Unintended Admission Consequences of Federal Aid for Homeschoolers

Journal of College Admission, Fall 2004 by Callaway, Sean

Three proposals are before the New York State Board of Regents that step beyond the GED and the high school diploma's attempt to regularize postsecondary graduation inconsistencies for homeschoolers. These could be adopted as soon as September of 2004. Postsecondary institutions could grant degrees to homeschooled students beyond compulsory school age (1) who are in receipt of a letter from their superintendent documenting equivalency of instruction to a high school program (but still there will be no change in section 100.10 requiring the superintendent to write a letter if equivalency has been attained); (2) who pass five NYS Regents examinations or approved alternatives; or (3) who complete 24 semester-hours of Regents specified distributed college coursework.

Another proposal before the Regents, that seems likely to be adopted, is that New York students under compulsory age limits can attend college full-time (defined as 12 credits) as part of their homeschooling if the student's Individual Home Instruction Plan (IHIP) states the name of the postsecondary institution and the courses to be covered. The IHIP then needs to be approved by the district superintendent.

If the proposed changes governing the awarding of baccalaureate degrees are adopted, then the State University system will follow suite because applicable educational statutes or SED regulations govern its policies. The proposed Regents changes affect admission and graduation. They do not affect state aid, which will continue to be controlled by statute and will not allow self-certification for aid, and which will still require superintendent's letters, GED or ATB for state aid. In New York private institutions and in SUNY we may yet see the anomaly of matriculated students receiving federal aid but no state aid until the Regents distributed 24 credits are reached.23

NACAC and the state and regional admission associations need to assume more leadership in addressing the financial aid and admission issues facing homeschooled applicants and institutions. Currently, our knowledge is like a patchwork quilt. In addition, with potentially 400,000 homeschooled applicants to higher education over the next ten years, we need some serious research on fit, retention and debt to fulfill "our responsibility as financial aid administrators and admission directors to ensure legal compliance [and,]... be... not unduly burdensome to our students."24

Footnotes

1 United States Department of Education telephone survey

2 Dr. Brian Ray of the National Homeschool Research Institute

3 NACAC Admission Trend Surveys

4 Pub. L. No. 105-244 amending 20U.S.C. 1091(d)

5 Department of Education Student Assistance General Provision, Part sec. 484(d), 34 Code of Federal Regulations 668.32(e))

6 Student Aid Handbook 2002-2003, Vol. 1, Student Eligibility, Academic Qualifications p. 1-5, published Oct. 3, 2002

7 Op.Cit. p. 1-4

8 Committee on Labor and Human Resources, 1998. Pub. L. No. 105-244 (Reauthorization of the HEA).

9 IBID

10 A letter from Chris Klicka, Esq., to Greg Becher, posted with permission to the FINAID-L email list, 11 February, 2000