Traditional district schools have become providers of many services and benefits for students. The list is nearly endless, but includes food provision (both in school and on weekends/summer break), athletics, the arts, computer and tech education, medical care, summer camps, and counseling. However, the burgeoning of school choice has created a bifurcated (or trifurcated) structure in some areas, where families who choose non-public or homeschooling options can be shut out of these benefits or, at the very least, have to work much harder to access them. Believing that all students should have access to the services provided in public schools, the national nonprofit organization yes. every kid. recently released a report looking at which states are addressing the divide.
Analysts Lily Landry and Sam Niederholzer examined the education statutes of all fifty states to find answers to a dozen questions regarding access to districts’ courses, services, and extracurriculars. These questions cover access (or lack thereof) for non-public and homeschool students, as well as for non-district-residents, which includes charter and district students living across attendance lines. They also examine funding structures, limitations, and any instances where districts can exercise discretion to impose access limits.
Only one state checks the boxes in all twelve categories: Idaho. The Gem State’s statute—which explicitly spells out the universality of access to public schools for all students regardless of which school they attend—is particularly lauded. (Of course, just because the statute says something doesn’t mean it happens smoothly every time, but the report does not go into that level of detail.) Four other states are also highlighted for positive statutory efforts around this issue. New Hampshire’s statute uses “shall” and not “may” language to spell out what courses and activities must be made available to parents, and to enshrine the idea that minimal barriers can be erected around them. Iowa law specifies that offerings available to non-district students should be provided at the same level as those provided for full-time enrolled students and includes core curriculum, electives, and all extracurriculars. Alaska and Washington State go a step further, making sure that non-district families will not be charged more than resident families would be for courses, activities, and services. Among the ten top-rated states, wide access to academic courses is the most common plus point. Access to extracurricular activities is second.
On the other end, a baker’s dozen states check no boxes on the questionnaire. As a corollary to the above, that doesn’t mean that students outside a district’s borders can’t or don’t access courses or services at all; just that state law doesn’t make an affirmative stand for access. In these states, it is likely an ad hoc process driven by parents and families who possess the wherewithal to advocate strongly and persistently on behalf of their children. Nine other states check only one box. The most common single item spelled out in statute is guaranteed access to extracurricular activities for homeschool students, likely a result of nearly decade-long efforts to pass “Tim Tebow laws” around the country.
Ohio checks the homeschooler box and just one other: Giving public school students explicit access to another public school’s services. This is reflective of both interdistrict open enrollment, a longstanding and widely popular school choice option, and a more recent effort to make sure charter school students can access extracurriculars in the district where they reside if their own schools don’t offer the same activity.
Landry and Niederholzer conclude with a message of hope that more states will take after the four exemplars that actively seek to erase the hard lines between school choice and availability of public services to children and families. It is probably an uphill fight, even in states where school choice is growing, but it is a worthwhile effort.
SOURCE: Lily Landry and Sam Niederholzer, “Public Education Your Way,” yes. every kid. (July 2023).
