Four months ago, a new Missouri law was passed that would allow homeschooled students to play sports in all public schools in the state, including Montgomery County R-II and Wellsville-Middletown R-I.

Missouri Senate Bill 63, also known as the Homeschoolers Sports Act, gives the opportunity to full-time homeschool students as well as Family Paced Education (FPE) and virtual school students to participate in athletics at the schools which serve the place they live.

R-II has several homeschool students competing in fall sports in 2025. One of them, Aliya Milligan, plays for the MCHS softball team. The Bellflower resident said she’s happy that the new law helped give her the chance to play with her friends on the same team.

“I enjoy it,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

The new law went into effect on Aug. 28. In order for homeschool students to play on public school teams, they must show a proof of district residency, take a physical and follow the guidelines of conduct, responsibility and performance just like enrolled students.

R-II activities director Adam Falloon said he liked that homeschool students all over Missouri will now be able to play sports in public schools.

“It’s great for the kids,” he said. “It gives them an opportunity to participate. The students must be residents of our school district, so you can’t live in another school district and participate in our stuff.”

Falloon shared the Homeschoolers Sports Act with parents at the MCHS fall sports activities meeting on Aug. 10, a day before the first day of practice. He said the new law had been talked about for a long time.

“It was late in the spring, maybe earlier in the summer when this was decided with our state legislators,” Falloon said. “So, this has been out for a while. What happened this summer was when we didn’t have any guidance, we didn’t have any idea from our state association (Missouri State High School Activities Association) on what to do.”

Falloon said after the bill was passed in May, MSHSAA had a very short time to get its handbooks and bylaws updated. So the organization came up with a grace period.

“So for example, on the first day of high school practices, with this grace period, we as schools, allow those kids to come and be part of the program, so they’ve been practicing already,” Falloon said. “That way, when it goes into law, they’re ready to participate instead of being two or three weeks behind.”

The W-M School District currently doesn’t have any homeschool students playing in sports. Activities director Kevin Oligschlaeger said his district hasn’t received any requests to participate under the Senate Bill 63.

“We don’t take a position on the legislation,” he said. “As a district, we will follow all applicable state law, MSHSAA regulations and our board policies. Our focus is on implementing the requirements and supporting students within those rules.”

The W-M School Board voted on Aug. 21 to adopt its updated Policy 2920 in response to the new law.

“This policy aims to ensure all students within our district have the opportunity to engage in extracurricular experiences while maintaining fairness and consistency for those already participating,” R-I Superintendent Tiffany Gosseen said. “We appreciate the community’s understanding and support as we implement these changes in compliance with state law. Together, we can continue to provide enriching opportunities for every student who calls Wellsville-Middletown home.”

Falloon said he believes the new law will result in more homeschool students playing sports at public schools.

“I think this will grow,” he said. “I think we’ll have more students as we go, but it’s kind of new. A lot of schools our size in our area were expecting 3, 4, 5 or 6 students or somewhere in that area. I would assume some of the bigger districts in the state are going to get a lot more than what we’re going to get. So it’s not going to be as big of a transition for us as it would be for maybe some of the bigger schools.”