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Homeschooling in Louisiana

What Louisiana actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.

United StatesFiling required

Who is in charge

Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), via the Louisiana Department of Education

Who actually reviews your child

BESE, through LDOE staff, on an approval decision each year.

What you must file

Initial application for approval of a home study program

Within 15 days after the program commences

Goes to: BESE / Louisiana Department of Education

Must be accompanied by a certified copy of the child's birth certificate.

Renewal application

By 1 OCTOBER of the school year, or within twelve months of approval of the initial application, whichever is later

Goes to: BESE / LDOE

Evidence of a sustained curriculum

With the renewal

Goes to: SUBMITTED to BESE

Any one of: satisfactory scores on a standardized test approved by the board; evidence of progress at a rate of one grade level per year; a complete outline of subjects taught WITH student work samples (roughly one to two pages of completed work per core subject); or results of the state competency-based examination.

Not required, but often assumed

State testing
Not required. State testing is not required of BESE-approved home study programs.

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 app is for. You say what your child did, in a sentence. It maps that to the real curriculum for Louisiana and builds the record you can hand over the day someone asks. See how it works.

Start your record

Other places in United States

AlabamaAlaskaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinois
Not yet confirmed at the government's own source. The requirements above agree across the sources we could reach, but we have not read them on the authority's own page. Treat them as a guide and confirm before you file.
Last read at the source on 2026-08-11: doe.louisiana.gov. That is the date we read it, not the date the rule last changed.