Home Schooling Goes Public So Far, School Officials, Parents, Students Have Few Complaints About Dual Enrollment

The young pioneer wearing a plaid skirt, barrettes in her long brown hair and a green knapsack slung over her shoulder hardly seemed a threat to the integrity of the public school system.

After three years of being home-schooled, 15-year-old Erica Ondrey enrolled in English, math and forestry classes this fall at the largest high school north of Boise.

“The first couple of days when I came, my heart was pounding,” Erica said during lunch at Sandpoint High School last week. She spent the lunch hour on the lawn in a circle of friends from her church group.

Erica and her 17-year-old brother Brett are among a small troop of trend-setters in North Idaho - home-schooled and private school students who are attending public schools part-time.

The law that guarantees them access to public education had school administrators braced for bookkeeping nightmares. They also worried that the newcomers would squeeze public students out of programs. But the feared onslaught of “non-traditional” students hasn’t arrived.

The law requires public schools to accept non-traditional students in classes and extracurricular activities.

With eight part-timers, Sandpoint High has more non-traditional students than any other high school in North Idaho. High schools in Post Falls and St. Maries don’t have any.

Kellogg Middle School has four students who are mostly taking band and choir, and Kellogg High only has two.

Coeur d’Alene High School has five non-traditional students, some of whom are participating in Viking football.

Lakeland High School principal Charles Kinsey describes his only home-schooled student, freshman Kara Barnes, as “an important part” of the girl’s soccer team.

Kara isn’t enrolled in any classes, just soccer. Her parents started home-schooling her last year when they noticed her attitude toward school was changing for the worse, said her father Bill Barnes.

“The way I look at it, I pay taxes the same as anyone else in this district,” Barnes said. “I pay whether she attends or not. I feel it entitles her to use the facilities and programs there.”

So far, school officials, parents and students have few complaints.

“At Coeur d’Alene (High) it’s working pretty well,” said Greg Nelson, a teacher at North Idaho Christian who also coaches at the public high school. Non-traditional students aren’t “getting any grief.”

That may be in part because they are few in number and indistinguishable from other students.

Active in a network of home-schoolers in Kootenai County, parent Jennifer Haught said she doesn’t know of anybody taking classes in the public school.

The new law was a result of a campaign by home-schoolers, but Haught said it must have been a southern Idaho campaign, given North Idaho’s lack of participation.

“The home-schoolers I know weren’t really that interested in dual enrollment,” Haught said.

People choose not to attend public school for a reason, she said. That reason could be a combination of safety, peer pressure, academic standards, or lack of religious values in school materials.

Erica and Brett’s mother, for instance, wants to continue to home-school her children in history because she disapproves of public school textbooks that belittle the role of religion in American history.

Of the school districts returning survey forms to the state Association of School Administrators, about half have reported dual-enrolled students, said the association’s executive director Mike Friend.

The survey is asking how dual enrollment is working and will help guide lawmakers on any amendments that might be needed, Friend said.

His association also has been involved with drawing up guidelines for schools. The guidelines discourage “bumping” non-traditional students from classes or sports programs to make room for full-time students. Instead, all students should be treated equally.

While some school officials worry about making room for students in class, the debate has been louder over participation in varsity sports.

Public school students have to maintain a certain grade point average to earn the privilege of playing on a team. How could a home-schooled student meet that criteria?

Temporarily, the schools have circumvented the problem by requiring non-traditional students to sign an affidavit saying their academic performance meets a certain standard.

Starting in January, those students will have to show that they’ve performed at or above the 41st percentile in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to compete in sports.

For some, the athletics issue is more about loyalty.

“Home-school people could be in our sports, and I didn’t think that was fair,” said Erica’s friend Kristy Osmunson, 14. “Because, like, the volleyball team travels and they represent the Bulldogs.”

According to Kristy, it’s OK to play sports as long as you’re taking some classes, because then you’re a legitimate Bulldog.

Although Erica is considering playing powderpuff football, she doesn’t feel like a Bulldog yet. She is feeling more comfortable in public school, however.

“I was scared to come back,” she admitted. “I thought people would be kind of rude, but they’re not.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo