Field guide · Read at the government's own source
Homeschooling in Mississippi
Certificate of Enrollment, by August 15. If you start partway through the year, the deadline is different; see below.
Notify, level 2 of 4
What Mississippi actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
The school attendance officer for the county of residence
(or email homeschool@mdek12.org)
By
August 15
By 15 August of each school year (Miss. Code 37-13-91, as amended by SB 2103, 2026, in force 1 July 2026). If your child was enrolled in a public school at the start of the school year (within 15 calendar days after its first day) and later leaves it for home instruction, send the certificate to the school attendance officer when you make the change.
Who reviews it
The school attendance officer, for compliance with the compulsory-attendance law only.
If you skip it
Failure to file makes the child a compulsory-school-age child not lawfully enrolled, which the attendance officer may pursue. There is no hard close: a parent found noncompliant has ten days after written notice from the attendance officer to file. This is not a closed window with no way back.
Who is in charge
School attendance officer, Office of Compulsory School Attendance Enforcement, MDE
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
August 15You file
Certificate of Enrollment
By 15 August of each school year (Miss. Code 37-13-91, as amended by SB 2103, 2026, in force 1 July 2026). If your child was enrolled in a public school at the start of the school year (within 15 calendar days after its first day) and later leaves it for home instruction, send the certificate to the school attendance officer when you make the change.
Goes to: The school attendance officer for the county of residence (or email homeschool@mdek12.org)
Miss. Code 37-13-91 as amended: the certificate 'shall be returned to the school attendance officer where the child resides on or before ... August 15 of each year' (it was September 15 before 1 July 2026). The form asks for the child's name, address, telephone and date of birth; the parent's details; the school district where the child lives; a simple description of the education; and the parent's signature. MDE also takes it by email. MDE says you must wait until the current school year has ended before enrolling a child in home school for the next school year.
The words a reviewer uses
A 'simple description of the type of education the child is receiving', Mississippi asks for a description, not a curriculum.
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 Mississippi, which today are English (326 of 383), Mathematics (490 of 574), Science (476 of 604), Social Studies (2 of 1631) and Physical Education (7 of 106). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Mississippi's published standards. A further 178 Social Studies topics are matched only to the national C3 Framework, which is guidance, not Mississippi's own standard. Arts is not in the app for Mississippi 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 Mississippi'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 5 Oct 2026
- Read 11 Aug 2026
- Read 5 Oct 2026
- Read 5 Oct 2026
- Read 5 Oct 2026
Last read at the source on 2026-10-05: mdek12.org. 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.