Field guide · Read at the government's own source
Homeschooling in Indiana
Nothing to file each year. Indiana asks for no registration and no annual return. If your child is enrolled in a school, tell the school when you take them out, or the child could be reported as truant. The full list, with the form for a public high school student and what an official can ask for, is below. Kept at home, and shown only if asked: attendance record.
Nothing to file each year, level 1 of 4
What Indiana 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 school, tell the school when you take them out, or the child could be reported as truant. The full list, with the form for a public high school student and what an official can ask for, is below.
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 routine reviewer
Attendance records are produced only on request.
If you skip it
Possible truancy report or misdemeanor
Nothing is checked routinely. If you withdraw a child from a school without telling the school, the Indiana Department of Education says the child could be reported as truant. If a parent refuses to sign a public high school's withdrawal form, the student is considered a dropout and the principal may report the student to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which can revoke or refuse a learner's permit or driver's license until the student turns 18. A person who knowingly violates Indiana's compulsory school attendance law, which includes keeping the daily attendance record and giving instruction equivalent to that given in public schools, commits a Class B misdemeanor. Before a case is brought against a parent for failing to ensure the child attends school, the superintendent or a designee must first give the parent personal notice of the violation; if the violation continues more than one school day after that notice, no further notice is needed, and each day of violation is a separate offense.
Who is in charge
Indiana Department of Education (voluntary registration only)
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 school, tell the school when you take them out, or the child could be reported as truant. The full list, with the form for a public high school student and what an official can ask for, is below. Each item below applies only on the event it names, or is kept at home.
No fixed dateYou keep
Attendance record
n/a
How often: continuous
Goes to: Kept at home; produced to the Secretary of Education or district superintendent on request
Indiana law requires an accurate daily record of each child's attendance (IC 20-33-2-20). For a homeschool, the record is kept solely to verify the child's enrollment and attendance if the Secretary of Education or the superintendent of the school corporation asks; no particular form is required. The Indiana Department of Education says parents should provide 180 days of instruction in an academic year, which runs from July 1 to June 30 of the next year, and its Help Sheet lists the 180 days among what Indiana law requires of homeschools; days the child was enrolled in a public school or another accredited school count toward the 180.
No fixed dateYou file
Notice to the school your child is leaving
When you withdraw your child to homeschool; only if your child is enrolled in a school
Goes to: The school your child is leaving (only if your child is enrolled in a school)
The Indiana Department of Education says parents and guardians must inform the school of their decision to withdraw. State law sets no method: a phone call may be enough, but the department recommends telling the school in writing, and its Help Sheet says to notify the principal in writing. You do not need a homeschool number first, and the school may not require you to register, show proof of curriculum, or otherwise stop you from withdrawing. For an elementary or middle school child, state law does not require you to sign any particular form. Not telling the school could result in the child being reported as truant.
No fixed dateYou file
Signed withdrawal form for a high school student
Before a high school student withdraws from a public school to homeschool
Goes to: The principal of the public high school the student is leaving
Only for a high school student leaving a public school. Before the student withdraws, the principal must give the student and parent a form, developed by the Department of Education and approved by the State Board, that explains the legal requirements of attending a nonaccredited nonpublic school in Indiana; the principal and a parent both sign it to acknowledge that the parent understands it (IC 20-33-2-28.6). The department calls it the Withdrawal to Non-Accredited Non-public School Located in Indiana form and says it is not a homeschool registration form. The form says that if you have the verification email from the optional state registration, it should be attached; without it, the form is still complete with the parent's signature. If the parent refuses to sign, the student is considered a dropout and the principal may report the student to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which can revoke or refuse a learner's permit or driver's license until age 18.
No fixed dateYou file
Statement of intent to homeschool a child not yet seven, if the superintendent asks
Only if the superintendent of your school corporation asks, before the child turns seven
How often: on request
Goes to: The superintendent of your school corporation
Indiana's compulsory attendance law binds a child from the earlier of official enrollment in a school or the start of the fall term of the school year in which the child turns seven (IC 20-33-2-6). A child is not bound until turning seven if, when the superintendent of the school corporation asks, the parent certifies an intent to enroll the child in a nonaccredited, nonpublic school or to begin providing instruction equivalent to that given in the public schools, not later than the child's seventh birthday (IC 20-33-2-8). The Indiana Department of Education says homeschooled children are to begin school no later than their seventh birthday.
No fixed dateYou file
Number of students by grade level, if the Secretary of Education asks
Only if the Secretary of Education asks
Goes to: The Secretary of Education (Indiana Department of Education)
The Indiana Department of Education says homeschools are nonpublic, nonaccredited schools. The law says the principal or administrator of a nonpublic school attended by a child of compulsory school age must give the Secretary of Education, on request, the number of students by grade level attending the school (IC 20-33-2-21(a)). Nothing is sent unless you are asked.
No fixed dateYou file
Report when a child leaves your homeschool and no school asks for the child's records
If no school has asked for the child's records within 15 school days after the child leaves your homeschool
How often: when it happens
Goes to: The Secretary of Education or the superintendent of your school corporation
The law says that if a student withdraws from a nonpublic school and no public or other nonpublic school has requested the student's educational records within 15 school days after the student withdrew, the nonpublic school must report the student's name and address and the date the student withdrew to the Secretary of Education or to the superintendent of the school corporation where the school is located (IC 20-33-2-21(b)). The Indiana Department of Education says homeschools are nonpublic, nonaccredited schools. If the child's new school asks for the records within that time, there is nothing to report.
Not required
Often assumed. None of it is asked of a family homeschooling in Indiana.
Enrollment report to IDOENot required. Optional. The Indiana Department of Education says reporting homeschool enrollment (registering a homeschool) is not required in Indiana. A family that chooses to register does so once; the registration stays active year after year and cove
The words a reviewer uses
Instruction 'equivalent to that given 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 Indiana, which today are English (288 of 383), Mathematics (480 of 574), Science (476 of 604) and Social Studies (84 of 1631). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Indiana's published standards. Physical Education and Arts are not in the app for Indiana 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 Indiana'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
- Read 28 Aug 2026
- Read 11 Aug 2026
- Read 6 Oct 2026
- Read 6 Oct 2026
- Read 6 Oct 2026
Last read at the source on 2026-10-06: Indiana Code Title 20 (2025 edition), IC 20-33-2 Compulsory School Attendance, Indiana General Assembly. That is the date we read it, not the date the rule last changed.
Check it yourself: the authority's own page.
Guidance, not legal advice. Rules change and districts vary: confirm with the authority named above before you file.