NCAA Eligibility

Pre-College Issues Home Schooling and College
1

<p>I just thought I would give folks a heads up. The NCAA Clearinghouse now indicates that homeschooled students should register and give preliminary information prior to high school graduation, so that any "deficiencies" can be dealt with. </p>

<p>Also it was just in the news that a number of programs have lost their NCAA certification. Included in the list was NARHS. The article said that only one student lost eligibility because of this -- a girl who used NARHS in 9th grade and then switched to a different program. I certainly hope the review process will allow her to compete (she had a scholarship) -- her SAT was high enough and she even had a number of college credits.</p>

<p>I haven't heard about any problems with straight homeschoolers having problems, just those who rely on programs that have supposedly approved classes that the NCAA now views as diploma mills. There are still other schools being examined. Our umbrella is an approved school but has no courses (so the approval is pointless -- the NCAA must just have a list of state-recognized schools, which in our state includes umbrellas). So when my daughter went to the Clearinghouse last fall she ended up having to submit information according to the homeschooler rules.</p>

2

<p>I appreciate your posting this information about NCAA. Some people had suggested to me that I rely on NARHS to generate a diploma for our homeschooling high school, but after some internet research I declined. Glad I did! My kids stand a better chance with a homespun transcript.</p>

3

<p>Heads-up, New York homeschoolers...the clearinghouse is expecting a GED, as they think NY doesn't recognize homeschoolers' proof of graduation! HSLDA knows about this, but no resolution yet...sounds like a misunderstanding, but for my son, it's trouble, since he'll be too young to take the test in time...even if I wanted him to take it, which I DON'T. Anyone with any ideas on this...I'm all ears! Thanks.</p>

4

<p>Offhand, I don't know of anyway around the GED requirement that the NCAA has for New York homeschoolers. I don't think it is a misunderstanding, because aren't there some issues with New York colleges requiring this also from NY homeschoolers for admission? I'm not a New Yorker so I'm not up on all the details. Just saying there are problems beyond the NCAA it seems like ...</p>

<p>I believe there is a review procedure, but I don't know if people are ever successful, much less how much time it takes. Sometimes it takes a long time for regular students to get eligibility -- ask for an appeal and it could take months. Meanwhile, the student couldn't compete.</p>

<p>Our little problem was that the transcript didn't include grades. The NCAA reg asks for grades. Short of appealing from the Clearinghouse to the NCAA itself, I managed to work something out by taking to the guy in charge of homeschool applications. He had no doubt my daughter was academically capable; his only concern was following the regulations. (I ended up faxing him with my "certification" that everything on the transcript was passed. Well, duh!)</p>

<p>You can always call the Clearinghouse if you haven't already and see if you can work something out. I wouldn't hold my breath, however.</p>

<p>I thought the GED is offered throughout the year. But if your son can't take it due to his age or whatever, this might be grounds for seeking a waiver. They still may want the GED at some point, though.</p>

5

<p>This is an issue New York state homeschoolers will probably have to fight loudly. If you do not want to submit GED scores and have some time, I suggest beginning the battle now. The more complaints the NCAA receives (and the NYS University system, too), the more likely they will be to rethink their policy. A good place to start is by emailing the NCAA to ask about their specific rules, and to respond by letting them know that it is discriminatory against homeschoolers like your son who are not eligible to take the GED. Eventually, the fight will have to go to the New York State Dept of Ed or University System, who are the culprits.</p>

<p>Requiring homeschoolers to submit GED scores seems like a valid measure in lieu of an official hs transcript to un-informed organizations, but to homeschoolers, it is discriminatory. A GED seems to mean that there was no high school education at all.</p>

6

<p>The rumor mill has been working quickly and deeply concerning NARHS and the NCAA listing of high schools they no longer recognize. NARHS was on that list.</p>

<p>But there is a reason. Perhaps the Commissioner's letter will offer insight.</p>

<p>The North Atlantic Regional High School has received a written, formal apology from the Maine Department of Education Commissioner, Susan Gendron.</p>

<p>In part, the letter states, “The Maine Department of Education retracts the inappropriate statements made by Edwin Kastuck (and those associated with him) concerning the North Atlantic Regional High School (‘NARHS”) suggesting that NARHS was not a lawfully operating school which could issue diplomas and that NARHS was a “diploma mill” selling diplomas to customers. These statements, which were not authorized by me, made to the press, to the military, and families were ill-chosen, beyond the authority of Mr. Kastuck or any employee of the Department of Education to make, and inaccurate...”</p>

<p>The letter, dated January 18, 2006, comes as result of NARHS loss of students when staff in the Department of Education gave false information to the press and to multiple inquiries. NARHS believes this has resulted in substantial financial losses and in damage to the schools 21-year reputation.</p>

<p>The Commissioner’s letter goes on, “We apologize for the difficulty these statements have caused your school over the years...Inquiries relating to NARHS should be directed to my office for a response... </p>

<p>Commissioner Gendron’s letter came on official state stationery and closes with, “Thank you for bringing this matter to my attention, for the information you delivered to me, and for your work assisting families.”</p>

<p>NARHS Administrator, Steve Moitozo, concludes that, “Rumors or recent news articles that contain information using derogatory terms about NARHS (North Atlantic Regional High School), should be considered suspect, inaccurate, and false. These reports originated from illegitimate sources inside of the state’s bureaucracy.” Moitozo goes on to state, “The Maine Department of Education has retracted that false information in this letter. Our reputation is cleared, our program is solid, and our families deserve to know we are a real, legitimate, private school, authorized by state law, and recognized by the Department of Education.”</p>

7

<p>Were Kastuck's statements (which were what precisely?) the cause for the NCAA action, do you know? If so, why wouldn't this apology, dated some months before the NCAA acted, have prevented what happened? </p>

