Home-schooling sports bill started on campaign trail
by MICHELLE MILLHOLLON - Advocate (excerpt)

The offer of a glass of water on the campaign trail led to legislation that will allow home-schooled students to play high school sports this fall. Gov. Bobby Jindal signed House Bill 303 into law last week after making the measure part of his legislative package.

The new law makes home-schooled students eligible to play sports at schools that are members of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association. Each school’s principal will decide whether to allow the participation. The Louisiana Legislature passed the measure after wrestling with the issue for three years. The new law replaces an LHSAA rule that would have made home-schooled students ineligible to play at member schools this fall.

At his end-of-session news conference in June, the governor jokingly denied that the legislation was the “Timmy Teepell bill,” referring to his chief of staff, who was home schooled. State Rep. Cameron Henry, the bill’s sponsor, confirmed that the legislation was not the brainchild of the Jindal administration. “It was simply to fulfill a promise I made to a constituent,” said Henry, R-New Orleans.