Two of the 51 US jurisdictions make you get permission before you start. Eleven ask you for nothing at all. The other 38 want a filing, and roughly two thirds of those want it every year. That is the whole map, and it is worth having before you read anything else, because the loudest thing on the internet about homeschool law is how complicated it is.
This page sorts all 51 by what you actually have to do, not by a regulation grade. Grades like “high regulation” hide the thing you need: Massachusetts asks for less paperwork than most states and is one of only two that requires approval, while North Dakota files almost nothing and applies the strictest test score threshold in the country. Those two are not on the same axis at all.
Checked against each jurisdiction’s current rules on 27 August 2026. How that was done, and what it does and does not cover, is at the bottom of the page.
First, work out which route you are on
This is the step almost every summary skips, and it is the reason two families in the same state can both be right about completely different requirements. At least fourteen states offer more than one legal way to home educate, and the duties differ by route rather than by state.
Alaska has four. Iowa has five. Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Delaware, South Carolina and West Virginia each have three. In Alabama, teaching your own child through a church school means filing one certificate and never testing; doing it as a private tutor means a certified teacher, 140 days a year and three hours a day. Same state, same child, entirely different obligations.
So the question is never only “what does my state require”. It is “which route am I using, and what does that route require”. The tables below use the route that most families in each state actually take. Where a second route changes the answer materially, it is named.
Group 1: nothing to file
Eleven jurisdictions. You do not tell anyone. That does not mean there are no rules: most of these still name required subjects, and some require instructional time and records you keep yourself. It means nobody collects anything.
| Jurisdiction | What is required instead | Testing |
|---|---|---|
| Alaska | Nothing, if you are the parent teaching your own child. Three other routes exist and do have requirements | None on this route |
| Connecticut | Notice of intent is voluntary. Required subjects are named in statute. This changes, see below | None |
| Idaho | Nothing. Districts cannot compel you to describe your program | None |
| Illinois | You are a private school. No registration with the state board. Instruction in English, subjects named | None |
| Indiana | No registration, but 180 days and attendance records are required and can be requested | None |
| Michigan | Nothing filed. Nine named subjects. Telling your school anyway avoids a truancy call | None |
| Missouri | 1,000 hours a term, 600 in core subjects, 400 of those at your usual location. Records kept two years | None |
| New Jersey | An education “equivalent” to public school. Districts sometimes ask for notice; the law does not | None |
| Oklahoma | 180 days. No registration, no inspection | None |
| Texas | A written curriculum covering five subjects, from the Leeper decision | None |
| Wyoming | A sequential curriculum in seven subjects. The annual submission was repealed in 2025 | None |
Group 2: file once, then never again
Twelve jurisdictions. One filing when you start, and you are done with the paperwork, though several of these still want an annual assessment you keep or submit separately.
| Jurisdiction | What you file, and when | Testing or assessment | Parent qualification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Church school enrollment certificate to the local superintendent, once | None | None on this route |
| Arizona | Affidavit of intent to the county superintendent within 30 days, plus a birth certificate | None | None |
| Florida | Notice of intent to the county superintendent within 30 days. No annual refiling | Annual evaluation, one of five methods | None |
| Hawaii | Notice to the principal of the assigned school before you start, by certified mail | Grades 3, 5, 8, 10, plus an annual progress report in other years | None |
| Kansas | Register the school’s name and address with the State Board, once | Not clearly specified in statute | “Competent”, which includes a parent |
| Nevada | Notice of intent plus an educational plan to the district superintendent before starting | None | None |
| New Hampshire | Notice within 5 days to a participating agency: district, nonpublic principal, or the commissioner | Annual, but the result stays with you | None |
| North Carolina | Notice of intent to the Division of Non-Public Education, once | Annual standardized test, kept available for inspection | High school diploma or equivalent |
| Oregon | Once, to your Education Service District, within 10 days | End of grades 3, 5, 8, 10. 15th percentile threshold | None |
| South Dakota | Notify the state DOE or your district within 30 days. Refile if you move | None | None |
| Utah | One notice of intent to the local board. An excuse certificate comes back within 30 days | None | None |
| West Virginia | Notice of intent to the superintendent, effective until you move or stop | Annual, and submitted for grades 3, 5, 8, 11. Fourth stanine floor | High school diploma or a post-secondary credential |
Group 3: file every year
Twenty-six jurisdictions, the largest group. The deadline is the thing to get into a calendar, because it is the requirement people miss.
