Homeschool Requirements in New York: The Full Compliance Calendar

New York requires you to file a letter of intent by July 1, an Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP) by August 15, four quarterly reports across the year, and an annual assessment filed with the fourth report. Instruction must total 900 hours a year in grades 1 through 6 and 990 hours in grades 7 through 12. Nothing needs approving in advance, but the district does have to find your IHIP compliant, and it can place a program on probation if a child’s assessment falls short. This is one of the most paperwork-heavy homeschool regimes in the country, and almost all of it is scheduling.

Checked against Commissioner’s Regulation 100.10 (8 NYCRR 100.10) and the New York State Education Department’s home instruction guidance as at 18 August 2026. The regulation is the controlling document. Your district administers it, so confirm the local contact and any form preferences with them.

New York at a glance

What you actually file, and when

Five things, on a fixed calendar. Put them in a calendar app the day you decide to homeschool, because every genuine New York compliance problem starts as a missed date rather than a disagreement about content.

1. Letter of intent, by July 1. A written notice to the superintendent of your school district, filed annually, for each child. If you start partway through the year, it is due within 14 days of beginning home instruction instead. It does not have to be elaborate: it announces that you intend to instruct at home.
2. The district responds. It sends you a copy of the regulations and a blank IHIP form.
3. IHIP, by August 15 or within four weeks of receiving those materials, whichever is later. This is the substantive document. See the next section.
4. Four quarterly reports, on dates that you choose and write into the IHIP. The regulation says the periods must be evenly and logically spaced, and then holds you to the dates you named.
5. Annual assessment, filed with the fourth quarterly report.

Note the direction of travel on the quarterly dates. You are not given a schedule; you propose one. Parents who set their quarters to end in mid-December and late June, rather than on the district calendar, generally have an easier year, because the reports then fall where the work naturally pauses.

What goes in the IHIP

The regulation lists it. An IHIP has to contain:

• the child’s name, age and grade level,
• for each required subject, the syllabi, curriculum materials, textbooks or plan of instruction you intend to use,
• the dates on which you will submit the four quarterly reports,
• the names of the people who will be providing instruction.

The second item is where people over-write. “Plan of instruction” is one of four permitted answers, and naming the materials is enough: a math program, a reader list, a science kit. You are describing what you will use, not writing a scope and sequence, and a long IHIP is not a safer IHIP. It is a longer document for the district to find fault with, and every extra promise in it is something a quarterly report then has to account for.

The subjects themselves are set by regulation and they differ by grade band. Grades 1 through 6 cover arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, English language, geography, United States history, science, health education, music, visual arts and physical education, plus bilingual education or English as a second language where there is a need. Grades 7 and 8 are counted in units: two each of English, history and geography, science and mathematics, plus physical education, health, a half unit of art, a half unit of music, practical arts and library skills, with United States history, New York State history and both the federal and state constitutions covered by the end of grade 8. Grades 9 through 12 run four units of English, four of social studies (including American history, government and economics), two of mathematics, two of science, one of art or music, a half unit of health, two of physical education and three units of electives.

The hours are the part people get wrong

900 hours a year in grades 1 through 6. 990 hours in grades 7 through 12. The regulation also expects the substantial equivalent of 180 days of instruction.

Work out what that means before you plan a year rather than after. 900 hours across 180 days is five hours a day, and 990 is five and a half. That number frightens first-year families, and it should not, because instruction in this regulation is not the same as a child sitting at a table doing worksheets. A museum visit that covers material in the IHIP is instruction. A read-aloud is instruction. A cooking session used to teach fractions is instruction, and if you named it in the IHIP, it is documented instruction.

The thing to build is not a longer school day. It is a running hours log per subject, kept weekly, because the quarterly report asks for hours and reconstructing a quarter of them in the last week of the quarter is miserable and inaccurate. Four lines in a notebook a day is enough.

The quarterly report, and the 80 percent rule

Each of the four reports must contain:

• the number of hours of instruction during that quarter,
• a description of the material covered in each subject listed in your IHIP,
• either a grade in each subject or a written evaluation of the child’s progress,
• a written explanation if less than 80 percent of the planned course material for that quarter has been covered.

That last line is the one to understand rather than fear. It is not a penalty. It is a disclosure, and it exists precisely because plans slip. A sentence saying that the science sequence ran two topics behind because the child got deep into a rock collection, and will be made up in the third quarter, satisfies it.

Notice, though, what the rule does to the IHIP. Every subject you listed generously in August is a subject you owe a description of four times over. This is the strongest practical reason to write a plain IHIP: the 80 percent rule measures you against your own document.

