Unintended Admission Consequences of Federal Aid for Homeschoolers

Journal of College Admission, Fall 2004 by Callaway, Sean

Introduction

Because homeschooled students often enter higher education appearing to be traditionally-educated high school students, due to differing state regulations and the accreditation status of different homeschool programs, and because related records are not kept, it is difficult to know how many enter postsecondary education every year. Current estimates of the number of homeschoolers in the United States range from about 900 thousand1 to 1.7 million2. Because this is a large portion of the population an ever-increasing number of colleges and universities are integrating admission guidelines for homeschool students.3 With these guidelines come homeschool federal aid regulations for every college and university that receives Title IV funds and the related consequences homeschooled students face.

In 1998, Congress amended the Higher Education Act (HEA), changing the basis for awarding federal financial aid to homeschoolers.4 The new eligibility rules, published in the Federal Register, October, 1999, set July, 2000 as the effective date, but, because the Department of Education did not reflect these changes in the Student Aid Handbook until October, 2002, financial aid officers, generally, did not act on the changes. The new regulations allowed homeschooled students to self-certify that they completed homeschooling and were qualified for federal aid, saying, "'Exemption from compulsory attendance requirements under State law,' means that the State does not consider a home-schooled student to be in violation of the State's truancy laws" and that "Home-schooled students who satisfy the (self-certification) requirements... are eligible to receive title IV, HEA program funds. They are not required to take an ability-to-benefit test."5

Grounds for compulsory attendance and self-certification were defined at greater length:

"Some students finish their home schooling at an age younger than the age of compulsory school attendance in their state or in the state where your school is. Another part of the federal law defines an eligible institution as one that admits as regular students only persons who have a high school diploma or equivalent or persons beyond the compulsory attendance age for the institution's state. The Department considers a home-schooled student to be beyond the age of compulsory attendance if your school's state would not require the student to further attend secondary school or continue to be home-schooled.6

"A student may self-certify that he has received a high school diploma or GED or that he has completed secondary school through home schooling as defined by state law. If a student indicates on the FAFSA that he has a diploma or GED, your school isn't required to ask for a copy of the diploma or GED. Because the current FAFSA doesn't contain a self-certification for homeschoolers, such students may certify that in writing to your school, for example, on an admissions application.

"Under federal law a home-schooled student is not considered to have a high school diploma or equivalent. Nevertheless, such a student is eligible to receive FSA funds if the student's secondary school education was in a home school that state law treats as a home or private school. Some states issue a secondary school completion credential to homeschoolers. If this is the case in the state where the student was home-schooled, she must obtain this credential in order to be eligible for FSA funds.7 "

In practice, therefore, the federal aid conditions set for homeschooled students became the ability to self-certify that the home education had been completed according to the laws of the student's home state, and that the postsecondary institution qualified the student for aid under the compulsory education laws of its home state.

State Regulations

Postsecondary institutions court disaster with admission policies separated from financial aid realities. Fifty different state definitions concern the completion of a homeschool education, affecting the fifty different definitions for self-certification for federal aid purposes, and creating fifty different potential conditions affecting aid and admission policies.

Pennsylvania students must be high school graduates to qualify for state aid. Students in homeschool programs accredited by one of seven agencies, approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, or students who submit certification from the appropriate local school official that their education is in compliance with the state home schooling law, are considered graduates of an approved high school for state grant purposes. Superintendents, however, are under no obligation to certify that the home education program is in compliance with Pennsylvania law. Therefore, certification is dependent on cooperative districts.

In New Jersey, case law determines the legality of homeschooling. There is minimal contact with district superintendents who do not have the right to certify completion of homeschooling.

In California, teacher certification is required of one parent, but only if the parent chooses to qualify as a private tutor. If the homeschool registers as a private school under California law-thereby having the same validity as Harvard-Westlake-or enrolls in an independent study program with a private school, no certification is necessary. Therefore, it may be necessary to know the particular legal basis for the individual homeschool.