| Jurisdiction | What you file, and when | Testing or assessment | Parent qualification |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas | Notice to the local superintendent by August 15 | None | None |
| California | Private school affidavit to the state superintendent, October 1 to 15 | None | None, unless using the credentialed tutor route |
| Colorado | 14 days before starting, then annually, to any district superintendent | Grades 3, 5, 7, 9, 11. Below the 13th percentile has consequences | None |
| Delaware | To the state DOE: enrollment by Sept 30, attendance by July 31 | None | None |
| District of Columbia | Notice 15 business days before starting, then continuation by August 15 | Portfolio, which OSSE may ask to review on 30 days’ notice | None |
| Georgia | Declaration of intent to the state DOE within 30 days, then by Sept 1 | Every three years from the end of grade 3. Not submitted | High school diploma or GED |
| Iowa | Form A, on three of the five routes. Two routes need nothing | Annual on the assessment route, submitted by August 1 | None on most routes |
| Kentucky | Notice of attendance to the local board in the first two weeks of the school year | None. But 1,062 hours and 170 days, and reports every 6 to 9 weeks | None |
| Louisiana | Apply to the state board within 15 days, renew by October 1 | Evidence of progress at renewal | None |
| Maine | Notice within 10 days, then an annual letter by September 1 | Annual, one of four methods, due September 1 | None |
| Maryland | 15 days before starting, then verified annually. Choose your supervisor | No testing. Portfolio review up to three times a year | None |
| Minnesota | Full report by October 1 in year one, then a letter of intent by October 1 | Annual, ages 7 to 16. Nobody collects the result | One of five routes, one being the parent |
| Mississippi | Certificate of enrollment to the district attendance officer by August 15 | None | None |
| Montana | Notice of intent to the county superintendent, annually | None. 720 hours grades 1 to 3, 1,080 hours grades 4 to 12 | None |
| Nebraska | Forms A and B to the state DOE by July 15 | None | Parent satisfied the instructor is qualified |
| New Mexico | To the state Public Education Department within 30 days, then by August 1 | None | High school diploma or GED |
| New York | Notice by July 1, IHIP by August 15, then four quarterly reports | Annual assessment. Standardized test mandatory grades 9 to 12 | None |
| North Dakota | Statement of intent, 14 days ahead and annually | Grades 4, 6, 8, 10. Below the 50th percentile triggers monitoring | High school diploma or GED, or two years of monitoring |
| Ohio | Within 5 days of starting, then annually by August 30 | None. No hours, no portfolio either | None |
| Pennsylvania | Notarized affidavit by August 1, plus objectives by subject | Grades 3, 5, 8, plus an annual evaluator certification by June 30 | High school diploma or equivalent |
| South Carolina | Membership in SCAIHS or a 50-family association, renewed annually | None on those two routes. The district route adds state testing | High school diploma or GED |
| Tennessee | Notice of intent to the district superintendent before the school year | TCAP in grades 5, 7 and 9 | High school diploma or equivalent |
| Vermont | To the Agency of Education, 10 business days ahead. Expires every July 1 | Annual assessment, postmarked by August 1 | None |
| Virginia | Notice of intent by August 15 to the division superintendent | Evidence of progress by August 1. Fourth stanine standard | One of four options, stated in the notice |
| Washington | Declaration of intent by September 15 | Annual test or written assessment. Nobody collects it | Required, by one of four routes |
| Wisconsin | Form PI-1206 to the state DPI by October 15 | None. 875 hours a year | None |
Group 4: you need permission first
Two jurisdictions, and they are the only two. Everywhere else, filing is telling rather than asking, and nobody can refuse you.
| Jurisdiction | Who approves | What gets approved |
|---|---|---|
| Massachusetts | The superintendent or school committee | An education plan: curriculum, hours, materials, instructor competency, assessment method. Home visits cannot be a condition |
| Rhode Island | The school committee of your town | No statewide form and no statewide deadline. Each committee sets its own, which is the difficulty |
Both are less onerous in practice than they sound, and both are genuinely different in kind from the other 49. If you live in either, the approval step is the thing to start early, not the paperwork volume.
