Determining the Legal Requirements in Your State for Homeschooling

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How to Determine Your State's Regulations
There are several ways to determine which general type of regulation your state has, and then to determine what the specific regulations are.

One way to do this is to contact your state's department of education and request copies of the relevant regulations. You should be able to find a phone number for this department in a telephone book. You probably can get this information from your local public library as well. You can locate your state's education department's Web site, which also will provide the information you need.

However, a better way to find this information is to use the Web to visit the HSLDA Web site. On this Web site, you will find excellent summaries of the legal requirements for each state.

The following sections provide an example of a state in each category to help you interpret the requirements for your state.

Indiana: An Example of a State with Least Regulation
If you are fortunate as I am, you live in a state with little regulation, such as Indiana. Such a state provides you with the most freedom and requires the least amount of work dedicated to meet or document regulations (which means you can spend more time on your homeschool).

There is one option for homeschoolers in Indiana, which is to operate as a homeschool. In Indiana and similar states, the only requirement is that school is held at the same time as the public schools, which requires 180 days of instruction. The only records Indiana homeschoolers are required to maintain are attendance records – an Indiana homeschooler has to be able to show that the 180-day requirement was met. What all this means is that homeschoolers in Indiana (and similar states) aren't really impacted by state regulation in any significant way.

California: An Example of a State with Minimal Regulation
Next up on the regulation category list are states with minimal regulation, an example of which is California. California has four options. One is to qualify as a private school, which means that as a homeschooler you have to meet the same requirements as a private school. Another is to use a private tutor. The third and fourth options are to use an independent study program administered by a private school or administered by a public school.

The requirements for each of these options vary slightly. The one that is most relevant for homeschoolers is to qualify as a private school. To do so, you are required to teach the same subjects as the public schools and teach in English. You must provide a formal notification that you are homeschooling with the Superintendent of Public Education. The only required documentation is an attendance log. No testing is required. As you can see, homeschoolers in states like California won't have to spend a lot of time dealing with government regulations, which is a good thing.