Field guide · Confirm with the authority before you file
Homeschooling in Florida
Notice of intent to establish a home education program, within 30 days of beginning the program. The full list is below.
Show progress, level 4 of 4
What Florida actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
District school superintendent
By
Within 30 days of beginning the program
Who reviews it
The district school superintendent's office receives the annual evaluation and must accept its results. If the evaluation does not show progress at a level commensurate with the student's ability, the superintendent must tell the parent in writing. Who does the evaluation depends on the method the parent chooses: a Florida-certified teacher who reviews the portfolio and talks with the student, a certified teacher who gives a nationally normed achievement test or a state assessment test, a person holding a valid, active license under Fla. Stat. 490.003(7) or (8), or another valid measurement tool agreed between the superintendent and the parent. The superintendent, or someone acting for the superintendent, may ask to inspect the portfolio on 15 days' written notice, but the law does not require an inspection.
If you skip it
If the annual evaluation does not show educational progress at a level commensurate with the student's ability, the superintendent must tell the parent in writing. The parent then has one year from receiving that notice to provide remedial instruction, after which the student is re-evaluated; continuing in home education depends on the student showing progress commensurate with her or his ability at the end of that year (Fla. Stat. 1002.41(2)). Section 1002.41 does not spell out what happens if the notice of intent or the annual evaluation is not filed. It does say a home education program is registered with the superintendent only for the purpose of complying with the state's attendance requirements under Fla. Stat. 1003.21(1).
Who is in charge
District school superintendent
Who reviews your child is set out at the top of this page, in the authority's own terms.
The year
What you must file
No fixed dateYou file
Notice of intent to establish a home education program
Within 30 days of beginning the program
Goes to: District school superintendent
In writing and signed by the parent, giving the full legal names, addresses and birthdates of all children who will be enrolled in the home education program.
No fixed dateYou file
Annual educational evaluation
Once a year. The statute says the evaluation is filed annually with the district school superintendent's office in the county where the student lives; it does not fix a calendar date, so confirm the date your district uses.
Goes to: District school superintendent's office in the county where the student lives
Options include a Florida-certified teacher reviewing the portfolio and interviewing the student; a nationally normed student achievement test administered by a certified teacher; a state student assessment; a psychologist's evaluation; or another method agreed with the district.
No fixed dateYou keep
Portfolio
n/a
How often: continuous
Goes to: Preserved by the parent for TWO years; produced for the superintendent's inspection on 15 days' written notice
A log of educational activities made contemporaneously with the instruction (kept as you go) that designates by title any reading materials used, plus samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks or creative materials used or developed by the student.
No fixed dateYou file
Notice of termination
Within 30 days of termination, with the annual evaluation attached
How often: on ending the program
Goes to: District school superintendent
The words a reviewer uses
The evaluator must certify that the student is 'demonstrating educational progress at a level commensurate with her or his ability'.
The part the paperwork does not cover
Filing on time is the easy half. The harder half is the year in between: showing what your child actually learned, in words the reviewer recognises, without turning your home into a school.
That is what this tool is for. You say what your child did, in a sentence. It maps that to the published standards we hold for Florida, which today are English (262 of 383), Mathematics (484 of 574), Science (504 of 604) and Social Studies (144 of 1631). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Florida's published standards. Physical Education and Arts are not in the app for Florida yet. A moment in any of those subjects is kept on the general map for your child's age and named that way in the record, so the record never cites Florida's curriculum where we hold none of it. Then it builds the record you can hand over the day someone asks. See how it works.
Sources
- Checked 11 Aug 2026
- Checked 11 Aug 2026
- Checked 6 Oct 2026
Sources last checked on 2026-10-06: Florida Statutes (2025), section 1002.41 Home education programs, The Florida Senate. That is the date we checked, not the date the rule last changed.
Check it yourself: the source we used.
Guidance, not legal advice. Rules change and districts vary: confirm with the authority named above before you file.