What if your child graduated from your homeschool high school and was denied acceptance to college simply because they have a homeschool diploma? This would cause serious problems for homeschool graduates and deprive institutes of higher learning of an entire class of students.

That is why THSC works tirelessly to help enforce laws that protect homeschool graduates. Furthermore, THSC firmly believes that homeschool graduates should be treated equal to public school graduates.

Here is how we ensure that problems for homeschool graduates are efficiently resolved to give homeschoolers equal opportunities at higher education.

THSC Collaborates with the TEA to Ensure Homeschool Graduate Equality

THSC president Tim Lambert and the THSC Policy Team engaged Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath in a productive meeting on February 24, 2017. The objective was to discuss an issue for homeschool graduates that came up during the previous year.

The issue was the result of these circumstances:

  • A THSC member and homeschool graduate applied to an out of state college.
  • The graduate was told by the college that TEA employees stated that homeschool graduates were not equivalent to graduates from Texas public high schools.
  • This information was relayed to THSC, prompting our intervention.

TEA quickly corrected the misinformation that staffers had disseminated and the record was set straight. As a result of this, THSC requested that the TEA post on their website that homeschool graduates were equivalent to public school graduates.

THSC’s Letter to the TEA and Their Response

THSC wrote a letter to the Commissioner’s Director of Policy and Planning, Mark Baxter, to brief him on the situation. Then, at the February meeting, Commissioner Morath asked President Lambert to follow up with Mr. Baxter to ensure that a statement about homeschool graduate equivalency would be posted to their website.

By August 21, Mark Baxter was able to work with his team to post the following statement to the TEA website:

The State of Texas considers the successful completion of a home school education to be equivalent to graduation from a public high school, therefore an institution of higher education in Texas must treat a home school graduate to the same general standards, including specific standardized testing score requirements, as other applicants for undergraduate admission who have graduated from a public high school. For additional information and specific guidance please contact the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

THSC thanks Commissioner Mike Morath, Mark Baxter and the rest of their team for setting the record straight and resolving this problem for homeschool graduates.

Addressing this issue ensures that institutions of higher education in Texas and outside of our state know that Texas homeschool graduates are equivalent to Texas public school graduates.

Do you appreciate the work done by our team to protect homeschool graduates? Donate to THSC today to enable us to continue fighting for your rights as a homeschooler or a home educator. By making a generous donation today, you can have a part in Keeping Texas Families Free.

How THSC Resolves Problems for Homeschool Graduates