Field guide · Read at the government's own source
Homeschooling in New York
Written notice of intent, by July 1. The full list, with the deadline for starting partway through the year, is below.
Show progress, level 4 of 4
What New York actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
District superintendent
By
July 1
By July 1 each year. If you begin home instruction, or move into the school district, after the start of the school year: within 14 days of beginning home instruction in the district.
Who reviews it
The district superintendent reviews your IHIP and tells you whether it complies. The district then reviews each quarterly report and the annual assessment.
If you skip it
If you do not send the annual evaluation, the district should notify you by registered mail that it is due and set a reasonable date. If it still does not arrive, the district would be obligated to report the case to the central registry as a case of suspected educational neglect. The program is placed on probation only if the composite test score is below the thirty-third percentile on national norms or fails to reflect one academic year of growth compared with a prior test, or, for a written narrative, if the evaluator certifies that your child has not made adequate academic progress. While a program is on probation, the district may require home visits on three days' written notice. The district must send you a copy of the regulation, section 100.10; read it for the full rules on probation.
Who is in charge
Superintendent of the resident school district
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
July 1You file
Written notice of intent
By July 1 each year. If you begin home instruction, or move into the school district, after the start of the school year: within 14 days of beginning home instruction in the district.
Goes to: District superintendent
No fixed dateYou file
Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP)
Within four weeks of receiving the district's IHIP form
Goes to: District superintendent
Names the syllabi/curriculum materials or plan of instruction for each required subject, the dates the four quarterly reports will be filed, and the instructor for each subject.
No fixed dateYou file
Quarterly reports (four in a full school year; fewer if you start partway through the year)
On or before the dates the PARENT specified in the IHIP, spaced in even and logical periods
Goes to: District superintendent
Each report must contain: the number of hours of instruction that quarter; a description of the material covered in each subject listed in the IHIP; EITHER a grade in each subject OR a written narrative evaluating progress; and a written explanation if less than 80 PER CENT of the planned course material was covered in any subject.
No fixed dateYou file
Annual assessment
Filed WITH the fourth quarterly report
Goes to: District superintendent
A commercially published norm-referenced achievement test, or, for grades 1-3 every year and grades 4-8 no more often than every other year, a written narrative evaluation by a person the superintendent consents to. Standardized testing is the required form in grades 9-12.
No fixed dateYou keep
Attendance records for each child
Kept throughout home instruction
Goes to: Kept by the parent
Parents are required to keep attendance records for each child. There is no legal obligation to keep any other records, but the State Education Department recommends keeping evidence of your program, your child's achievement and your letters with the school district.
No fixed dateYou file
Revised IHIP, if the district finds your IHIP deficient
Within 15 days of receiving the district's written notice of deficiency
How often: when it happens
Goes to: District superintendent
Within 10 business days of receiving your IHIP, the district must tell you whether it complies with the regulation or give you written notice of any deficiency. Your revised IHIP must correct the deficiencies. Within 15 days of receiving it, the district must tell you whether it complies. If the superintendent finds the revised IHIP still does not comply and you disagree, you may meet with the board of education to present evidence of compliance, and you may appeal the board's finding to the Commissioner of Education within 30 days of receiving notice of it.
No fixed dateYou file
Proof that your child lives in the school district and is of compulsory school age, if the district asks
When the district asks
How often: on request
Goes to: School district
You do not have to register your child in the public school to instruct at home. But if the district asks, you must show that your child lives in the district and is of compulsory school age.
No fixed dateYou file
The district's consent to who gives the annual test or writes the narrative evaluation, when needed
Only if the test is given somewhere other than the public school or a registered religious or independent school, if you will give the test or write the narrative yourself, or if a peer review panel will write the narrative: before the test is given or the narrative is written. The regulation sets no date; the State Education Department recommends telling the district your choice of test or other evaluation by the end of the third quarterly reporting period.
How often: each year, when needed
Goes to: District superintendent
If the test is given at another location, the district must review and, if it agrees, consent to your choice of test administrator. A parent may give the standardized test or prepare the written narrative only with the superintendent's consent, and members of a home instruction peer review panel may be chosen by the parent with the superintendent's consent. If the test is given at a registered religious or independent school, the district's consent is not required. If it is given at the public school, testing should be at the time of the school's own testing program unless you and the district agree otherwise.
The words a reviewer uses
'Material covered', 'hours of instruction', and either a GRADE or a 'written narrative evaluating the child's progress'. The 80 per cent rule is the trigger the district actually watches.
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 New York, which today are English (326 of 383), Mathematics (490 of 574), Science (475 of 604), Social Studies (5 of 1631) and Physical Education (10 of 106). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of New York's published standards. A further 176 Social Studies topics are matched only to the national C3 Framework, which is guidance, not New York's own standard. Arts is not in the app for New York 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 New York'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 5 Oct 2026
- law.cornell.eduNot a government sourceRead 11 Aug 2026
- regulations.justia.comNot a government sourceRead 11 Aug 2026
- Read 8 Oct 2026
Last read at the source on 2026-10-08: NYSED, Key Laws and Regulations Relating to Home Instruction. 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.