Ark. Code Ann. § 6-18-232 permits, but does not require, public school districts including open-enrollment public charter schools, to adopt a policy to allow a homeschool or private school student to enroll in an academic course at a public school, including an open-enrollment public charter school, if the student resides in the district where the public school or charter school is located.  Local policies, if adopted, allow a homeschool or private school student to avail themselves to educational courses within traditional and open-enrollment public schools and still retain homeschool or private school status.  

Policy Considerations:

 A policy adopted by a school district should:

           (a) Set admission criteria determined by the school district including, without limitation, residency in the district;

           (b) Specify how many courses a private school or home school student may enroll in during each semester or year;

           (c) Set limits on enrollment determined by the school district, which may include:

                      (1) Certain academic courses or grade levels;

                      (2) Capacity or student-to-teacher ratios; or

                      (3) Other criteria determined by the school district.

The race, ethnicity, or disability status of a student shall not be used to deny a student the ability to enroll in a public school district.  

Resident Codes and eSchool Coding Requirements:

A homeschool or private school student enrolled pursuant to the district’s policy and physically attending the school should be entered into the eSchool software using Resident Code 4 – Resident Home/Private with ADM in the Residency Program with the start date the student enrolls into the course(s).  

Beginning with the 2018-2019 school year, an additional resident code has been added for homeschool and private school students who enroll in public schools but receive instruction only virtually and do not physically attend classes on the school campus.  The new Resident Code 5 - Home/Private School Student in Virtual Environment should be used in reference to homeschool or private school students who are enrolled in virtual-only options provided by the school.

Virtual Homeschool/ Private School Students:

Ark. Code Ann. § 6-47-406 authorizes a public school to utilize virtual learning opportunities to offer and teach distance learning courses to a student enrolled as a homeschool or private school student if the student meets residency requirements.  The digital learning courses that are taught by the public school or offered by the school through a third party provider must be approved by or otherwise comply with Department of Education Rules Governing Distance and Digital Learning, which include proper coding of students, courses, and personnel.  Approved courses must have a teacher of record assigned to the course.  

Public schools that enroll homeschool or private school students in virtual or digital learning environments only using Resident Code 5 must still comply with eSchool coding requirements that include, but are not limited to: student demographics, student course information, master schedule course information which includes teacher of record information, i.e. name, SSN, case ID or state ID, and student course grades/credits.  The approved virtual or digital course must indicate the correct course code from the course code management system and the teacher of record.  The proper coding is necessary to provide a credit for an academic course. 

Ark. Code Ann. § 6-47-406 also states that a homeschooled student or a private school student enrolled in a distance learning course shall not be entitled to any rights, privileges, courses, activities, or services available to a public school student or open-enrollment public charter school student other than receiving appropriate credit for a completed distance learning course unless otherwise granted by law.[1] [2] 

Average Daily Membership and Funding:

A public school is entitled to funding for each course taught to a homeschool or private school student enrolled with either Resident Code 4 or Resident Code 5.  A public school district or open-enrollment public charter school that teaches or offers an on-campus or distance learning course to one (1) or more home/private school students shall be entitled to an amount equal to one-sixth (1/6) of the state foundation funding amount for each course taught to a home/private school student.  Each student enrolled for these purposes will be counted as part of the school’s Average Daily Membership (ADM).  Home/private school students enrolled for these purposes are not counted as part of a school’s free/reduced lunch percentages.  

The district will have to enter the percentage of ADM that the district is entitled to based on the number of courses the student is enrolled in, not to exceed one ADM per student, regardless of the number of courses in which the student is enrolled. The amount should be entered in the Part-time ADM field located in Demographics on the SIS/MISC Screen.

Additional Information:

Home/Private school students (Resident Code-4 and Resident Code-5) will be excluded from state and federal accountability if student state ID and LEA are accurate for match to enrollment data downloaded from TRIAND.

For questions regarding entering students into the eSchool software, contact your APSCN Student Field Analyst or the APSCN Help Desk.