Austin-area mother backs UIL bill that will allow home-school students to join extracurricular activities

With the introduction of SB 491 and the House version, HB 547, home-schooled children may soon be able to participate in University Interscholastic League (UIL) extracurricular programs through their local public school. 

Currently, UIL prohibits home-schooled children from taking part in public school programs such as football, basketball, baseball, chess club and other such activities, a previous Education Daily Wire story reported. Erin Allen, a home-school parent, said she supports the UIL bill. 

"I really thought [the kids] involvement back in the system, because we pulled out for a lot of faith and philosophical reasons on the curriculum base that I wanted to influence," Allen told Education Daily Wire. "I've always believed in understanding the other side and participating in it."

Allen went on to say that her children's involvement in things like baseball, volleyball and rowing club have been really good for them.  

"I just think stretching and learning teamwork and all those wonderful skills is really important," Allen said. 

Allen said all children who are home-schooled have a right to participate in public school extracurricular programs because home-schooling parents are still paying taxes that fund public schools, so they should have access just the same as public school families. 

"I think the biggest argument to me against it would be as long as they introduced a voucher system where we could get our money back, because we pay those tax dollars in and home-schoolers save the state hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars every year by not partaking in the system. So, if they gave us that money back then, we have the money to fund our own teams," Allen said.

The Allen family, which lives in the suburbs of Austin, also said that people who live in rural areas, participating in public school extra-curricular programs could mean less traveling far distances for families, and not all rural areas have the ability to create a home-school team for sports and other activities. 

According to another Education Daily Wire story, the Texas Home School Coalition believes these children deserve to participate in UIL programs and indicates that approximately 22% to 32% of home-school families reside in rural areas and extra-curricular options are non-existent or very limited.

Home-schooling has increased from 5% to 10% from 2019 to 2020 a Gallup poll found, and a survey of Texas home-school families showed that access to extracurricular activities was the most important item prioritized by respondents. According to the U.S. Census Bureau report, by fall of 2020 more than 1 in 10 households with school-aged kids in the U.S. and in Texas reported home schooling.  

A Texas Homeschool fact sheet also states that equal access to public school extracurricular activities helps the nearly 50% of homeschool students who would be categorized as coming from low-income households, according to NCES data.

Currently, 35 other states have bills like the UIL bill that allows home-school children to participate in public school extra-curricular programs. 

HB 547 has passed out of the House Public Education Committee and will move forward for further consideration. 

In a previous interview, the bill's author Rep. James Frank (R-Wichita Falls) told the Nortex Times HB 547 is important because it "ends discrimination against home-school students by giving them access to their tax-funded extracurricular activities in their local school district. It also gives additional options to students to more fully form their education, regardless of where they live or how much money their parents have." He went on to say that while "some home-school parents have chosen to organize and enroll their children in private athletic leagues or other creative outlets, the prohibition against home-school student participation in UIL activities effectively eliminates extracurricular opportunities for home-school families of limited economic means or in rural areas that cannot support these private activities."