Homeschooling in Idaho

Idaho sets no form, deadline, or start date for leaving public school, so you can withdraw at the start of the year or in the middle of it. What matters is that the school records your child as unenrolled before you begin; until then, your child is still a student there and missed days count against attendance.

What the notice says

• Your child's full name, grade, and school
• That you are withdrawing your child to provide private instruction at home
• The date homeschooling begins
• Your signature and the date

Keep a copy with the date you sent it. You do not tell the state anything, and the school has no approval to give.

If your child has a special education plan, the district must give you written notice that its duty to provide services changes when you withdraw, and that it will resume services if your child re-enrolls. Before you go, ask for copies of report cards, test scores, and evaluations.

Idaho requires no homeschool records, and no one reviews them. The Department of Education says it keeps no records on homeschooling families and suggests that families keep their own. A short record pays off in the places where someone later asks what your child has done:

• Applying for a driver's license or permit before 18, when the teen must show compliance with school attendance rules
• Playing public school sports or activities, which uses a test score or other proof of grade-level work
• Returning to public school
• Applying to college

The useful set is small: the subjects and main materials for each year, a few samples of work, any test scores, and, from ninth grade on, each course with its grade and credit.

Idaho requires no tests of homeschoolers. Your child may be able to sit for state tests at the local public or charter school, but the school decides. It does not have to accommodate homeschoolers, and any arrangement must be made before the testing period begins.

That changes once your child is dually enrolled. A district or charter school must give a dually enrolled homeschooler the chance to take the state tests and other standardized tests it gives all of its regularly enrolled students.

Every Idaho school district must find and evaluate students with disabilities from age 3 through the semester they turn 21 who live within its boundaries, and the state's special education manual says that duty, called Child Find, includes homeschooled students. The district must offer to evaluate a homeschooled child who may need services, after written parental consent, and the time from consent to an eligibility decision cannot exceed 45 school days.

Idaho does not treat a homeschool as a private school. A homeschooled student has no individual right to services, but if the evaluation finds a disability, the district where you live must write an Individualized Education Program (IEP) offering a free appropriate public education, so you can decide whether to enroll. The district cannot require enrollment before making that offer, and it carries out the IEP only after enrollment. If you make clear you will keep homeschooling, it does not have to write one.

Dual enrollment is the other route. A dually enrolled homeschooler who is eligible for special education receives appropriate services from the district, provided only in the public school setting. If you decline consent for an evaluation, the district cannot override that decision through mediation or a hearing.

Idaho's graduation requirements apply to public schools. A homeschooled student does not graduate with a diploma from an accredited high school; the parent decides when the program is complete and writes the transcript. The Department of Education notes that this can affect entry into some occupations.

Dual enrollment can add public school or college courses to the record. Credits a student earns from an accredited college through dual enrollment count toward the state board's high school graduation requirements.

Driver's licenses

An applicant under 18 must give the Idaho Transportation Department written proof of meeting school attendance rules. A homeschooled teen qualifies through a home education program after being in it for at least one school year before the request, unless you can show the teen met the attendance requirement in the school year just before homeschooling began.

Each Idaho college sets its own admission rules for homeschool graduates, and the Department of Education says homeschoolers face additional entry requirements when they apply.

High school students can take college courses for credit by applying directly to an Idaho college as a dual credit student. The state's Advanced Opportunities program, which pays up to $2,500 toward dual credit courses and exams, is open to nonpublic students only when they attend an accredited Idaho private school, so a family teaching at home pays the college's dual credit tuition itself.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Idaho

Idaho's dual enrollment law lets a homeschooled student take part in any public school program, sports included, on the same terms of behavior and performance as enrolled students. The student plays for the school whose attendance area includes your home.

Academic eligibility is proven differently. Instead of grades, a homeschooler shows composite grade-level proficiency on a state-recognized test or other approved measure, or scores in the average range or higher on a nationally normed test, and the result counts for the current and next school years. A public school student who lost academic eligibility cannot become eligible by switching to homeschool until after the following school year.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Idaho

Idaho's Parental Choice Tax Credit, run by the Idaho State Tax Commission, pays up to $5,000 per eligible student in a nonpublic setting, or $7,500 for a student with a qualifying disability. The credit is refundable, and families may instead apply for a one-time advance payment.

Qualifying homeschool costs include a curriculum covering at least English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies, and nationally standardized tests, college admission tests, and Advanced Placement exams. You must apply and be awarded before claiming anything, and you keep paid receipts.

Awards are first come, first served, with priority for households at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level. The Tax Commission closed the 2026 application period on July 17, 2026, when the program reached its limit of nearly $50 million, and future application periods are announced on the state's My School Choice site.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Idaho

A homeschooled child can return to an Idaho public school at any point in the year. The receiving school decides grade placement and may test your child, review homeschool coursework and records, or place your child provisionally in an age-level grade.

Dual enrollment offers a partial return. Your child can take some classes at a public or charter school while remaining a homeschooler, under the school board's enrollment procedures; when a program is full, full-time students get priority.