Testing is a separate axis, and it does not track the paperwork
Roughly twenty jurisdictions require some test or assessment, and they are scattered across all four groups above. Some things worth knowing:
- Where the result goes matters more than whether you test. Minnesota, Washington and New Hampshire all require an annual assessment that nobody collects. Georgia tests every three years and the results are never submitted. In practice that is a very different obligation from West Virginia, where scores for grades 3, 5, 8 and 11 go to the superintendent by June 30.
- The thresholds vary enormously. Oregon acts at the 15th percentile, Colorado at the 13th, Virginia and West Virginia at the fourth stanine (about the 23rd). North Dakota starts monitoring at the 50th, which is the strictest in the country by a wide margin and is the single most surprising number on this page.
- Testing years cluster oddly. Pennsylvania tests in 3, 5 and 8. North Dakota in 4, 6, 8 and 10. Tennessee in 5, 7 and 9. Colorado in 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11. There is no national pattern, so a grade that is a testing year in one state is routinely not one next door.
Fourteen states have something to say about the parent
Most states say nothing at all about who teaches. The ones that do fall into three kinds.
- A high school diploma or equivalent: Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Dakota (which lets you proceed without one under two years of monitoring).
- One of several defined routes: Washington has four, Virginia has four, Minnesota has five, and in Minnesota one of them is simply being the child’s parent.
- A teaching credential, but only on a secondary route: California, Alabama and Alaska each have a private tutor option that requires certification. Nobody has to use it, and it exists mainly for families hiring someone.
Six things changed recently that most of the internet has not caught up with
This is the most useful section on the page, because homeschool law has been moving fast and outdated pages read exactly as confidently as current ones. If something below contradicts an article you found, check the date on the article.
| Jurisdiction | What changed | When |
|---|---|---|
| Wyoming | The Homeschool Freedom Act repealed the annual curriculum submission to the local board. Wyoming now files nothing | 1 July 2025 |
| Utah | The affidavit was replaced by a one-time notice of intent. Existing affidavits do not need converting | 7 May 2025 |
| Missouri | The declaration of enrollment was abolished. Schools must remove a child from the rolls on written notice | Recent |
| Ohio | Testing, the 900-hour rule and portfolio review were all removed, and required subjects cut from nine to six | Recent |
| Connecticut | Background checks for families withdrawing from public school | 1 July 2027 |
| Connecticut | The notice of intent stops being voluntary and becomes required | 1 July 2028 |
Two of those move a state between groups on this page. Wyoming left Group 3 and joined Group 1 in 2025. Connecticut will leave Group 1 in 2028. If you are in Connecticut, nothing is required of you today and something will be, so put 2028 somewhere you will see it.
The twelve states we have written up properly
A row in a table cannot tell you what a portfolio physically contains, what a reviewer looks at first, or what happens when you miss a deadline. These twelve have their own page, each checked against the statute rather than a summary of it:
- New York, the most demanding regime in the country: an IHIP and four quarterly reports.
- Pennsylvania, the affidavit, the portfolio and the evaluator.
- Massachusetts and Rhode Island, the two approval states.
- Vermont, where enrollment expires every July 1.
- North Dakota, two percentile thresholds doing two different jobs.
- Ohio, now one of the lightest regimes in the country and widely described as if it were not.
- Washington, which qualifies the parent rather than the program.
- Oregon, notify once, test four times.
- Minnesota, tests every year that nobody collects.
- Maryland, the supervision fork and no testing either way.
- Virginia, the fourth stanine and the religious exemption.
For what any of these actually asks you to produce, see what goes in a homeschool portfolio. For the planning document that doubles as the curriculum outline several states want up front, see what a scope and sequence actually is.
How this page was checked, and what it is not
Being honest about this matters more here than on any other page on this site, because a wrong cell is not a bad search result, it is a family that fails to file.
- The twelve linked states were verified against the statute or regulation text itself when their pages were written, and their rows here are taken from those pages rather than re-derived.
- The other 39 were checked on 27 August 2026 against a detailed per-jurisdiction compliance guide, cross-checked against the jurisdiction’s own education department wherever that was reachable. That happened for Tennessee, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Missouri, and in two of those cases the state’s own material corrected the summary: Indiana requires 180 days and attendance records that a short summary implies do not exist.
