Your state sets the rules for your homeschool.
Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states, but every state sets its own rules and requirements for homeschoolers. Depending on where you live, you may have to:
notify your local or state department of education that you are homeschooling
keep an annual homeschool attendance record
participate in some kind of standardized testing
submit annual homeschool records or portfolios
submit curriculum plans for independent approval
If your state’s homeschool laws come wrapped up in bow of red tape, it can be tempting to just fly under the radar and hope no one notices that your Form B-2333 hasn’t been notarized and updated every year. But it’s smarter to just follow the rules, even if they seem a little silly, and team up with other homeschoolers in your state to advocate for more reasonable laws. In most cases, even the strictest homeschool laws won’t take you more than a few hours a year to comply with.
U.S. State Homeschool Requirements
Use the state-by-state links below to find the rules for legally homeschooling in your state. (We check these links often to keep them updated, but these pages seem to move around a lot on some department of education websites. If the link for your state isn’t working, let us know—and Google “homeschool laws” with the name of your state to find the most current link.)
Do I need to join HSLDA?
Probably not. The Home School Legal Defense Association formed to help protect the rights of homeschoolers, which sounds like a pretty great mission statement. and there are people HSLDA has helped — but there are also instances where HSLDA has stepped in to circumvent the efforts of local, non-HSLDA homeschool groups. HSLDA has a clear idea of what it thinks homeschooling should look like—but it’s not necessarily an idea that every homeschooling family would agree with. HSLDA also has a religious bias, which limits its inclusiveness. Truthfully, most homeschooling families do not need access to a legal defense team. but if your state’s laws are particularly draconian or you’re concerned about your family’s ability to comply with local laws, HSLDA may be worth looking into.
