Field guide · Confirm with the authority before you file
Homeschooling in Idaho
Nothing to file each year. Idaho asks for no registration and no annual return. If your child is enrolled in a public school, unenroll them with the school before you begin teaching at home. That is done with the school, not filed with the state.
Nothing to file each year, level 1 of 4
What Idaho actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
No one, in an ordinary year
If your child is enrolled in a public school, unenroll them with the school before you begin teaching at home. That is done with the school, not filed with the state.
By
Nothing is due each year
No date in the year. A notice falls due only on the event under You tell.
Who reviews it
No one
If you skip it
No routine check by the state
While a child is enrolled in a public school, the child must follow that school's attendance rules, and a parent who knowingly allows an enrolled child to become an habitual truant can be found guilty of a misdemeanor. For a child not enrolled in a public school, if the school board finds, after due process for the child and parents, that the parents are failing to meet the requirements of Idaho Code section 33-202, a representative of the board must notify the county prosecuting attorney in writing and recommend that a petition be filed in the magistrates division of the district court, and proceedings against the parent are brought under the juvenile corrections act (Idaho Code sections 33-206 and 33-207).
Who is in charge
None
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
Nothing in an ordinary year. If your child is enrolled in a public school, unenroll them with the school before you begin teaching at home. That is done with the school, not filed with the state. Each item below applies only on the event it names, or is kept at home.
No fixed dateYou file
Unenrollment from public school, if your child is enrolled in one
Before you begin teaching at home
Goes to: The public school your child is enrolled in
The Idaho Department of Education says the first step is to make sure your child is officially unenrolled from any public school. This is done with the school, not filed with the state. While a child is enrolled in a public school, the child must follow that school's attendance rules.
The words a reviewer uses
Instruction in 'the subjects commonly and usually taught in the public schools'.
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 Idaho, which today are English (349 of 383), Mathematics (497 of 574), Science (439 of 604), Social Studies (156 of 1631) and Physical Education (7 of 106). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Idaho's published standards. A further 133 Social Studies topics are matched only to the national C3 Framework, which is guidance, not Idaho's own standard. Arts is not in the app for Idaho 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 Idaho'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 6 Oct 2026
- Checked 6 Oct 2026
- Checked 6 Oct 2026
Sources last checked on 2026-10-06: Idaho Code 33-202, School attendance compulsory (Idaho Legislature). That is the date we checked, not the date the rule last changed.
The law itself: Idaho Code § 33-202; Idaho Code § 33-206; Idaho Code § 33-207. We hold no direct link to the authority's page for this jurisdiction.
Guidance, not legal advice. Rules change and districts vary: confirm with the authority named above before you file.