F
or many years, the U.S. military has
made it difficult for homeschooled high
school students to enlist. They were often
considered to be “non-graduates.”
Seton has had many calls from families over the
years about our graduates whom some branch
would not permit to enlist. In recent years, the
Department of Defense (DOD) has been running
an ongoing test of new homeschooled recruits to
see if they could fit in.
During this test, they limited the number of
homeschoolers they would accept each year;
those that applied at the right time of the year
would be accepted, but once the test number was
reached, no others would be considered. This
caused much heartache.
However, there has been a breakthrough, and
it was announced by the Homeschool Legal
Defense Association (HSLDA) on March 18th,
2014. The military will now treat home-schooled
students just like students who attended a
school. However, the family will need to provide
some documentation to “prove” that the student
was educated at home.
The article points out that “…the military is
looking for high school diploma graduates.
If you present a GED certificate it will cause
unnecessary complications in the enlistment
process. The military has almost completely
eliminated accepting GED certificate holders in
all but the rarest of circumstances.” The military
is looking for high school graduates only, so do
not contact your local recruiter until you have
graduated.
You can read the full HSLDA article online at
.
Please review the full article to understand the
requirements.
Deacon Eugene McGuirk
directs the Academic
Counseling Department at Seton Home Study
School. Married for over 30 years, he is the father
of 4 children homeschooled through Seton. He was
ordained a deacon in 1988.
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BAYLEY BULLETIN, DEC 2016-FEB 2017
