Students who are educated at home, or who attend private or charter schools, would be eligible to play on sports teams and participate in other extracurricular activities at regular public schools in the districts where they reside under a proposal that passed a final Senate vote Monday.

Senate Bill 81 changes existing law to allow such students to participate in interschool competitions if their parents or other teachers can provide subjective proof of academic progress.

The goal of SB 81 is "to create equal access to extracurricular activities for all students, regardless of the educational decisions their parents might make for them," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain.

In the case of home-schooled students, parents would be able to determine their child's academic eligibility, rather than going by the letter grade standards that public school students are held to.

Parents would have to submit statements to the Utah State Board of Education certifying that their child is mastering subject material and making academic progress, Madsen said.

Private and charter school students would be eligible only for those activities not offered at their schools.

The bill passed to the Senate on a 26-2 vote Monday, with some objections.

Sen. Scott McCoy, D-Salt Lake City, said the bill seeks to allow home-schooled students to "have their cake and eat it too.

"I wonder if it will be fair for public school students who have objective requirements," McCoy said. "There may be unfair competition."

He expressed concern that the change could result in home-schooled students taking the place of public school students on sports teams with a limited number of openings, only to find out they are ineligible for college athletic scholarships because of their home-schooled status.

Madsen said that home-schooled status can pose some problems in seeking certain types of financial aid, but added that colleges and universities have embraced the home school movement for the purposes of athletic scholarships.

Households pay taxes for public schools regardless of where their children go to school, he said.

"Parents have paid for the cake, and if they want to eat a little piece of that cake, they should be able to."

First Substitute SB 81, Home School and Extracurricular Activity Amendments, Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain. This bill would allow students who are homeschooled or who attend private or charter schools to participate in extracurricular activities and on sports teams at regular public schools.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A3.