Flexibility is a hallmark of homeschooling—and, for many families, a major reason they choose this educational option. Student athletes are drawn to homeschooling for this same reason. These kids are often balancing long practices, demanding workouts, and frequent travel on top of schoolwork. Learning at home takes one more commitment off their plate, allowing them to schedule their academic studies around practices or between games, or however else it’s convenient.
If your student is NCAA D1 or D2 bound, there’s a few things you should keep in mind. NCAA provides a helpful Home School Toolkit every year, but we want to highlight a couple points about the approval process. Hopefully, this post makes everything a little less daunting.
Start Early
There are many steps associated with NCAA recruitment and eligibility. Starting early will minimize mistakes and ensure you aren’t scrambling at the end. NCAA recommends student athletes register at eligibilitycenter.org and create a free “Profile Page” in 9th grade. There you will find initial information about NCAA eligibility. The requirements and steps increase with each grade (and especially once your student is scouted), so make sure you stay on top of the details.
Required Core Courses
NCAA requires students to complete 16 core courses during their high school career. These classes must begin in 9th grade for them to count toward a student’s high school total. For D1 consideration, 10 of the seventeen courses must be completed before the student’s seventh semester and a 2.3 GPA must be earned. D2 athletes are not subject to the “10/7 rule” and can graduate with a slightly lower GPA (2.2). The required courses also differ depending on D1 or D2 status, so just make sure you’re following the right criteria depending on your student’s college athletic goals.
Homeschool Course Evaluation
Do you as the parent create your own curriculum, determine your student’s competency, assign grades, etc.? If so, you will need to complete a homeschool course evaluation before your student is eligible for D1 or D2 athletics. For this evaluation, you will need to submit an example homeschool transcript, an administrator and accordance statement, and a core course worksheet for all 16 core courses. You can find more details in the Home School Toolkit mentioned above.
Outside Course Providers
Many families utilize outside course providers for some core classes once their students hit high school. These providers must also be NCAA-approved. Here’s where HSLDA Online Academy can help. Our core courses are already NCAA-approved. After your student completes a course with us, simply select the course in your student’s NCAA High School Portal. Then, we’ll send the NCAA your student’s final grade reports. It’s that easy!
Wishing you well as you navigate this process!
