Homeschooling in Kansas

Kansas sets no deadline and no start date, so you can withdraw at the start of the year or in the middle of it. Register your nonaccredited private school first, then notify the school your child has been attending.

What the notice says

• Your child's full name, grade, and school
• That your child is transferring to a nonaccredited private school
• Your school's registered name and address
• The date your child starts, with your signature and the date

Attach a copy of your registration, keep a copy with the date you sent it, and send the notice before the first day you keep your child home.

Before you go, ask the school for copies of report cards, test scores, and any special education evaluations.

Kansas does not require you to turn in records, and no one reviews them. The law does treat your school's records as pupil records: the official custodian named on your registration is the person responsible for keeping them, and when your child transfers to another school, that school can ask KSDE for your registration so it knows where to request the records.

KSDE says accurate and complete records serve students well, because a school or college will ask for them:

• Transferring to an accredited school
• Part-time public school enrollment
• Joining a high school activity, which uses an affidavit or transcript showing satisfactory progress
• Applying to college, which reads a high school transcript and diploma

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

Kansas requires no tests of nonaccredited private schools: no state assessments and no annual achievement test. Tests come up only when your child moves into another system.

• Transfer to an accredited school: the school may test your child to decide which homeschool credits to accept.
• College courses in high school: a community or technical college admits a tenth, eleventh, or twelfth grader from a nonaccredited private school with an ACT or SAT score at or above the national average, a 3.0 cumulative grade point average, or the college's own finding that the student can benefit from the course.

Kansas school districts must locate, identify, and evaluate all children with exceptionalities who live in the district, including homeschooled children. This duty is called Child Find. Ask the district where you live, in writing, for an evaluation. Once you give written consent, the district has 60 school days to finish the evaluation and decide eligibility.

A district does not have to provide a free appropriate public education to a homeschooled child unless the child enrolls. KSDE says homeschools generally do not meet the state's special education definition of a private school, which requires, among other things, federal tax-exempt status, so a typical homeschool is not treated as a private school for special education.

Part-time enrollment fills the gap. Every district must let a child in a nonaccredited private school enroll part-time in any of its courses, programs, or services, and KSDE says this includes the special education services in a child's Individualized Education Program (IEP). Kansas law also says a parent of a child with a disability must have the child attend school for the IEP's services or provide those services privately.

Kansas graduation requirements apply to public and accredited private schools. A nonaccredited private school sets its own and issues its own diploma; the state issues no diploma and does not recognize homeschool diplomas as meeting any state requirement.

KSDE recommends the state's minimum course plan to nonaccredited schools: 4 units of English language arts, 3 of history and government, 3 of science, 3 of mathematics, 1 of physical education, 1 of fine arts, and 6 of electives, for 21 units in all.

A teen can add public high school courses through part-time enrollment. Each district must publish its part-time enrollment policy on its website and try in good faith to accommodate scheduling requests.

Kansas colleges and universities set their own admission criteria for graduates of nonaccredited private schools, and KSDE says most will ask for a GED credential or other criteria. The Kansas Board of Regents rule for community and technical colleges admits a graduate of a nonaccredited private secondary school on the same footing as a graduate of an accredited high school.

High school students can take college courses while still homeschooling, subject to the admission standard described above. Career and technical education courses for high school students at community and technical colleges carry no tuition, through the state's Excel in Career Technical Education program, as long as the program is funded; fees may still apply.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Kansas

Kansas law lets a student enrolled in a nonpublic school, homeschools included, take part in any activity a district offers under the Kansas State High School Activities Association (KSHSAA), at the school whose attendance area covers the student's home. The student meets the same age, eligibility, fee, and tryout rules as other students, and districts and KSHSAA may not discriminate based on enrollment status.

Academic eligibility works differently. A homeschooler qualifies when making satisfactory progress toward the next grade, and the parent or teacher submits an affidavit or transcript saying so to KSHSAA; the student stays eligible for that season. A district may require a course only if every participant must take it. A student who leaves public school for homeschool is not fully eligible right away under KSHSAA's academic rules, unless the student was eligible on the day of withdrawal and keeps playing for the same school.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Kansas

Kansas has no homeschool funding program. Its tax credit scholarship program pays up to $8,000 a year, but only toward a qualified school, which must be a nonpublic school accredited by the state board or a recognized accrediting agency. A registered homeschool is a nonaccredited private school, so its students cannot receive these scholarships.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Kansas

A child can return to a public or accredited school at any point in the year.

An accredited school does not have to accept homeschool credits, and grade placement is the school's decision.