Homeschooling in Maine

What you must file

1. September 1You file

   Notice of Intent to Provide Home Instruction

   Within 10 calendar days of beginning home instruction in your first year (the Maine DOE says by September 1 if you begin with the new school year, and within 10 days of the sixth birthday for a child who turns 6 during the school year); on or before September 1 of each continuing year

   Goes to: Maine DOE and the resident superintendent (one submission serves both)

   File online through the Home Instruction Portal at neo.maine.gov/DOE or on paper; one submission notifies both the resident superintendent and the Maine DOE. A paper Notice, with any required prior year assessment attached, goes to the resident superintendent's office only; do not send a duplicate to the Maine DOE. The portal and the official form are not mandatory: a letter or other format is accepted if it contains all the required information. A first-year Notice must contain the parent's name, signature and address (a physical address, not a PO box); the child's name and age; the date home instruction will begin; a statement of assurance that the program will provide at least 175 days of instruction a year in English and language arts, math, science, social studies, physical education, health education, library skills, fine arts and, in at least one grade from 6 to 12, Maine studies, and that at one grade level from 7 to 12 the student will demonstrate proficiency in the use of computers; and a statement of assurance that the program will include an annual assessment of the student's academic progress. Each continuing year, the letter states your intention to continue home instruction and encloses the prior year's assessment. A Notice is still required if your child is in a distance learning program, unless the program is provided by your local school or is one of Maine's two virtual public charter schools (Maine Connections Academy or Maine Virtual Academy).

2. September 1You file

   Annual assessment of academic progress

   ATTACHED to the following year's Notice of Intent, by 1 September

   Goes to: SUBMITTED with the NOI

   One of five forms the law allows: a standardized achievement test, given through your school unit (which must agree to this before you file your notice of intent) or through other arrangements approved by the commissioner; a test developed by your school unit for your child's home instruction program, agreed to by the school unit before you file your notice of intent; a review and acceptance of your child's progress by an identified person who holds a current Maine teacher's certificate; a review and acceptance of progress based on a portfolio presented to a local homeschooling support group whose membership for this purpose includes a currently certified Maine teacher or administrator; or a review and acceptance by a local advisory board chosen by the superintendent, made up of one school unit employee and two home instruction tutors, agreed to by the school unit before you file your notice of intent. The Maine DOE says the assessment should be done toward the end of the school year being assessed, and must be sent together with the Notice by the parent who files it, not separately or by anyone else.

3. No fixed dateYou keep

   Copies of everything you file

   Keep until the home instruction program concludes; make them available to the commissioner on request

   How often: continuous

   Goes to: Kept by the parent; made available to the state education commissioner on request

   The law says copies of the information filed (each Notice or continuing-year letter, its statements of assurance and each annual assessment) must be kept by the parent until the home instruction program concludes, and made available to the commissioner on request. You cannot retrieve or edit a submitted Notice yourself except by a request to the superintendent's office, and the portal lets you print or save your form only while you submit it, so keep your own copy each time.

4. No fixed dateYou file

   Annual assessment for the last year of home instruction

   After a school year your child completed in home instruction, even if they will not continue home instruction the next year

   How often: on ending the program

   Goes to: The resident superintendent's office

   The Maine DOE says annual assessment results are still required for a school year your child completed in home instruction, even if they will not continue the next year, and asks you to include a note saying your child will no longer be in home instruction and the date they left. If you end home instruction and enrol your child in school before the school year is over, an assessment may not have been done yet; the receiving school may choose to review assessments or portfolio materials to decide placement.

5. No fixed dateYou file

   Enrolment in school if home instruction stops

   When the home instruction program is discontinued while your child is of compulsory school age (6 or older and under 17)

   How often: on ending the program

   Goes to: A public school or another equivalent instruction alternative, such as an approved private school

   The law says that if the home instruction program is discontinued, a child of compulsory school age must be enrolled in a public school or an equivalent instruction alternative; the receiving school decides the child's placement. The Maine DOE also asks parents who have already filed a Notice to tell the superintendent's office of mid-year changes, such as leaving home instruction, graduating or a change of address; its FAQ calls telling the superintendent and school a courtesy.