Field guide · Confirm with the authority before you file
Homeschooling in Vermont
Home Study Enrollment - Notice of Intent, at least 10 business days before the intended start date. The full list is below. Also kept, and shown only if asked: end-of-year assessment.
Notify, level 2 of 4
What Vermont actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
Vermont Agency of Education
By
At least 10 business days before the intended start date
Who reviews it
The Agency of Education's Home Study Office
It processes the enrollment notice and sends a written acknowledgment, which is the proof of enrollment. Since 1 July 2023 families no longer send in an end-of-year assessment, so there is no routine review of what the child learned. A family may send an assessment to the Agency if it wants it reviewed.
If you skip it
A child is not in a home study program until the Agency of Education acknowledges a complete enrollment notice. Until then the child should keep attending school: Vermont law requires a child between 6 and 16 to attend a public school, an approved or recognized independent school, an approved education program, or a home study program, unless the child is excused under that law. The Agency gives school districts a weekly list of enrolled children so they can enforce truancy laws.
Who is in charge
Vermont Agency of Education, Home Study Office
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
Home Study Enrollment - Notice of Intent
At least 10 business days before the intended start date
How often: first year
Goes to: Vermont Agency of Education
For a child never enrolled in a Vermont public school or a Vermont home study program, the notice must include independent professional evidence about whether the child has a documented disability (listed separately below). Every parent or guardian with legal custody who is legally authorized to make educational decisions for the child signs the notice, or the parent enrolling the child attests to having sole primary educational decision-making authority. By signing, the parent attests that each child's progress will be assessed at the end of each school year and the record of those assessments kept, that each child will be provided the equivalent of at least 175 days of instruction a year in the minimum course of study, and that a child with a documented disability will be provided adaptations. Sending the notice does not by itself enroll the child: the Agency of Education sends a written acknowledgment within 10 business days of a complete notice, and that acknowledgment is the proof of enrollment.
No fixed dateYou file
Home Study Re-Enrollment - Annual Notice
On or before the start of each following year, at least 10 business days before the intended start date
Goes to: Vermont Agency of Education
File a separate Annual Notice for each child. It is the only form needed to re-enroll, and a child who was enrolled in Vermont home study before re-enrolls with it even if the child has since returned to school. All parents or guardians with legal educational rights sign it, and a student aged 18 or older also signs unless there is a court-appointed guardian. By signing, the parent attests that the equivalent of 175 days of instruction in the minimum course of study was provided last year and will be provided next year, that an annual assessment of the child's progress was completed and the records kept, and that a child with a documented disability was provided adaptations and will be this year. The family keeps a copy of its end-of-year assessment.
No fixed dateYou keep
End-of-year assessment
At the end of each school year. Kept by the family, not sent in.
Goes to: Kept by the parent, no longer required to be sent to the Agency of Education
H.461, signed on 14 June 2023, changed the rules from 1 July 2023: families no longer send the end-of-year assessment or the minimum course of study to the Agency of Education. On the enrollment and annual forms the parent still attests that each child's progress is assessed at the end of each school year and that the family keeps the record of those assessments. The law's permitted means of assessment include: a standardized assessment; a review of the child's progress by a person who holds a current Vermont teacher's certificate; a parent or guardian report and portfolio with a summary of what the child learned during the school year and at least four samples of the child's work; grades from an online academy or school; or evidence of passing the GED. Keep a separate assessment for each child. A family may send an assessment to the Agency if it wants it reviewed.
No fixed dateYou file
Written notice of withdrawal from home study
Within 10 business days after the child is withdrawn from the home study program
How often: when the child leaves home study
Goes to: Vermont Agency of Education, Home Study Office
The notice must be in writing. The Agency of Education's home study page also says families must notify the Home Study Office in writing or by email 10 days before ending a home study program, for example when the child returns to a public or independent school.
No fixed dateYou file
Independent professional evidence (first enrollment only)
With the first Notice of Intent, for a child never enrolled in a Vermont public school or a Vermont home study program
How often: first year
Goes to: Vermont Agency of Education, Home Study Office
Evidence from a professional about whether the child has a documented disability and how the disability may affect the child's progress in home study. The Agency of Education's online form can be filled in by a licensed professional who is not related to the child, or its paper form can be printed and signed by a professional. The Agency also accepts a Vermont public school report card, an IEP or 504 plan, or other documentation of a disability. Without it the enrollment notice is not complete.
The words a reviewer uses
An attestation that the family is tracking the student's progress; the assessment is the private evidence behind it.
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 Vermont, which today are English (326 of 383), Mathematics (490 of 574), Science (510 of 604), Social Studies (3 of 1631) and Physical Education (7 of 106). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Vermont's published standards. A further 176 Social Studies topics are matched only to the national C3 Framework, which is guidance, not Vermont's own standard. Arts is not in the app for Vermont 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 Vermont'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
- Checked 11 Aug 2026
- Checked 11 Aug 2026
- Checked 11 Aug 2026
- Checked 11 Aug 2026
- Checked 7 Oct 2026
- Checked 7 Oct 2026
- Checked 7 Oct 2026
Sources last checked on 2026-10-07: Vermont Agency of Education, Home Study. 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.