Field guide · Confirm with the authority before you file
Homeschooling in Louisiana
Initial application for approval of a home study program, within 15 days after the program commences. The full list is below.
Show progress, level 4 of 4
What Louisiana actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
BESE / Louisiana Department of Education
By
Within 15 days after the program commences
Who reviews it
BESE, through LDOE staff, on an approval decision each year
If you skip it
If the packet of materials sent with a renewal is inadequate, the Department of Education must notify you of the deficiencies and request additional materials, and the board then approves or disapproves the renewal. While the program is approved, you are considered in compliance with the compulsory attendance law; without approval, that law requires a child aged 5 through 18 to be sent to a public or nonpublic school. A parent who violates it can be fined up to $250, jailed up to 30 days, or both, and the court must also impose a condition of probation, which may include 40 hours of school or community service. If an application is denied or an annual renewal application is not received, the department notifies the local school system within 30 days.
Who is in charge
Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), via the Louisiana Department of Education
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
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; a short-form birth certification card is accepted. On the application you certify that the home study program will offer a sustained curriculum of quality at least equal to that offered by public schools at the same grade level, and the department says this assurance statement must be completed for the application to be approved. If your child is 11 years old or entering 6th grade, the application also asks you to mark one of three meningococcal immunization statements; no immunization records need to be sent.
October 1You file
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
Approval is valid for one year from the approval date, for the grade level shown on the application. If your child moves to a new grade level before the 12 months end, the department's guidelines say to submit a renewal application showing the child's current grade level.
No fixed dateYou file
Evidence of a sustained curriculum
With the renewal
Goes to: SUBMITTED to BESE
Any one of these, sent with the renewal application: (1) a packet of materials showing the program offered a sustained curriculum of quality at least equal to that offered by public schools at the same grade level, with documents such as a complete outline of each subject taught during the previous year, a list of books and materials used, copies of the student's work (the department asks for only 1 to 2 pages per core subject), copies of standardized tests, and statements by third parties who have observed the child's progress; (2) verification that the child took the state competency-based education examination and scored at or above the passing level the board set for public school students at that grade level; (3) verification that the child took the California Achievement Test or another standardized examination approved by the board and scored at or above grade level, or has progressed at a rate equal to one grade level for each year in the home study program; or (4) a statement from a teacher certified to teach at the child's grade level that the teacher has examined the program and, in their professional opinion, the child is being taught in accordance with a sustained curriculum of quality at least equal to that offered by public schools at the same grade level (for a child with a mental or physical disability, at least equal to that offered to children with similar disabilities). A teacher statement is subject to review and approval by the State Board of Education. If a packet of materials is inadequate, the Department of Education must notify you of the deficiencies and request additional materials.
No fixed dateYou file
Report of the child's attendance
Within 30 days of the start of the school term
Goes to: Louisiana Department of Education
State law (R.S. 17:221(E)(1)(a)) says the parent of a child aged 5 through 18 in an approved home study program shall report the child's attendance to the state Department of Education within 30 days of the start of the school term. The department's home study guidelines do not describe a separate form for this report, so ask the department how it wants the report made (toll free 1-877-453-2721).
No fixed dateYou keep
Official approval letter, kept as proof of school attendance for a learner's permit or driver's license
Keep it, and use it when your child applies for a learner's permit or driver's license
How often: when it happens
Goes to: Kept by the parent; shown to the Department of Motor Vehicles when your child applies for a learner's permit or driver's license
The department says students in an approved home study program must certify that they meet required school attendance to get a driver's license or learner's permit, and that the official approval letter is the documentation to use. If you applied online, the letter is sent to the email address on the application.
Not required
Often assumed. None of it is asked of a family homeschooling in Louisiana.
State testingNot required. State testing is not required of BESE-approved home study programs. If you choose to have your child take state tests, the department says it is your responsibility to arrange the testing through the local school board office during the fir
The words a reviewer uses
A 'sustained curriculum of a quality at least equal to that offered by public schools at the same grade level', Louisiana's statutory yardstick.
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 Louisiana, which today are English (326 of 383), Mathematics (490 of 574), Science (408 of 604), Social Studies (2 of 1631), Physical Education (9 of 106) and Arts (2 of 115). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Louisiana's published standards. A further 177 Social Studies topics are matched only to the national C3 Framework, which is guidance, not Louisiana's own standard. 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 7 Oct 2026
- Checked 7 Oct 2026
Sources last checked on 2026-10-07: Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:236.1, Approval of home study programs. 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.