<p>Is NARHS going to ask for NCAA review?</p>

<p>I wonder if the school was taken unawares by the NCAA or if they knew they were being investigated. I remember reading about inquiries sent to a number of the places being looked into and how some didn't respond (and this is why they ended up on the list of banned schools) -- but I don't know who fell in this category. </p>

<p>Has NARHS addressed the NCAA action yet?</p>

8

<p>Hi stevemoitozo, thank you for posting here. When I personally contacted the Maine Department of Education asking about the accreditation of NARS late last year, I was told that it was considered a non-approved private school, in the same class as homeschools. Is that not the case? And if it is, then my homeschool is considered to be on par with NARS. </p>

<p>I do plan on asking NCAA for their particular requirements as well.</p>

9

<p>The NCAA Clearinghouse web site includes the requirements for homeschoolers. They are not very hard to meet (unless you are in New York and have to take the GED). Do keep track of your textbooks (and who published them), though. When I submitted the information, I had the names but not the publishers and so had to go back and get all that. For nontextbook courses, I listed everything we used. Might have been overkill, but the guy at the Clearinghouse said it was obvious my daughter was academically qualified -- it was just a question of meeting their reg's. Hence our little thing with me certifying my daughter passed what was on her transcript since grades weren't given.</p>

<p>Other advice -- don't rely on the college for telling kids what to do. Several on dd's team did, as did she ... and found out on the eve of the first competition that they couldn't go. (They had filled out some NCAA forms one night and so thought that was all there was to do.) Also, once you apply, it seems to speed things along to talk to them and to let them know if there is a competition looming. Someone also told me it helps to speed things up if the college calls as well.</p>

10

<p>It appears the NCAA Clearinghouse received their information BEFORE the Commissioner of Education became aware of Kastuck's mis-statements and mis-direction.</p>

<p>NARHS has not asked the Commissioner of Education to intervene directly, but that is a possibility. There are other avenues we have considered and we may need her staff's intervention. In the proicess of requesting the Commissioner's apology, our attorney was there with the assistant attorney general, and we are preparing to have the same attorneys look into the process. We expect this to take time and careful, measured steps.</p>

<p>NARHS replied to every letter, every questionnaire, and every call from the NCAA Clearinghouse. NARHS was NOT one of the schools that did not reply to the NCAA's inquiries. We provided volumes of documentation, including the 4 books we publish for our students and parents: the 100-page Handbook, the 168-page Resource Advisor; the 240-page Book of High School Course Descriptions; and the Daily Log Book. But, even with that, you can see how it would be almost impossible to override what Kastuck, as a state official, told them. Even though what Kastuck said was, as the Commisisoner puts it, "inaccurate" it is still part of the record that caused the issue.</p>

<p>Having experienced this kind of bureaucratic tangle in the past (especially in the early 1980's when we were fighting for homeschooling), I expect this tangle will have a quick resolution.</p>

11

<p>Thanks for responding. I'm still a little puzzled, however.</p>

<p>From: <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2474040%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2474040&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"The North Atlantic Regional High School in Lewiston, Maine, is also on the list and has been notified of the NCAA's action, school founder Steve Moitozo said.</p>

<p>"They want students who have put in seat time at the school, and our
students are home-schooled," said Moitozo, a Baptist minister who founded the school in the 1980s as an offshoot of a support group for families of home-schooled children. "We have state-certified teachers who review their work, but they don't have seat time."</p>

<p>"Moitozo, whose school claims about 2,400 students, said he would not fight the NCAA's action.</p>

<p>"We fought for home-schooling for years and we got that, but this is between them and the family," he said. "It's just not that big a deal to us.""</p>

<p>How can you resolve the tangle if you don't fight the NCAA action? Or do your comments here mean you are going to fight after all?</p>

<p>I don't know what Kastuck's comments were -- did they relate to "seat time"? If so, why didn't the NCAA go after all distance learning programs and homeschooling generally? </p>

<p>I would appreciate whatever clarification you could provide.</p>

12

<p>I Googled this NCAA-Diploma Mill story, and what I found was quite interesting. Every single school that was given the designation 'diploma mill' is either a private or Christian school. Some were put on the list even though NO ONE from the NCAA had even bothered to visit the schools so designated. Does this seem a little odd to anyone else?<br>
The NCAA said they didn't look at public schools because they are regulated by the states. Yeah, right. So some run down inner city or rural school is fine, but the education that I'm providing my kids is not because no official is regulating it?<br>
The NCAA mentioned that some schools didn't have teachers or textbooks. Well, DUHH! If it is a school that credentials work done by homeschoolers, of course it's not going to have teachers or textbooks for those students!
In my opinion, the NCAA is committing calumny, that is, stating something that is a fact (no textbooks, no teachers), but creating a negative impression that is designed to hurt an institution. Besides which, the students are being accepted at the colleges to which they've applied, with their NARHS diplomas, it's just that the Athletic Association is saying that they cannot play their sport for their Freshman year. That is quite a bit different than saying that NARHS or any other school on their list is not providing an education to their students.<br>
In the case of NARHS, we parents are providing the education, and giving proof of that to the school, after which the school provides an official transcript and a diploma which IS accepted by a whole host of colleges, and even the military service academies in this country. THAT is more important to me than something the NCAA might say.</p>

13

<p>"In the case of NARHS, we parents are providing the education, and giving proof of that to the school, after which the school provides an official transcript and a diploma which IS accepted by a whole host of colleges, and even the military service academies in this country. THAT is more important to me than something the NCAA might say."</p>

<p>Of course that's true. It's also true for homeschooling families who do not use an umbrella, such as NARS, and the point here is that NCAA DOES recognize homespun transcripts (except from NYS) and does not recognize diplomas from NARS></p>