Home School Requirements

Home schooling can be a great option for your family, but t is essential that you find out what your state's home school requirements are before making the final decision to home school or not. You can check with your state and local school district to find valuable resources and requirements before starting on this wonderful journey.


The best thing to do when you are starting home schooling is to contact your local school district to find out the home school requirements. They will be happy to give you all the information you need to enable you to comply with the guidelines for home schooling. It's likely that many other families in your area have home schooled before you, so your school district will be sure to have all the information ready and waiting for you. You will just need to register and get a copy of the guidelines.

For children to be home schooled by their parents, there are unique guidelines set by each state. These guidelines have been framed with a view to guarantee the fulfillment of equivalent educational requirements of each child. Some home school requirements may appear to be too strict, but are not so. You may be planning to impart the best education to your child, but the state has no way of ensuring the same if rules are not in place.

There are some states that do not require notice or follow up in order to home school your children. These states include Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Texas along with a few others. In some states, the follow up and notice requirements for home schooled children are very lenient. For example, in Utah, New Mexico, California, Alabama and Arizona it is only required that the fact that a child is being home schooled be reported to the state. Other than that, there are no further home school requirements. Even though it seems like a good thing to be without any home school requirements, keep in mind that the curricula for public schools are designed to meet specific goals for the academic growth of the children. It is more beneficial for your child in the long run to keep pace with statewide educational standards.

In states like West Virginia, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Maine, Oregon, Maryland, and Colorado, parents must give notification. Home school requirements in these states feature periodic testing and professional evaluations by the school district of the home schooled child's progress.


States like New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont and Pennsylvania have the strictest levels of home school requirements. They call for a greater degree of monitoring the child's academic progress. In some cases, the school district requires preapproval of the homeschooling curriculum in addition to administering regular tests and progress evaluations. In some cases the teaching qualifications of the parents are examined and state officials make mandatory home visits.

Home schooling can be a wise choice for your family, if you bear in mind that It comes with great responsibility for your child's academic development. Whatever decision you make with regard to home schooling, it's important to ensure that you takes steps to comply with your state's home school requirements prior to implementing home schooling for your child.