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Her daughter could join school softball and soccer teams elsewhere. But that would mean leaving the Shaler Area School District, and Martha Nicklas doesn't want to go.

"My husband's the fifth generation of his family in Glenshaw," said Nicklas, a 41-year-old mother of four who home-schools her children. "We love it here. We don't want to move because of a policy."

Shaler Area policy now prohibits home-schoolers such as Nicklas' daughter, Emily, 11, from playing sports and participating in extracurricular activities. That could change: Shaler's school board in coming months is expected to consider lifting the ban.

Shaler Area was one of 14 Allegheny County districts in 2001-02 that barred home-schoolers from participating in extracurricular activities, according to the most recent state Department of Education statistics.

About 20 Shaler Area families home-school their children, said Superintendent Donald Lee.

Other districts in the northern suburbs, such as North Hills, North Allegheny, Fox Chapel and Seneca Valley, already allow home-schoolers to participate in extracurricular activities.

The issue arose for Nicklas last spring because her son, Joshua, 13, wanted to play baseball and swim for district teams. He enrolled this year in Shaler Area Intermediate School. So Nicklas has taken up the fight for her home-schooled daughter to be allowed the chance to participate.

Board member Mark Weidner isn't so sure that's a good idea.

"I don't think these students, who by their choice don't come to our classes, should have the same rights as our students," he said.

Weidner said he's worried home-schoolers don't face the same attendance requirements as public school students.

"With anything in human nature, there are slackers," Weidner said.

State law requires that home-schoolers meet the same attendance requirements as public school students, according to the Web site of the Home School Legal Defense Association, a nonprofit advocacy group.

Banning home-schoolers has its disadvantages, said Candice Laurent, of Shaler.

"People moving to Western Pennsylvania would not want to move to Shaler if they knew Shaler didn't allow home-schoolers to participate in activities," said the mother of three home-schoolers. "You're going to turn away a whole tax base."

Laurent would like to enroll her three home-schoolers in some of the district's sports and music programs.

About 24,000 students in Pennsylvania are home-schooled, according to the latest state Department of Education statistics.

At North Hills, about 10 percent of 50 home-schoolers in the district have played sports since the district began allowing the practice in 2001, Athletic Director Dan Cardone said.

The chance to play gives home-schoolers social experiences they cannot get at home, Cardone said.

"You have to deal with issues like social acceptance, peer pressure, things that other students more readily see than the home-schoolers do," he said.

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