February 2, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Dave Murman, Chairperson
Sen. Danielle Conrad
Sen. Jana Hughes, Vice Chairperson
Sen. Glen Meyer
Sen. Margo Juarez
Sen. Megan Hunt
Sen. Dan Lonowski
Sen. Rita Sanders<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chairman Murman and members of the Education Committee:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lincoln Public Schools opposes LB1243, a bill that seeks to exempt homeschooled and non-accredited students from minimum credit requirements for participation in certain extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Families are always free to choose the educational setting that best fits their student. However, when a family chooses not to enroll in a high school, that choice also defines the opportunities available to them. Just as a student enrolled at Lincoln North Star High School cannot choose to play for the Lincoln Northeast High School baseball team, enrollment is the link that connects a student to their extracurricular opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We welcome all students who are enrolled, including those attending part-time or even for a single class, to fully participate in everything our district offers. Enrollment, even at a minimal level, establishes a student as part of the school community. Participation in school-based activities is a benefit of being part of the school community; therefore, fully opting out of enrollment also means opting out of those experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the reasons given above, the language in this bill is vague and could be interpreted to include activities like FFA where students attend external events and compete with others, or it could be construed as impacting any after school clubs we offer at LPS. This raises a number of logistical and philosophical concerns. For example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u25cf Many activities have participation limits, tryouts, or eligibility criteria, and our responsibility is to ensure enrolled students have access to opportunities at their own schools. If participation were open to all non-enrolled students, it would be possible for teams or clubs, such as a high school Robotics team, to be filled entirely by students who have never, and will never, attend that school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u25cf Without enrollment data, there would be a need for additional systems and processes in order to manage participation and ensure safety. Additional releases of information, emergency contacts, identification, etc. are all things that would need to be considered for any school where non-students are expected to be on campus participating in activities to ensure it is known who is supposed to be where, when and why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u25cf Many student organizations have strict bylaws. For example, FFA requires students to be actively enrolled in a class that would fit under the Ag-Food-Natural Resources coding with NDE. Similar enrollment requirements exist for FCCLA, SkillsUSA, HOSA, DECA, and FBLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a reasonable expectation that students who participate in school activities are also representatives of that school. Without enrollment we risk a system where a non-enrolled student could join clubs across multiple schools or districts simultaneously. It also raises the broader question of school identity: Could a school end up with a team or club representing them that consists entirely of students who do not attend that school?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lincoln Public Schools opposes LB1243. This position is not about limiting access; it is about ensuring that school-based activities remain connected to a school\u2019s student body. We welcome any resident to take advantage of all our district has to offer, but must keep these opportunities tied to enrollment as the organizing mechanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brad Jacobsen
Associate Superintendent of Civic Engagement
Lincoln Public Schools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Testimony on LB1243 to change school board policies and procedures relating to part-time enrollment by Associate Superintendent for Civic Engagement, Brad Jacobsen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[377,380,392],"class_list":["post-4709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-testimony","tag-109b","tag-brad-jacobsen","tag-lb1243"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4709"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4907,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709\/revisions\/4907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home.lps.org\/civic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}