Unintended Admission Consequences of Federal Aid for Homeschoolers

Journal of College Admission, Fall 2004 by Callaway, Sean

Increasingly, homeschool students in New York are finding this graduation requirement becoming being enforced (though not by State Ed. Dept., which has no enforcement arm) through increased postsecondary awareness of the rule. Homeschoolers suspect the pressure for it is coming in response to the change in the federal financial aid regulations and the impact that relaxed admission and aid standards for homeschoolers might have, politically, in a state wed to high-stakes testing and high school failure. There have even been incidents of four-year colleges requiring proof of GED from transfer students who hold valid associate's degrees.21

The Home School Legal Defense Association filed suit on October 2, 2003 (one year to the day after the new federal aid regulations were published in the Student Aid Handbook) in federal court on behalf of Paul Owens, a homeschooled fourth-semester student pursuing an associate's degree in marketing at Monroe Community College (MCC) in Rochester, New York. MCC notified the student that his matriculated status had been revoked because he didn't graduate from an accredited high school, nor have a GHD or superintendent's letter, nor did he take the core curriculum leading to a GED."22

The current New York State Education Department (SED) regulations enabling homeschool are found in 100.10, in the section on elementary and secondary schools. The regulations governing postsecondary aid and admission are administered under the higher education section. In effect, by requiring district superintendents to sign off on a homeschool education, the higher education section is requiring something of district superintendents that 100.10 says they are not obliged to do. Specifically, 100.10 does not require a district to review the IHIP submitted for a student beyond compulsory attendance age. Yet the higher education section requires it for the college application of a homeschooled student who doesn't wish to submit a GED, and is beyond age compulsory attendance.

The situation gets even more complicated for colleges or universities with campuses in different counties, such as Pace University, located in New York City and Westchester County. With different ages of compulsory attendance, coupled with the equivalency or letter from the superintendent, admission and aid outcomes for the same student technically can be different on different campuses. In addition, differing regulatory outcomes can be possible for students from differing states applying both to SUNY and New York State private schools.

Conclusion

One of the laudatory goals of the HEA amendment was to smooth the transition to college process facing homeschoolers. The legislation appears to have made it easier for most to get financial aid. The difficulties facing less-fortunate homeschoolers are wide-spread. New York is probably the worst-case scenario in the country, but, because New York is the home of one of the two most comprehensive public systems of higher education in the country, as well as the home of an extremely large number of private postsecondary institutions, what occurs in New York affects homeschool applicants nationally.