Homeschooling in Delaware

Sequence matters in Delaware. Until the state opens your homeschool and enrolls your child in it, your child stays on the public school roll, and days at home count as truancy.

Opening the homeschool

• Request an EdAccess login, pick the Nonpublic School account type, and set up two-step sign-in.
• In the Nonpublic School Application, add a school, choose single-family homeschool, enter its address and contact information, add each child, and link each child to a parent.
• Submit the application. It stays pending until the Department of Education reviews it, in the order received, and opens the school.
• Download the acknowledgement letter from the Records tab; it is your proof the homeschool is open.

A child new to the state or starting kindergarten has never been on a Delaware public school roll, so that step is skipped.

The system closes from August 1 to August 11 each year while it rolls over to the new school year, so an application for the coming year waits until after August 11. Once your child turns 16, opening a homeschool is optional.

Delaware requires only the two yearly reports. The Department of Education does not ask for report cards, does not decide promotion, and keeps no academic records for any nonpublic school, open or closed. As the homeschool's administrator, you issue the report cards, decide promotion, and keep whatever records exist.

Those records come up later: when your child goes back to public school, when a state scholarship reads a high school transcript, when driver education asks for a report card, and on Social Security forms, which you sign as the school official because the state will not.

Each time your school's status or your child's enrollment changes, save a fresh copy of the acknowledgement letter. It is the official record that your homeschool was registered and your child was in it.

Delaware requires no tests of homeschoolers. The Department of Education does not give state assessments to nonpublic school students and does not pay for testing.

Homeschoolers can take the PSAT, SAT, ACT, and AP exams through private testing options. College readiness tests also come up for dual enrollment and for Delaware Tech placement, described below.

Federal law requires every school district to locate and evaluate children with disabilities who live in it, homeschooled children included. This duty is called Child Find. To start, ask your local school district in writing for an evaluation.

Delaware law calls a homeschool a nonpublic school, but for special education it treats homeschooled students as parentally placed private school children under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. That means equitable services paid for from the district's proportionate share of federal funds. The district hears from parents of private school children and then decides which services it offers; a child who receives them has a services plan, which is a narrower offer than the Individualized Education Program (IEP) an enrolled student receives.

A child with a disability can also be exempted from attendance on a written statement from a physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, or neurologist. That request goes to the district superintendent and, for a child with an IEP, to the IEP team.

Your homeschool issues the diploma. The Department of Education does not issue, validate, or keep copies of nonpublic school diplomas or credentials, and state graduation requirements for public schools do not bind a homeschool. Colleges, employers, training programs, and licensing agencies decide whether to accept a homeschool diploma.

Keep the homeschool registered and your teen enrolled through graduation, even past age 16. State scholarships require that a student be registered in a public or nonpublic school at graduation.

Driver education and work permits

A Delaware resident enrolled in a Delaware homeschool is entitled to one free driver education course through an adult education program, though some locations charge a small registration fee. Bring the acknowledgement page printed from the nonpublic school system and a recent report card, which also shows academic eligibility for a graduated driver's license. For a work permit, contact the Department of Labor's child labor office, which signs it for homeschoolers.

Delaware's tuition scholarships are open to homeschool graduates. The Student Excellence Equals Degree (SEED) program pays tuition at Delaware Technical Community College or the University of Delaware Associate in Arts program for a resident who graduated from a Delaware public or nonpublic high school with at least a 2.5 GPA. The Inspire Scholarship at Delaware State University asks for a 2.75 GPA. State law has each college set its own equivalency standards for homeschooled applicants; Delaware Tech asks for a transcript showing a Delaware address for the homeschool, or an ACT composite of 19 or an SAT total of 1350.

High school students can take Delaware Tech courses as visiting high school students with a parent's permission. Before registering, the student shows college readiness through a GPA, test scores, or earlier coursework, and pays standard tuition and fees; federal financial aid does not cover dual enrolled students.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Delaware

Delaware homeschoolers cannot play public school sports today. Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association (DIAA) rules require a student to be enrolled full time at a DIAA member school to represent it.

A 2026 law, House Bill 350, signed July 23, 2026, orders the Department of Education to study whether homeschool students should join public school extracurricular activities, sports included, possibly through a pilot program. The department works with districts, charter and vocational schools, and homeschool groups, and its findings and recommendations are due by December 31, 2027. The law does not open any team to homeschoolers on its own.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Delaware

Delaware has no homeschool tax credit, deduction, education savings account, or voucher. The Department of Education provides no funding to nonpublic schools, homeschools included, so curriculum, materials, and private testing are paid by the family.

Registering a homeschool costs nothing, and the free driver education course is one of the few services the state pays for.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Delaware

To return to public school, first withdraw your child from the homeschool in the nonpublic school system. Reprint the letter so it shows the withdrawal, and bring it to the public school with your child's portfolio: tests, quizzes, assignments, and report cards.

The public school decides the grade your child enters, and each district sets its own requirements for students coming from a nonpublic school, which may include documentation or testing. That applies even to kindergarten: the state sets no minimum age to start kindergarten in a homeschool, but the district chooses the grade on return. A high school student's credits are the district's decision too.

Filing both yearly reports on time keeps your homeschool in open status, and open status is what exempts your child from the attendance law.

Opening a homeschool does not end a truancy case already under way. If a district was preparing a truancy charge before your child was enrolled in a homeschool, it may still pursue it, and the Justice of the Peace Court keeps any case filed before the withdrawal.