Home-School Sports Plan Hits Snag in Brick

It's no longer a matter of 'if' home schooled students in Brick should be allowed to play school-sponsored sports. It's 'how' they'll comply with state regulations without jeopardizing their teammates' efforts.

Last month, the Board of Education voted to from town to play sports on school-sponsored teams, after the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) ruled that those students could play, as long as the local school board and building principal approved, and the student in question met scholastic requirements equivalent to those that in-district high school students had to meet.

That question of equivalency has left at least one student without a team on which to play this season.

Karl Scheufler said his son, who is home-schooled, was allowed to play ice hockey this year, but was not allowed to participate on the varsity team because school officials had concerns over the question of scholastic equivalency, which the NJSIAA never definitively spelled out in its ruling.

The problem for Scheufler's son, Scheufler said, is that there is essentially no junior varsity team in the district. The JV team has held practice, but will probably not play a game this season due to a combination of a lack of players and a lack of JV teams from other schools to play against.

"The way I read this, it's very clear that it's up to the board and the principal," Scheufler said. "If there is a genuine confidence that we're meeting that, as we develop additional policies, I'd like to see my son involved."

Superintendent Walter Hrycenko said Scheufler's son was not allowed to play on the varsity squad because, if the NJSIAA eventually rules that his son does not meet scholastic equivalency standards, the season record for the entire team could be invalidated, effectively disqualifying the team's season.

"We have to be very clear in terms of what we're going to do here, because we don't want to jeopardize the season for all of our athletes," Hrycenko said.

School board member Larry Reid argued at the Dec. 15 board meeting that Scheufler's son should get a shot at playing, but board member Susan Suter disagreed.

"I do not want to jeopardize any of the other students if they come back and say, 'look, this is not sufficient,'" said Suter. "Right now, we don't have anything in place saying that they meet the same academic requirements as all of the other children on the varsity team."

"The NJSIAA did not help us by doing this on Nov. 9," Hrycenko added, referencing the fact that the state scholastic sports governing body ruled on the issue just weeks before the winter sports season kicked off.

Hrycenko said it is difficult to determine whether a home-schooled student meets the same scholastic qualifications as an in-district student because the state has no official home school curriculum or monitoring of home-schooled students. The question of equivalency is one which many school districts are currently dealing with, he said.

"We're going very carefully on this because of information we're getting from other districts," Hrycenko said.

For now, Scheufler's son's scholastic ice hockey career will remain in limbo, but district officials said they'll continue discussions and develop a list of qualifications that should be sufficient to prove equivalency. That list will not be developed until mid-January, however, which is when ice hockey season is rounding into its home stretch.

"I think there's confidence that my children are being educated," Scheufler said. "Time's ticking."