If H. 3802 is passed into law, homeschool families and students in South Carolina will have expanded opportunities to participate (if they wish to do so) in public school sports, career and technical education, and extracurricular activities.
Please call your South Carolina State Representative and State Senator today and ask them to support H. 3802 to expand opportunities for homeschool students. You can find their contact info here.
Your message can be as simple as the following:
“As a South Carolina homeschooler, I ask that you support H. 3802 to modernize and expand current South Carolina law allowing homeschoolers the option to participate in extracurricular activities in their local public school. Homeschoolers pay our taxes, and we should have the freedom to play sports, access career and technical education, and other extra curricular activities at our local public school, if we so choose. Please stand with homeschool students and families and support H. 3802.”
In addition, please click on the right side of this page to send a pre-written email to your state legislators.
Background
Since 2012, South Carolina homeschoolers have been able to participate in certain public school extracurricular activities with the passage of Act No. 203 in 2012. However, we continually run into issues where local school districts or interscholastic leagues turn homeschoolers away, or otherwise try to use vague sections of current law to discriminate against homeschool students who wish to play sports or participate in other extracurriculars. Passage of H. 3802 will be a significant improvement over current law, and will provide us with a significant first step in pushing back against school officials who attempt to find loopholes in current law to discriminate against homeschool students who wish to participate in career and technical education, sports, or extracurricular activities in their local school district.
SCHEA: “In support of homeschooling families utilizing Option 1, Option 2, or Option 3 across South Carolina, the South Carolina Home Educators Association, SCHEA, is excited to partner with HSLDA to protect the right for all homeschool students to access opportunities per Act 203 (codified at S.C. Code § 59-63-100). With the amendments to this law in H.3802, our hope is that all homeschoolers throughout the state will no longer be discriminated against and unlawfully denied access. We encourage fellow homeschoolers to contact their legislators.”
Zan Tyler, founder and board member, SCAIHS: “On behalf of SCAIHS, we are pleased to support H. 3802. South Carolina homeschoolers have been working on this issue since 1995. The current law passed in 2012 has been helpful, but as homeschooling has grown, it has become increasingly apparent that the law needs to be expanded and modernized. H. 3802 will do just that.”