Mississippi: ‘Tim Tebow Act’ moves ahead to allow homeschoolers to play sports

 The bill, which is officially called SB 2329 reads, “A student enrolled in a homeschool is eligible to participate in interscholastic extracurricular activities sponsored by or engaged in by the public school to which the student would be assigned according to district school board attendance policies or which the student could choose to attend pursuant to district open enrollment provisions.”

Over 25 states currently allow homeschool students to participate in public school sports (e.g. Arizona, Florida, Vermont, Pennsylvania and Arkansas) while 21 states ban homeschoolers from playing (e.g. Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia and New York).

According to reports, Tim Tebow was the first homeschooler in American history to be nominated for the Heisman Trophy.

“A lot of times people have this stereotype of homeschoolers as not very athletic. It’s like, go win a spelling bee or something like that,” he said in 2007 after receiving the nomination. “It’s an honor for me to be the first one to do that.”

Tebow, a Florida native, was granted permission to play football for a Christian school and then a public school before playing for the University of Florida, and ultimately, the NFL. A similar bill had been passed in Florida in 1996 allowing homeschool children to participate in public school sports.