With the second highest percentage of US homeschoolers, you’ll find North Carolina homeschoolers everywhere you look. Exploring the wildlife on Cape Hatteras National Seashore? They’re there. Sporting Scottish tartans in the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games? There too. Checking out the expansive programs at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh? There are sure to be homeschoolers!
Non-public education is so popular in North Carolina that they created an entire government division to manage it. Let’s look at what it takes to homeschool in the Tar Heel State.
In North Carolina, homeschools are classified as non-public schools and consist of “the children of not more than two families or households, where the parents or legal guardians or members of either household determine the scope and sequence of academic instruction, provide academic instruction, and determine additional sources of academic instruction.” This provision generously allows for more flexibility and collaboration in a homeschool than most other states, permitting cousins, neighbors, or friends to establish a homeschool together.
(N.C.G.S. Article 39 § 115C-563(a))
At the time that you establish your homeschool in North Carolina, you are required to select one of two options: (1) a qualified nonpublic school, or (2) a private religious school or a school of religious charter. The choice is simpler than it sounds. Do you consider your homeschool to be secular (Option 1) or religious (Option 2)? The requirements for each are exactly the same.
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To establish your homeschool, you must file a notice of intent online through the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE).
Unlike many other states, this notice is not filed annually. You file it once and the state assumes you continue to homeschool until you tell them otherwise (more on that below).
Additionally, the state will require proof of the required qualifications (see B below).
Note that you need to submit one notice per school, not one notice per child even if you add additional children to your homeschool later.
Now that we have that tricky notice sorted, we turn to the second requirement for homeschooling in North Carolina. Anyone providing academic instruction in your non-public school must hold at least a high school diploma or its equivalent (GED). You will be asked for proof of this and receive instructions on how to submit that documentation when you file your Notice of Intent. So, it’s important that you’re prepared before you file.
Yes! In fact, the state went so far as to amend the statute just to allow parents greater latitude to choose how their child receives instruction, for example from a tutor. The updated definition of a homeschool ensures that parents, whether they meet the educational requirements or not, have the freedom to enlist tutors for all or part of their child’s homeschool instruction.
Why consider a homeschool tutor? They may help you:
Learn more about hiring a qualified homeschool tutor in North Carolina.
North Carolina deems that their compulsory attendance requirements are satisfied “so long as the [home] school operates on a regular schedule, excluding reasonable holidays and vacations, during at least nine calendar months of the year.”
This is a little less specific than some would like. Different people’s ideas of “reasonable holidays and vacations” may differ. Other states with attendance requirements typically specify a certain number of instructional days and/or hours. This is why many North Carolina homeschool support and advocacy groups recommend shooting for the “standard” 180 days of instruction just to be safe.
Parents are required to maintain the following records:
The DNPE offers a form that parents or tutors can use to track attendance, but you are not required to use their form.
DNPE representatives may request to meet and review the attendance records and test results. In fact, their website warns parents to expect this, saying “Chief Administrators of home schools should anticipate receiving a request(s) to meet virtually with a DNPE representative while the home school is in operation. The virtual meeting could include requesting documents via email to be shared with the division, or via video chat.”
The Home School Legal Defense Association clarifies the DNPE’s legal authority to do this, noting on their website that “the law gives its officials no right to enter homes or to inspect any records besides test scores. There is also no statutory requirement for parents to attend record review meetings arranged by the Division of Non-Public Education for the purpose of reviewing their records.”
At some point during each school year (each consecutive 12-month period after filing a Notice of Intent), parents must test their child using a “nationally standardized equivalent measure” or standardized achievement test.
The test must measure achievement in English grammar, reading, spelling, and mathematics. Best practices recommend that you choose a test that also includes science and social studies whenever possible. The DNPE FAQ page dedicated to testing can be viewed here.
you must close your homeschool by notifying the DNPE within three months. You may do this by accessing their online portal and also re-open your homeschool should you need to do so at any point in the future.
In North Carolina, all children must attend school between the ages of 7 and 16. Even if your child is over 16, you will want to continue to follow all of North Carolina’s homeschool requirements if they have not graduated from high school.
There are no extra requirements to homeschool a child with special needs in North Carolina. However, there are no exceptions to the annual testing requirement either. Districts may provide free services to homeschoolers with special needs at their discretion. So, interested parents should check with their local school authorities to see what services may be available. North Carolina offers a program called Education Student Accounts (ESA+) for special needs students. The program may award $9,000 annually (and for some disabilities up to $17,000). These funds may be used “to pay tuition and fees for eligible private schools, and for expenses such as speech therapy, tutoring services, and educational technology,” and it is open to homeschoolers. It’s important to note that your child must have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) prepared by a public school district in order to apply for the ESA+ program.
There is no law granting homeschoolers in North Carolina access to public school facilities or activities. This is left to the discretion of each school district. Parents should contact their local district to see what access is allowed.
North Carolina offers various tax credits for homeschooling families. Parents should save all records of expenses related to their child’s education and consult a tax professional for specific details.
All school children in North Carolina, including homeschoolers, are required to have immunizations or a valid exemption. North Carolina permits two exemptions, medical and religious, but does not allow for personal belief exemptions. Immunization records, or exemption records, are part of the documentation homeschoolers are required to maintain.
Estimates put the number of individual homeschoolers closer to 193,000 students. That comprises about 12% of North Carolina’s student population, and this number does not count homeschoolers under 7 years of age.
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