Should homeschooled students be allowed to play on public high school sports teams? 

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Should students who are homeschooled be allowed to play on public high school sports teams in Virginia? 

Currently, the Virginia High School League (VHSL), which governs public high school sports, requires anyone wanting to play sports to be a “regular bona fide student in good standing of the school which he/she represents.”

VHSL’s handbook says students who are homeschooled aren’t eligible to play on their local public high schools’ sports teams because they don’t meet the requirements of that rule.

However, at a press conference on March 30, the Founding Freedoms Law Center announced they’ve filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Roanoke County family because they say the VHSL policy is exclusionary and unfairly burdens families who chose to home school their kids for religious reasons. 

“As Samuel’s parents, we want our son to have the same opportunities as other students to participate in the sport he loves. Yet this policy denies him equal protection under the law and prevents from competing,” Daniel Palmer, who brought the suit, said about his son Samuel, a ninth-grade student, who is not allowed to run track or cross country for his local high school because he is homeschooled.

In a statement, VHSL said, “The VHSL is aware of a press conference held this morning.  We have not seen the lawsuit in question but believe it concerns the League’s rules governing participation for homeschooled students.  Our membership has chosen to limit participation in VHSL-sponsored activities to students who attend VHSL’s member schools, and we are prepared to defend that policy in court if necessary.”

Efforts to address this issue through the legislative process in the General Assembly have failed in recent years.

The Roanoke County School Board was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. The school system told 8News that they don’t comment on matters of litigation