Unintended Admission Consequences of Federal Aid for Homeschoolers

Journal of College Admission, Fall 2004 by Callaway, Sean

New York State tries to provide an objective determination of substantial equivalence of homeschool and traditional high school educations. High school diplomas may be awarded only to students enrolled in registered secondary schools. Substantial equivalence, therefore, refers to content, not outcome, since the diplomas are not equivalent. In reality, because state homeschool regulations require that certain standard subjects be addressed at the secondary level, coupled with quarterly progress reports and a single year-end achievement test, equivalence, is about process rather than content, because content is not directly supervised.

In New York, if a student reaches the maximum age for compulsory attendance during the school year, that student's Individual Home Instruction Plan (IHIP) must cover the full year. However, the district is not required to review the IHIP submitted for the student beyond compulsory attendance age. The student can request that the superintendent of the school district attest to completion of a homeschool education on district letterhead, but the regulations expressly say that the superintendents are under no obligation to do so. Moreover, there are two ages of compulsory attendance. In the five counties of New York City it is seventeen. In every other county in New York it is sixteen.

These differences occur because no single exhaustive source for state homeschool law exists. Even the federal compilation is flawed. Generally, the Home School Legal Defense Association (www.hslda.org) and the National Home Education Network (www.nhen.org) are good sources, but no national homeschool authority exists because no comprehensive national homeschool organization exists.

A Short History

Chris Klicka, of the Home School Legal Defense Association, the most politically effective homeschool organization to date, drafted the Higher Education Act (HEA) amendment that changed federal aid for homeschoolers. Prior to this, homeschool students needed a GED or an Ability to Benefit Test to qualify for federal aid and, depending on institutional policy, SAT I and SAT II tests to qualify for admission. However, in the documents accompanying the financial aid amendment, the House Committee on Labor and Human Resources stated that colleges and universities should have not overly legalistic and overly burdensome admission policies, saying:

"The Committee is aware that many colleges and universities now require applicants from non-public, private, or non-traditional secondary programs (including home schools) to submit scores from additional standardized tests... (GED or... SAT II) in lieu of a transcript/diploma from an accredited high school. Historically... the SAT II was not designed for, and until recently was not used to determine college admissions. Given that standardized test scores (SAT and ACT) and portfolio or performance based assessments may also provide a sound basis for an admission decision regarding these students, the Committee recommends that colleges and universities consider using these assessments for applicants educated in non-public, private, and non-traditional programs rather than requiring them to undergo additional types of standardized testing. Requiring additional testing only of students educated in these settings could reasonably be seen as discriminatory...8