Home-schoolers are fiercely independent, but from time to time they want to participate in public school activities.

For three years, Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain, has pushed a bill that would codify a process for home-schoolers to do just that, and the first two years it died an untimely death.

The bill was once again on life support Monday as the full Senate debated participation requirements, moving close to what Madsen feels would gut the bill on an amendment from Sen. Greg Bell, R-Fruit Heights.

Bell's amendment would have required home schoolers to get independent verification of academic progress before participating in activities. Madsen's bill only calls for parents to sign an affidavit about their child's progress.

Bell's concern is with parents lying to get their kids into sports. He used an example of kids on the slopes Monday with their parents' consent, who will show up Tuesday with an excuse note.

"If that's not going on now, then the world is a lot more virtuous than when I was a boy," he said. "Just to say 'I'm a taxpayer and I'm honest' doesn't cut it."

Madsen, a home-schooler, and other bill supporters said if there's going to be a third-party process for home-schoolers, it ought to be the same for public school students.

"They wanted to single out the home-schoolers and say this is the place where the corruption, the lying, the deception takes place," he said.

Bell's amendment failed on a close vote before the bill itself squeaked past a second reading 17-12. It will be heard one more time on the Senate floor, and if it passes would move on to the House. Madsen said afterward that he expects to have better luck in the House this year because of voting head counts beforehand and a better flow of information to "counter misinformation."

Senate Bill 37

Sponsor: Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain

This bill addresses private school and home school students' eligibility to participate in extracurricular activities.