The annual assessment, by grade

Filed with the fourth quarterly report. What is allowed depends on the grade, and this is the detail most summaries of New York get wrong:

Where a test is used, it must be a commercially published norm-referenced achievement test, and the standard is a composite score above the 33rd percentile on national norms, or a demonstration of one academic year of growth compared with a prior test. That second limb matters and is routinely overlooked: a child who tests below the 33rd percentile but has moved forward a full academic year since the last test has still met the standard.

Where a narrative is used, it is written by a New York State certified teacher, a home instruction peer review panel, or another person the superintendent agrees to. Agree the evaluator with the district before the evaluation, not after.

If the assessment falls short: probation

Inadequate progress does not end home instruction. It starts a defined process, and knowing the shape of it is the difference between a manageable year and a panic.

• The program is placed on probation, for up to two years.
• You submit a remediation plan that addresses the identified deficiency.
• While on probation, the superintendent may conduct home visits, on three days’ written notice. This is the only circumstance in which New York contemplates a home visit, and it is worth knowing that it is not a routine power.
• If the child does not meet at least 75 percent of the objectives in the remediation plan in a semester, or the plan is not fully satisfied after two years, the superintendent moves to a finding of noncompliance.

The practical response to a weak assessment is to name the specific weakness in the remediation plan and attach the work that addresses it. A plan that says “we will work harder on reading” invites scrutiny. A plan that says the child scored below the threshold in reading comprehension, will move to a structured comprehension program, and will be re-tested in the third quarter, is a plan a district can sign off on.

Records and evidence: what to keep

New York’s paperwork is unusually prescriptive, which is a hidden advantage. It tells you exactly what a compliant record looks like, so you can build the file as you go instead of assembling it under deadline. Keep four things:

1. An hours log, per subject, per week. The quarterly report needs a number. This is the only record where reconstruction genuinely does not work.
2. A materials-covered list, per subject. Written as you go, this is your quarterly report’s second section already drafted.
3. Dated work samples. Not required by the regulation, but they are what turns a narrative evaluation from an assertion into a demonstration, and they are what you will want if a program is ever questioned.
4. Copies of everything you filed, with proof of the date. Certified mail or a dated email receipt. Most disputes are about whether something arrived.

This is where lesson materials that carry their standard on the page earn their keep. A lesson that names the standard it covers writes half of your quarterly report for you, because “a description of the material covered in each subject” is exactly what a standards-tagged lesson already states. Sprout Lessons builds lessons from the standard, so the record and the teaching are the same artifact. Try it free.

Two things New York does not require

You do not need a teaching credential. The regulation asks for the names of the people providing instruction. It does not set a qualification for them.

You do not need approval to begin. New York is a notice state, not an approval state. You file, you comply, you go. The district reviews the IHIP for compliance and tells you if something is missing, but you are not waiting on a decision the way a Massachusetts family is.

The genuine limit is at the other end. A New York school district cannot issue a high school diploma to a home-instructed student. Diplomas go to students enrolled in a registered secondary school. Families use a High School Equivalency diploma, a program that grants its own credential, or college admission on portfolio and test scores. This is not a problem to solve in grade 11, so read up on the options early.

Where to start if you are withdrawing mid-year

The July 1 date is for a full year of home instruction. If you are pulling a child out in November, the notice is due within 14 days of when home instruction begins, and the IHIP follows on the four-week clock. Two practical notes: tell the school in writing, and keep the date, because attendance systems are the usual source of a mid-year mess. And prorate the hours honestly. A child who starts home instruction in November is not expected to have logged a full 900.

If your child is behind in a specific area rather than across the board, that is a curriculum problem, not a compliance one. Our guide to catching up after falling behind at school covers the diagnostic side, and helping with math at home without a tutor covers the daily practice. If you are still choosing materials, start with homeschool curriculum in the USA, and if you want the work to hang off something your child already cares about, using interests as a gateway to the curriculum is the method we teach.

The honest summary

New York asks for more paperwork than almost any other state and gives you more certainty in return. There is no discretionary approval, no negotiation over method, and no home visit unless a program is already on probation. Every requirement is written down, with a date attached. Meet the five dates, keep an hours log, and write a modest IHIP you can actually report against, and the rest of the year is yours.

Sprout Lessons builds standards-aligned lessons for grades K–12, so the material you teach and the record you file are the same thing. Start free.

This guide summarizes New York Commissioner’s Regulation 100.10 and New York State Education Department guidance as at 18 August 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. Home instruction is administered by your local school district, and requirements change: confirm current rules with your district or at nysed.gov before filing.

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