Tim Tebow Act West Virginia: Homeschool Sports Eligibility and Portfolio Requirements

West Virginia passed its version of the Tim Tebow Act in 2020 as Senate Bill 131. The law gives homeschooled students the legal right to participate in public school sports and extracurricular activities — the same teams and programs as enrolled students.

But legal access and actual eligibility are two different things. The Act comes with ongoing requirements that your student must satisfy every semester to stay on the team. The most important one is a portfolio of the previous semester's schoolwork that you submit directly to the member school.

If you don't know about this requirement going in, your student can lose eligibility mid-season. This post covers exactly what the law requires, what the portfolio needs to contain, and how to stay compliant year-round.

What the Tim Tebow Act Actually Says

Senate Bill 131 amended West Virginia Code to allow homeschooled students to try out for and participate in activities governed by the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission (WVSSAC). This includes varsity and junior varsity sports, marching band, drama, and other WVSSAC-regulated activities.

The participating student must:

• Reside in the attendance zone of the member school
• Meet all the same eligibility standards as enrolled students, including the academic GPA threshold
• Submit a portfolio of the previous semester's schoolwork to the member school
• Not have been enrolled in public school during the preceding semester (in most circumstances)

The school cannot exclude a homeschooled student from trying out purely because they are homeschooled. But the school's athletic director and coach can and will verify that all eligibility requirements are met before allowing participation.

The GPA Requirement

Enrolled students in WV public schools must maintain a 2.0 GPA to participate in WVSSAC activities. Homeschooled students must demonstrate the equivalent — a 2.0 grade point average on their homeschool transcript or academic record.

This equivalency is determined by the member school, not by the WVSSAC directly. In practice, the athletic director or a designated administrator reviews your student's academic documentation and makes the eligibility determination.

A 2.0 is not a high bar, but it must be documented. If you cannot demonstrate a 2.0 — in writing, from a consistent record-keeping system — your student cannot participate. "We know our child is doing fine" is not a document.

The Semester Portfolio Requirement

This is the requirement that catches most families off guard.

West Virginia law requires that homeschooled students submit a portfolio of the previous semester's schoolwork to the member school in order to establish and maintain athletic eligibility. This portfolio is separate from your annual assessment portfolio used for state compliance under WV Code §18-8-1. It is submitted to the school on a semester basis, not annually.

The semester portfolio is the mechanism by which the school verifies ongoing academic progress. Without it, your student's eligibility can be suspended.

What to include in the semester portfolio for sports eligibility:

• Work samples from the current semester, organized by subject
• Subjects should reflect the five state-mandated areas (reading/English, language arts, mathematics, science, social studies) plus any relevant electives
• A grade summary or transcript excerpt showing the GPA calculation for the semester
• Any standardized test results, online course grade reports, or co-op evaluation records from the semester

The portfolio does not need to be reviewed by a certified teacher for sports eligibility purposes — the school's administrator reviews it directly. But it needs to be organized, legible, and clearly tied to academic work from the semester in question.

What WVSSAC Oversees

The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission governs eligibility rules for all member schools. WVSSAC does not deal directly with homeschool families — it deals with member schools. The school is the entity responsible for verifying your student's eligibility under the Tim Tebow Act requirements.

This means the practical experience varies by school. Some athletic directors are familiar with the Tim Tebow Act process and have a clear submission checklist. Others are less experienced and may request documentation that goes beyond what the law requires.

Knowing exactly what the law requires — not just what any given athletic director asks for — protects you in situations where a school makes unreasonable demands. The law requires a portfolio of the previous semester's schoolwork and demonstration of the 2.0 equivalent GPA. Comprehensive daily attendance logs and parent-signed affidavits are not legally required under the Tim Tebow Act unless the school's own policies mandate them for all activity participants.

If you run into pushback, calmly provide the statutory language from Senate Bill 131. Most issues resolve quickly once both sides have the same legal text in front of them.

Extracurricular Activities Beyond Sports

The Tim Tebow Act extends to all WVSSAC-governed activities, not just sports. This includes:

• Marching band and orchestra
• Debate and speech
• Drama and theater
• Academic competitions and teams
• WVSSAC-sanctioned clubs

The same eligibility framework applies: GPA equivalent documentation, semester portfolio submission, residency in the attendance zone.

Activities not governed by WVSSAC — community sports leagues, church groups, private lessons — do not require any of this. The Tim Tebow Act framework only applies when your student wants to participate in the official public school activity.

Planning Your Semester Documentation System

The practical challenge is that most homeschool families build their documentation year-by-year for the state's annual assessment requirement. The Tim Tebow Act introduces a semester cadence that requires you to have clean, current records at the midpoint of the year, not just at the end.

A workable system:

• Maintain a running binder or digital folder for each subject, organized by semester
• At the end of each semester (December and May roughly), compile that semester's work samples into a separate portfolio section
• Calculate the semester GPA at the same time
• Submit to the member school before the next activity season begins

Ideally, the first portfolio submission happens before your student's first tryout. Waiting until tryouts start to organize months of schoolwork is stressful and unnecessary.

The Overlap Between Sports Portfolios and Annual Assessment Portfolios

If your student uses the portfolio review for their annual state assessment, the work samples you compile for the semester sports portfolio serve double duty. You are curating from the same pool of schoolwork.

The difference is the format and recipient: the annual assessment portfolio goes to a certified teacher for a written narrative, typically at the end of the year. The semester sports portfolio goes to the school's athletic or administrative office, semester by semester.

Build one organized system that serves both purposes. Subject-organized folders or binders with chronological work samples satisfy both audiences when they are well-maintained throughout the year.

Getting Your Student Cleared

Before tryouts, contact the member school's athletic director or activities office directly. Ask specifically:

1. What documentation do you require for homeschool students under the Tim Tebow Act?
2. What is the submission deadline before the season begins?
3. Who reviews the documentation and makes the eligibility determination?

Getting these answers before you submit saves back-and-forth and ensures your student isn't sitting out while the school hunts for a missing form.

Get the complete toolkit at /us/west-virginia/portfolio/ — it includes Tim Tebow Act semester portfolio templates, a GPA tracking sheet that produces a printable semester summary, and a sports eligibility checklist designed so that your student's documentation is ready before tryouts, not after.

See more United States homeschool guides →