- Summary tables were not used as a source, including ours. Compressed yes/no state cards routinely contradict their own detail pages, because a single cell cannot express a state with four legal routes. That is also the honest limitation of this page: it is a map, not the territory.
- This is not legal advice, and it will go out of date. Six of these rules changed in the last two years and two more change in 2027 and 2028. Before you file anything, open your own state department of education’s page and check the deadline against what you read here.
The honest summary
Only Massachusetts and Rhode Island make you ask permission. Eleven jurisdictions ask you for nothing. Twelve want one filing and then leave you alone. Twenty-six want something every year, and the deadline is the part people miss, so that is the thing to put in a calendar today rather than the thing to research for a month.
Then two questions that are easy to get wrong. Which route are you on, since fourteen states offer more than one and the duties follow the route rather than the state. And has your state changed its law recently, because six of these did, and out-of-date pages sound exactly as sure of themselves as current ones.
Sprout Lessons builds standards-aligned lessons for grades K–12, each one carrying the curriculum reference a portfolio reviewer is looking for. Start free.
Checked against current rules as at 27 August 2026. This page is a comparison, not legal advice, and homeschool law changes frequently: confirm every deadline against your own state department of education before you rely on it. Where a jurisdiction offers several legal routes, the table shows the route most families use, and other routes may impose different duties.
FAQ
Which states require you to get permission before homeschooling?
Only two of the 51 jurisdictions: Massachusetts, where the superintendent or school committee approves an education plan covering curriculum, hours, materials, instructor competency and assessment method, and Rhode Island, where the school committee of your town approves and there is no statewide form or deadline. Everywhere else, filing is telling rather than asking, and nobody has the power to refuse you.
Which states require no notice at all to homeschool?
Eleven: Alaska if you are the parent teaching your own child, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. That does not mean no rules. Indiana still requires 180 days and attendance records, Missouri requires 1,000 hours a term, Oklahoma requires 180 days, and most of these name required subjects. It means nobody collects anything from you.
Why do different websites give different answers for my state?
Usually because at least fourteen states have more than one legal route and the requirements follow the route, not the state. A single yes or no cell cannot describe a state with four legal options, so compressed summary tables routinely contradict their own detailed pages. The other reason is age: six of these rules changed in the last two years and an out-of-date page sounds exactly as confident as a current one.
Which states have changed their homeschool laws recently?
Wyoming repealed the annual curriculum submission to the local board on 1 July 2025, so it now files nothing. Utah replaced the affidavit with a one-time notice of intent on 7 May 2025. Missouri abolished the declaration of enrollment. Ohio removed testing, the 900-hour rule and portfolio review and cut required subjects from nine to six. Connecticut moves the other way: background checks arrive on 1 July 2027 and its voluntary notice becomes required on 1 July 2028.
Which states require standardized testing for homeschoolers?
About twenty, in scattered years. Colorado tests in grades 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11, North Dakota in 4, 6, 8 and 10, Pennsylvania in 3, 5 and 8, Tennessee in 5, 7 and 9, Oregon at the end of 3, 5, 8 and 10, and Hawaii in 3, 5, 8 and 10. Several others require an annual assessment in every grade. There is no national pattern, so a testing year in one state is routinely not one next door.
What is the strictest test score requirement for homeschoolers?
North Dakota, by a wide margin. Scoring below the 50th percentile triggers monitoring by a licensed teacher, and below the 30th triggers assessment for a learning disability and a remediation plan. For comparison, Oregon acts at the 15th percentile, Colorado at the 13th, and Virginia and West Virginia at the fourth stanine, which is about the 23rd. North Dakota otherwise files almost nothing, which is why sorting states into high and low regulation is misleading.
Do I need a teaching qualification to homeschool?
In most states no. Fourteen say something about the parent. Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia and Pennsylvania want a high school diploma or equivalent, and North Dakota lets you proceed without one under two years of monitoring. Washington and Virginia each offer four defined routes and Minnesota offers five, one of which is simply being the child’s parent. California, Alabama and Alaska require a credential only on a private tutor route nobody has to use.