Touring the Statue of Liberty. Visiting the Museum of Modern Art. Hiking in the Adirondacks. Homeschoolers who are fortunate enough to call New York home have abundant and unique educational experiences right in their own proverbial backyard.
The downside? New York has a reputation for being one of the most restrictive states in the nation for homeschooling. Navigating their procedures and processes can seem daunting. But fear not! We’ve laid out all the rules you need to know plus helpful resources so that you can homeschool confidently in the Empire State.
Option 1:
While many states give parents a few legal options for homeschooling, New York provides just one. You might think this would make things simple for parents, but there are quite a few requirements. Despite this, New York is seeing its number of homeschoolers rise at an epic rate! Let’s take a look at what is required if you want to be one of them.
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Parents must file a notice of intent to homeschool with the district superintendent every year by July 1, which is the official beginning of their school year. If you start homeschooling mid-year, you have 14 days to file your notice.
If you happen to live in New York City, your notice (and all other homeschool correspondence) should go to the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Home Schooling instead. Yes, they have their own department!
By and large, in New York children must attend school from the beginning of the school year in which they turn 6 on or before December 1 until the end of the school year in which they turn 16 or until they graduate high school.
There are some exceptions though. Any school board can raise the age from 16 to 17 for minors who aren’t working. Also, some districts have lowered the starting age to those who are 5 on or before December 1, but only if you enroll your child in public school. Verifying the exact details with your local district may be the best plan.
Within 10 days of receiving a Notice of Intent, the district must send parents a copy of the homeschooling laws and a form on which they may submit their Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP). This plan must be submitted within four weeks or by August 15, whichever is later.
Each child’s IHIP must contain the following:
Also, if applicable, you should provide a statement of assurance that the child is meeting compulsory attendance requirements (at least 12 semester hours or the equivalent) at a degree-granting institution. If this is the case, you need to also identify the institution and the subjects for which the child attends.
When preparing the list of textbooks for your IHIP, you should include, at a minimum, each book’s name, publisher, copyright date, and author. But even submitting all of this information doesn’t ensure there won’t be more to do!
If the district is not familiar with your textbook of choice, they may request additional information from you. At your option, you may then provide either “a written scope and sequence describing the text or a copy of the text for the district’s review (which copy shall be promptly returned to the parents),” according to the State’s Education Department page on home education. This is to allow the district to ascertain whether you are teaching the required subjects and to help them assess the quarterly reports you will submit later.
Within 10 business days of receiving your IHIP, or by August 31st, whichever is later, the district must notify you whether your IHIP is compliant or deficient. If you are notified of a deficiency, you have 15 days, or until September 30, whichever is later, to correct it. Failure to do so elevates the matter to the board of education.
The good news is that the law requires the district to help you prepare your IHIP if you want them to!
New York requires that homeschooled students receive instruction in specific courses and subjects by grade level. For reference, a “unit” is 6,480 minutes of instruction per year.
In addition to subject requirements, New York has requirements for both instructional days and hours every year.
The law states parents must provide the “substantial equivalent” of 180 instructional days each school year (July 1 through June 30).
Additionally, children shall have 900 cumulative hours of instruction per year in 1st through 6th grade and 990 hours per year in grades 7 through 12.
You are required to keep a record of this attendance, but the district only gets to review it if they ask. And in case you were wondering, “[a]bsences shall be permitted on the same basis as provided in the policy of the school district for its own students,” and if you’re doing school outside your home, the instruction “shall be provided in a building which has not been determined to be in violation of the local building code.”
Remember those dates you were required to put on your IHIP for quarterly reports? When they roll around, you will want to make sure you file those as well.
On or before those dates, you will need to send the district a report for each child you are homeschooling, which includes:
In the event that you covered less than 80 percent of the course materials planned for that quarter in any subject, you must also include a written explanation of why.
When you file your last quarterly report for the year, you must also include an annual assessment for each homeschooled child. Of course, this means you must have already obtained said assessment, and you have two (sometimes) options for that.
Option One is a “commercially published norm-referenced achievement test.” This includes:
These narratives must be prepared by “a New York State-certified teacher, a home instruction peer group review panel, or other person, who has interviewed the child and reviewed a portfolio of the child’s work.” Parents get to choose this person with the district superintendent’s approval. (Note: This person could be you so long as the district approves.) This approved person, then, certifies whether the child has made “adequate academic progress” or not.
You may well be wondering what is considered “adequate progress.” On a standardized test, a child’s score is deemed adequate if:
“(a) the student has a composite score above the 33rd percentile on national norms; or
(b) the student’s score reflects one academic year of growth as compared to a test administered during or subsequent to the prior school year.”
Failing to meet this bar requires the district to place the home instruction program on probation, which can last up to two years.
Parents must submit a remediation plan to address the educational deficiencies and spell out how they will be remedied. Like with an IHIP, the district must approve this plan and can require parents to make changes before they do so.
If the child has progressed to the specified level by the end of any semester (quarterly report), probation will be lifted. However, if the child has not achieved at least 75 percent of the plan’s objectives at the end of any semester (or 100% by the end of two years), matters are elevated to the board of education for further proceedings.
If traversing New York’s substantial homeschool requirements and providing instruction for your child have you in overwhelm, there is a silver lining! New York State’s Education Department makes it clear that “parents may engage the services of a tutor to provide instruction for all or a portion of the home instruction program.” (emphasis added)
Not only that but groups of homeschoolers can pool resources to hire a tutor for their collective children in certain subjects as long as this doesn’t comprise the “majority of the instructional program.” That would be considered an independent school and not homeschooling.
The peace of mind and benefits a homeschool tutor can offer, particularly in a state like New York, are enormous. A tutor may help you:
Learn more about homeschooling tutors in New York.
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Aside from the ability to bring in a tutor, there are a couple of other perks to New York homeschooling.
Homeschoolers in New York are entitled to special education services, “on an equitable basis as compared to special education programs and services provided to other students with disabilities attending public or nonpublic schools within the district.”
Parents should request such services in writing to the board of education of their school district by June 1 preceding the school year for which services are requested or within 30 days and before April 1 of the current school year after identifying a child as having a disability.
The board will determine the location of the services provided, which could include the child’s home. Children may need to be immunized to receive services on school grounds.
Homeschooled students are not permitted to participate in public school interscholastic sports in New York. However, with “mutual agreement of all involved parties,” they may use school facilities, for example, the library, career information center, or gymnasium.
Additionally, if a school board considers activities such as music lessons or band to be “extra-curricular,” homeschooled students can participate in those, too. Parents should check with their local district for more information.
In addition to keeping all correspondence with the school district, such as your annual notices, IHIPs, and any letters you receive in reply, you must also maintain records of attendance each year demonstrating that your child’s attendance meets the “substantial equivalent” of 180 days per year. However, you don’t need to provide these attendance records unless the district superintendent requests them.
Of course, you should also follow best practices for all homeschoolers and keep a portfolio of your child’s work samples as well as whatever documentation is necessary to prepare quarterly reports, plus the results of annual assessments.
Homeschooled students in New York are not required to be immunized. However, if the Commissioner of Health notifies school officials about a disease outbreak, homeschooled students who haven’t provided proof of immunization may be denied access to testing or other activities on school property.
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