State council approves plan for home-school grads to get student aid

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia approved new criteria Tuesday that will allow home-schooled graduates to qualify for state financial aid that they were previously barred from receiving. 

The Virginia Guaranteed Assistance Program (VGAP) can cover full tuition, fees and a book allowance for financially needy students. But the VGAP required students to be graduates of a Virginia public or private high school and have at least a 2.5 GPA, and some colleges didn’t acknowledge home-schoolers’ GPAs for scholarship purposes, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association based in Purcellville.

The new guidelines allow students to submit SAT scores of 900 and above and ACT scores of 19 and above as an alternative. Several home-school groups, including the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers, helped SCHEV draft the new language, said Kirsten Nelson, spokeswoman for SCHEV.