Federal Requirements for Homeschoolers Seeking College Admission and Financial Aid

Colleges and universities frequently ask two questions about homeschoolers: (1) Are homeschoolers eligible for financial aid without obtaining a GED or passing an ability-to-benefit test? and (2) Can a university admit a student with a homeschool high school diploma who is under the age of compulsory attendance and still retain its eligibility for federal funding? The answer to both questions is “Yes.”

Colleges and universities have often—and unnecessarily—insisted that homeschoolers obtain a General Equivalency Diploma (GED) for financial aid. Because this requirement was usually based on the institution’s concerns about federal funding regulations, Home School Legal Defense Association addressed the situation at its root. The Association drafted federal legislation to place homeschool college applicants for admissions and financial aid on the same footing as traditionally schooled applicants.

This language was included in The Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998 (Pub. L. No. 105-244). Although these amendments, enacted in early October 1998, changed what post-secondary schools could require of homeschool applicants, these new requirements have only slowly reached local financial aid offices. Another reason for financial aid offices being slow to implement the changes was the Federal Student Aid Handbook that was issued during the last year of the Clinton administration, which contained inaccurate information indicating that colleges would lose their institutional eligibility if they admitted homeschool students.

Student Eligibility for Financial Aid

Chris Klicka, Senior Counsel of Home School Legal Defense Association authored the homeschool amendment to the Higher Education Act of 1998 and also worked with the United States Department of Education’s regulatory process on this measure. He can verify to financial aid officers that homeschoolers are eligible for federal financial aid without having to take an ability-to-benefit test or obtain a GED.

Here is how it works. Once accepted by a university, a homeschooled student may be eligible for financial aid or an academic scholarship. When a college receives federal funds, its financial aid and scholarship programs are subject to federal regulations. In the past, these colleges instructed that, pursuant to federal law, homeschoolers must take a GED exam or an ability-to-benefit test in order to qualify for federal aid.

However, this has all changed. In 1998, Congress created a third option for non-high school graduates to demonstrate that they had the “ability to benefit” from federal financial aid. (Pub. L. No. 105-244, Section 483.) This third option allows students who have “completed a secondary school education in a home school setting that is treated as a home school or a private school under state law” to receive financial aid. 20 U.S.C. § 1091(d)(3). The U.S. Department of Education’s regulations restated the above law, explaining that a student is eligible for financial aid if he was homeschooled, and either (1) obtained a secondary school completion credential as provided by state law, or (2) has completed a secondary school education in a homeschool setting under state law. (34 CFR § 668.32(e)(4).)

Nothing else is required. Homeschoolers no longer have to produce a GED. Furthermore, the Department of Education made it clear that homeschool students “are not required to take an ability-to-benefit test.” (Federal Register, Vol. 64, No. 204, 64 FR 57356.) Neither must their homeschool diploma be officially recognized by the state.

Federal Student Aid Handbook Revisions

The Federal Student Aid Handbook did not help matters by indicating to financial aid officers and college admissions officers that they would lose their institutional eligibility if they admitted homeschool students. The Handbook was inaccurate and contradicted the federal law.