Posted by Howard Richman on November 12 2005 at 07:04:33:
Local newspapers are starting to run articles about the local impact of the new law. The first part of the Sunbury Daily Item article discusses Megan Angstadt, a cyber-charter schooled student who was excluded from school sports despite the fact that the cyber-charter school law mandated that she be allowed to participate.
[Note: Megan was excluded by the school district at a time when school districts across the state were challenging whether cyber-charter schools were legal. Those legal challenges were ended by legislation which explicitly said that cyber-charter schools were legal. School districts no longer fight against admitting cyber-charter students into their extra-curricular activities.]
Here´s a selection from an article by John Finnerty that appeared in the Sunbury Daily Item today about the impact of the new law upon local homeschoolers:
Legislation signed by Governor Ed Rendell this week that requires public schools to allow home-schooled students to participate in extracurricular activities came too late for Megan Angstadt — she´s in college now.HowardThe refusal of Midd-West School District officials to allow Megan to play basketball while she was enrolled in a cyber charter school led to a lengthy federal lawsuit in which the school system ultimately prevailed....
Megan had been enrolled in a home-schooling program before she signed up with the cyber-school. Court documents from the Angstadt´s lawsuit indicate that the girl was enrolled in the cyber school in an attempt to circumvent a Midd-West policy prohibiting homeschooled students from playing in sports or other extracurricular activities.
Pennsylvania law indicates that cyber charter students, who are considered public school students because their work is overseen by a public school, should be allowed to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities. But Midd-West got around that requirement by saying that Megan failed to comply with the district´s requirements for students to participate in sports.
If the new law had been enacted while she was still high school-aged, Megan would probably have stuck with homeschooling, her mother Barbara Angstadt said Friday.
"Obviously, this came at the wrong time for us," she said. "If it had passed four or five years ago, it would have made a difference for Megan."...
Pam Page said that because she knew her kids wouldn´t be allowed to participate in school sports, she´s not given much thought to the issue. She is one of the leaders of a local homeschooling group of about 20 familiar, Snyder County Homeschoolers for Christ. Ms. Page definitely welcomed the change in the law. "We are paying taxes," she said. "We should be allowed to participate in extra-curricular activities."
Her son Justin, a sixth grader, has played sports, including Little League baseball. Now that he´s allowed to play school-sponsored sports, Justin may want to join the football team, Ms. Page said.
Ms. Angstadt said that many homeschooled students may want to take advantage of the change.
"I´m glad it´s happened," said Ms. Angstadt. "But I don´t think there are going to be a lot in any one school district. Those that have allowed homeschooled students to participated have one or two who wanted to do it and I think they´ve found it seems to work."