Field guide · Read at the government's own source
Homeschooling in Washington
Declaration of Intent to Provide Home-Based Instruction, by September 15. The full list, with the deadline for starting partway through the year, is below. Also kept, and shown only if asked: annual test or academic progress assessment.
Notify, level 2 of 4
What Washington actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
Resident district superintendent
(or the district accepting the transfer)
By
September 15
By 15 SEPTEMBER of the school year, or within two weeks of the beginning of any public school quarter, trimester or semester
Who reviews it
Your district superintendent receives the declaration
The annual test or assessment becomes part of the child's permanent records. If the child transfers to a public school, that district's superintendent may require a standardized achievement test, and has the authority to decide the child's grade and course level after consulting the parents and reviewing the child's records.
If you skip it
Your child is treated as absent without valid justification
The law deems a parent's failure to meet these duties (the declaration, the annual test or assessment, and forwarding records when the child transfers) to be the child's failure to attend school without valid justification under RCW 28A.225.020. Parents who meet the duties are presumed to be providing home-based instruction.
Who is in charge
Superintendent of the resident public 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
September 15You file
Declaration of Intent to Provide Home-Based Instruction
By 15 SEPTEMBER of the school year, or within two weeks of the beginning of any public school quarter, trimester or semester
Goes to: Resident district superintendent (or the district accepting the transfer)
Names and ages of the children, and whether a certificated person will supervise the instruction.
No fixed dateYou keep
Annual test or academic progress assessment
n/a
Goes to: Kept in the child's permanent records. Forwarded to any public or private school the child transfers to.
Each year, either a standardized achievement test approved by the State Board of Education, given by a qualified individual, or a written assessment of the child's academic progress by a certificated person currently working in the field of education. The result becomes part of the child's permanent records. If it shows the child is not making reasonable progress consistent with their age or stage of development, the parent must make a good faith effort to remedy any deficiency. The test scores or assessment, immunization records and any other instruction records are forwarded to any school the child transfers to.
No fixed dateYou file
Records forwarded when the child transfers to another school
When the child transfers to another public or private school
Goes to: The public or private school the child transfers to
Test scores or annual academic progress assessments, immunization records, and any other records kept about the instruction. If the child transfers to a public school, that district's superintendent may require a standardized achievement test, and has the authority to decide the child's grade and course level after consulting the parents and reviewing the child's records.
The words a reviewer uses
'Annual academic progress assessment', Washington's own phrase.
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 Washington, which today are English (326 of 383), Mathematics (490 of 574), Science (510 of 604), Social Studies (287 of 1631) and Physical Education (7 of 106). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Washington's published standards. A further 121 Social Studies topics are matched only to the national C3 Framework, which is guidance, not Washington's own standard. Arts is not in the app for Washington 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 Washington'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 11 Aug 2026
- Read 13 Sep 2026
Last read at the source on 2026-09-13: app.leg.wa.gov. 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.