Home Schools (Adopted January 14, 2011)

For Science Olympiad competitions in North Carolina, home schools are non-public schools in which one or more children of not more than two families or households receive academic instruction from parents or legal guardians, or a member of either household. Following Article 39 of chapter 115C of the General Statutes, home schools must: 

• -Notify the Department of Administration, Division of Non-Public Education of your intent to operate a school and include your school name, and name of chief administrator.
• -Certify that the persons providing the academic instruction hold at least a high school diploma or its equivalent.
• -Maintain attendance records on each student.
• -Maintain immunization records on each student.
• -Operate on a regular schedule, excluding reasonable holidays and vacations, during at least nine calendar months of the year.
• -Administer a nationally standardized test, or other equivalent measurement, that measures achievement in the areas of English grammar, reading, spelling, and math, to every student each year, and maintain the results on file for one year, subject to inspection by a duly authorized representative of the State.
• -Notify the Department of Administration, Division of Non-Public Education, when closing your school.

Because Science Olympiad is a team activity, not an individual one, a home school student must be a member of a team. A team consists of a maximum of eighteen students. In North Carolina ONLY, home school teams may be formed by home schools within the boundaries of a single county within the State OR by home schools from contiguous counties within a 30 mile driving distance radius of the team's central address. This means that a home school team must declare an official team address at the beginning of each year and that all home school members on the team must be within a thirty mile drive of the team's declared address. The declared address must also be the address used when registering the team online. Team coaches will be responsible for ensuring this requirement is observed by using GPS database information (mapquest, google maps, etc.) as the standard measure of driving distance.

Home school students should be placed in the division (elementary (Division A) , middle (Division B)or high school (Division C)) according to where their age would place them if in a graded school situation. For example, a Division A (elementary school) team would mostly be made up of students from grades 3-5; a Division B (middle school) team would mostly be made up of students from grades 6-9; and a Division C (high school) team would be made up of students from grades 9-12. A child may compete with a higher division team than their age indicates, but not a lower one. No home school student is eligible to compete on any public or nonpublic school team. All liability is the responsibility of the home school. All other restrictions regarding students on a team apply. Please click here to read these.

NOTE: For the home schools that wish to qualify for the National Tournament, they MUST follow the home school policy of the National Organization in order to participate at the National Tournament. The National Policy regarding home school can be found HERE.