Virginia Doesn’t Let All Kids Participate In Sports; Our Homeschooled Son Wants To Change That

Our son Samuel is 15 years old, and he loves to run. When the school day ends, he laces up his shoes and heads out. Running has become a meaningful part of his life, strengthening his body, steadying his mind, and shaping habits of discipline and perseverance.

Samuel ran track and cross country through middle school. He trained hard. He competed alongside his peers. He got better.

Then he entered ninth grade, and Virginia told him to stop.

Not because he isn’t fast enough. Not because he isn’t dedicated enough. Not because he did anything wrong. Samuel was told he could no longer compete in track and cross-country events sanctioned by the Virginia High School League (VHSL) because we educate him at home.

Our decision to homeschool Samuel is rooted in our faith. It is a deeply personal choice — one Virginia law fully recognizes and protects. Each year, we file our notice of intent with the superintendent and provide a list of subjects he will study. Samuel completes assignments, reads widely, writes regularly, and takes nationally-normed, standardized tests, where he performs well. Stacie, Samuel’s mother, is a formerly licensed public educator who has taught hundreds of students across multiple disciplines. We would gladly meet reasonable academic reporting requirements if doing so meant Samuel could run alongside his peers at Northside High School.

But none of that matters under the current rules.

The VHSL’s policy, in place for nearly 40 years, requires students to be “bona fide” full-time enrollees of a member school. Homeschoolers do not qualify. Period. It does not matter how rigorous the academics are. It does not matter that we pay the same taxes that fund the very schools and athletic programs from which our son is excluded. It does not matter that more than 66,000 Virginia children are homeschooled — a number that grows every year.

The door is shut.

What makes that exclusion even harder to justify is the group permitted to pass through that door. Public school students can compete, of course. Private school students can participate in VHSL-sanctioned events. Even students enrolled in full-time virtual public school programs — students who never set foot in a school building — are eligible. But a homeschooled student who lives in the district, whose family pays the taxes that fund it, who meets every academic standard set by the state, and who simply wants to train and compete receives no such opportunity.

There is no coherent principle behind that red line, and the VHSL’s own exceptions expose the problem.

We tried to work within the system before we ever considered a courtroom. We approached the VHSL and even offered to present our case. The response, to paraphrase, was simple: the policy is what it is; the board supports it. In effect, we were told not to waste our time.

That was a difficult moment for our family. We respect authority, and we teach our children to do the same. Samuel himself has said he was raised to follow the rules — but also this: when those in authority step outside constitutional bounds, the Constitution provides a path for citizens to seek a remedy.

We are grateful to have found allies in this fight. The Founding Freedoms Law Center, the legal arm of The Family Foundation of Virginia, is representing our family pro bono. For years — decades, really — efforts have been made to fix this through the legislature. Session after session, lawmakers have introduced what is commonly known as the “Tebow bill,” legislation that would allow homeschooled students to participate in public school athletics, as they already can in roughly 30 other states.

Repeatedly, those efforts succeeded and the legislature passed the bill. Every single time, Governor Terry McAuliffe vetoed it — closing the door just as it was about to open.

The legislative path has been tried. It has been blocked.

But what legislation has not yet accomplished, the Constitution already secures. The government cannot deny access to a publicly funded benefit because a family lives in accordance with sincerely held religious convictions. Nor can it deny equal protection under the law based solely on how a child is educated.

That is why, on March 30, 2026, we filed a federal lawsuit against the Virginia High School League and the Roanoke County School Board. Our case argues this blanket exclusion violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the religious liberty protections in Virginia’s Constitution, and the Virginia Religious Freedom Restoration Act. We are asking for a jury trial in federal court in Roanoke.

We want to be clear about what this case is and what it is not.

This is not about guaranteeing Samuel a spot on a team. It is about giving him the same opportunity as any other student: to try out where tryouts are held, to participate where they are not, to earn a place, and to compete. It is about the simple principle that a taxpayer-funded benefit should not be withheld from a child because his parents, guided by their faith, choose to educate him at home.

It is not just about Samuel.

When we told him we were considering this lawsuit, his response moved us. He said he wanted to do this not only for himself, but for his friends, and for the child he has not even met, a homeschooled student somewhere in Virginia who might one day have the chance to compete because this barrier was finally removed.

Other states have already shown this works. Homeschoolers participate. Standards remain intact. Teams function as expected. The sky does not fall.

Virginia refuses to follow where the evidence already leads.

Meanwhile, Samuel’s high-school years continue to slip away. Every season he cannot compete is one he will never recover — a season of training with teammates, testing himself in real competition, and learning discipline and perseverance in ways only organized athletics can teach. He dreams of one day being fast enough to run for Virginia Tech. It’s a long shot, but it should be his shot to take. Without the opportunity to compete at the high-school level, that door is closed to him.

We have also filed for a preliminary injunction, so Samuel can run while this case proceeds. Time flies, especially for a 15-year-old who runs.

We did not seek this fight. We are a family from Roanoke County who wanted our son to run track. But when we encountered a rule that treats our child as less than equal for no reason other than where he sits during the school day, we knew we had to act.

Not just for Samuel, but for every family in Virginia who has been told their children do not belong.

Our message is simple: Let Samuel run, and let the kids play.

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Daniel and Stacie Palmer are parents living in Roanoke County, VA.