Why Middletown Is Hesitant To Let Homeschool Kids Play Sports (2024)

Schools

Here is a summary of a meeting that was held last Thursday between the school district and Middletown homeschool parents:

Posted Mon, Oct 23, 2023 at 5:02 pm ET|Updated Tue, Oct 24, 2023 at 6:55 pm ET

The meeting was attended by Tobacco, Gary Tulp, Frank Capone and Kate Farley, all BOE members who sit on the policy committee; Tobacco chairs that committee. It was also attended by acting Middletown schools superintendent Jessica Alfone, the district's two assistant superintendents, Patrick Rinella and Matt Kirkpatrick, plus several homeschool parents.

The meeting lasted for just over two hours, from 10 a.m. to shortly after noon.

Now on Monday, Tobacco discloses to the Middletown public what was said — and read to the very bottom for a response from one of the most outspoken homeschool parents making this request.

"The situation is not just do we want to be nice and let those kids play or not, which I think is how it's been portrayed," said Tobacco. "It's not as simple as should the board make an emotional decision and let the children play. If it was simply an emotional decision, we all of course would say let the children play."

First, it is not just homeschool kids. Tobacco said there are actually three distinct groups of students who seek to join Middletown public school sports teams:

• Middletown children who are homeschooled
• Several kids who are in an accredited all-virtual school
• Several kids who are in a tuition-based private school that started as a pod during the pandemic. That school is not accredited, but several Middletown families send their children there, and pay tuition. The school is based in Holmdel.

Tobacco said she "honestly does not know" how many students in total want to play Middletown sports/clubs.

"But it is not just those three groups. If we allow people who pay tuition to private school to come join our sports teams, does that extend to CBA students who now want to play on our football teams?" she asked, referring to the fact that Christian Brothers Academy, a respected local Catholic school, does not have a football program.

"Or what about kids who are at St. Mary's and want to join our band?"

No benchmarks for homeschoolers

Secondly, Tobacco said there are no benchmarks to evaluate if homeschool or virtual kids are eligible to play sports.

"There is criteria we have to enforce for our student-athletes that we would never be able to enforce with homeschoolers," she said. "For example, student-athletes cannot be failing a class; they have to hand in homework. It is difficult to enforce that with homeschool kids. Public school standards are never the same as homeschool standards of learning. Would we have two sets of rules for two sets of children — how would that work?"

Added to that are issues with HIB (harassment, intimidation, bullying) reports or other clashes students have with each other.

"As a school district, we have to investigate every HIB complaint, every instance of kids fighting. We could never investigate those complaints or enforce that code of conduct with homeschoolers."

Third, yes the Holmdel school district does allow homeschoolers to play sports, but that is only in the K-8th level, said Tobacco. Holmdel High School does not permit it. Brick Township does, but Wall Twp. recently reversed their policy and no longer allows it, because they had an issue with homeschool kids playing on their sports teams who did not live in Wall, she said.

Only four high schools in the Shore Conference allow homeschoolers to play, and they are all very small districts such as Barnegat, Tobacco said Rinella told the group.

Finally, one Middletown mother did tell the Board she is against this idea because, as Tobacco paraphrased it: "What if a homeschool child is very good at gymnastics and devotes four hours each day to practicing gymnastics. And then she has to try out against her daughter who is in public school from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and now she lost her spot on the team — when she is the one representing the school district."

"It really is very complex and a lot of these things are issues the administration has been bringing to us," she said. "We still have a lot of consider and a lot of work to do."

In summary, Tobacco said the policy committee will meet again before the next November school board meeting (Nov. 20) and discuss the issue again. Homeschool parents will not be invited to that next meeting.

Superintendent Alfone gave the following statement to Patch Monday:

"As an administration, we are examining the practical implications of homeschool student participation in co-curricular activities and athletics and the challenges that we would encounter from this shift," she said. "The most notable among these challenges is the determination of eligibility to participate. Students who are enrolled in our district are held to a consistent standard for academics and conduct that serve as a barometer for eligibility. Because of the autonomy involved in homeschooling, we would not be able to hold homeschool students to the same academic and conduct standards of those enrolled in district. Therefore, there would always be some degree of inequity in the determination of eligibility."

Tobacco stressed the district is "looking for solutions."

Homeschool mom responds

Belinda Rooney is one of the homeschool moms who has been petitioning the district to let her sons join sports and clubs.

"I am surprised they disclosed all of this after asking us to be patient as we waited for their response," she said Monday evening, in response to Tobacco's comments. "I can go line by line and respond to each point they made with a different perspective (as we did during our Oct. 19 meeting), but their input shows they ultimately do not want our homeschooled children to be included in school sports and clubs. I believe the Board of Ed. members are elected officials in our community that should seek the best interests of all students in the district, not just those enrolled in public schools. Until we get more Board members who feel that way, nothing will change."

Prior on this topic: Middletown Homeschoolers Meet With BOE Thursday On Sports Team Request (Oct. 18)

Middletown Home School Parents: Let Our Kids Play School Sports (Aug. 31)

Parents Say Middletown Won't Let Homeschooled Kids Join Sports Teams (Aug. 10)