soon as they can. Until then, feel free to message me any questions.
You’re probably more aware of the situation in CT than I am, but a quick search on HSLDA suggests that unlike many states, there’s no legal requirement for schools to accept homeschoolers. In NH, for example, there is a specific law that homeschoolers must be granted access to public school extracurriculars, and this was the case even for the period of time where we weren’t required to do any annual evaluation.
You might talk with any homeschoolers on sports teams, as the situation there is similar. Obviously it’s a matter of winning friends in the school one at a time.
Of course, you could always do like we did with 1519: start a homeschool team and invite public school kids to join.
Thank you all.
Yes, Steve. You are right. Public schools are not required to allow homeschoolers to participate in CT. Thank you so much for your reply… Here’s my take on it…Since FIRST is a Nationally and Internationally recognized organization (such as Boy Scouts of America or 4H) we were hoping to come across teams that recognized FIRST distinction over other afterschool programs. I am sure there are school systems out there in CT that have open minds (maybe just a little)…hoping to find one or two…
CT law may not be required for the school to allow homeschoolers to participate, but we are hoping to find teams that successfully won that battle to expand their robotics teams.
TAlholm- thank you. Yes, please have whoever can contact me do so. I am anxiously waiting their input. Thanks!
Thanks again for everyone’s replies. I’ll post here if I find something too.
Sherri
