Homeschooling in Kentucky

You can withdraw on any school day, including in the middle of a semester. The two-week clock starts on the day your child leaves public school, so the simplest order is to send the notice to the superintendent before or on the first homeschool day, and tell the school the date your child is leaving.

What the notice says

• That you intend to homeschool during the school year named
• Each child's full name and current age
• Your home address, where the school meets
• The name of your homeschool and the parents teaching
• Your signature and the date

KDE publishes a sample letter with these items. The notice goes to the superintendent's office, not to your child's school, and the district cannot reject it. Keep a copy with the date you sent it; the district uses this notice later, for example when you request the form a teen needs for a driving permit.

Before you go, ask the school for copies of report cards, test scores, and any special education evaluations. They are easiest to get while your child is still on the roll.

Those two records are all the law requires. State law does not say how long to keep them, and you do not send them anywhere; they stay at home, open to inspection by the Director of Pupil Personnel and KDE.

KDE recommends going further and keeping detailed scholarship records, such as work samples organized by year, independent test results, and reports from digital learning platforms. These are not required, but they help in three situations:

• Enrolling in a public school later
• Moving to another private school
• Applying to college, which reads a high school transcript and test scores

From ninth grade on, the scholarship reports become the transcript.

Kentucky requires no tests of homeschoolers: no state assessment, no annual achievement test, and no evaluation. Tests come up only when your child steps into a school or college system: a public high school may award credit for homeschool courses through an exam, and colleges use admissions test scores, as the college section explains.

Every school district must find and evaluate children with disabilities, a duty called Child Find, and that includes children in private schools, which is how Kentucky law classes a homeschool. To start, ask the school district where you live, in writing, for an evaluation. Kentucky gives districts 60 school days from your written consent to evaluate a child, and the private school rule requires a timeline comparable to the one for public school students.

If the evaluation finds a disability, your child does not have an individual right to the full program an enrolled student receives. The district sets aside a proportionate share of its federal special education funds for private school children and decides, after consulting private school representatives and parents, which services it will offer. A child the district chooses to serve gets a services plan that describes those specific services; the plan follows the rules for an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for the services it covers. The amount of service can be less than a public school student would receive.

Enrolling your child in public school brings the full IEP process back. KDE leaves participation in district extracurricular activities to each district.

Kentucky has no statewide diploma. Each school issues its own, so your homeschool sets its graduation requirements and awards the diploma.

A homeschool graduate's record is two documents: the diploma and a transcript drawn from the scholarship reports. KDE cannot authenticate homeschool diplomas for colleges or employers, and it suggests that students consider the General Education Development (GED) exam or another equivalency exam.

Driving permits

Kentucky's No Pass/No Drive law applies to homeschoolers, and a homeschooled student counts as enrolled in school. A student aged 15 to 17 needs a School Compliance Verification form to apply for a permit, and is refused one without it. A homeschooler gets the form from the school district of residence after the homeschool notice is on file, and it needs no school seal.

Under the same law, a student who has nine or more unexcused absences in a semester, or who fails to pass at least four courses in a semester, can lose a permit or license.

Kentucky public universities admit homeschool graduates under the university's own admission criteria, which must include admissions exams that assess college readiness. The minimum grade point average and precollege curriculum set for graduates of public and certified private schools do not apply. A university may also admit a student who does not meet its entrance requirements as a non-degree student, to take individual courses.

Merit scholarship

A Kentucky resident who graduates from a Kentucky homeschool can earn a Kentucky Educational Excellence Scholarship (KEES) award based only on the highest ACT or SAT score earned before graduation. An ACT composite of 15 earns $36 for each year of college, and a 28 or higher earns $500; a 27, for example, earns $464. The award is used at a participating Kentucky college.

Dual Credit Scholarship

Homeschooled juniors and seniors who are Kentucky residents can use the state's Dual Credit Scholarship for one approved general education college class in 2026-27, covering the tuition up to $99 per credit hour. Homeschoolers apply directly to the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority (KHEAA); the 2026-27 deadline for spring classes is March 1, 2027. The student also completes a 30-minute college success counseling session each year. Participating colleges charge every dual credit student no more than $99 per credit hour and no extra fees.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Kentucky

Homeschoolers in Kentucky have no right to play on public school teams. The Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) does not allow a homeschooled student who is not enrolled full time in a member school to play for that school in any sport or activity in grades 9 through 12, in the regular season or the postseason. The rule is the association's, so it applies in every district.

Since the 2018-19 school year, member schools may choose to compete against homeschool teams and individual homeschool students during the regular season, if they are on the list the KHSAA approves. The only way onto a school team is full-time enrollment, which ends homeschooling.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Kentucky

Kentucky has no state tax credit, deduction, or education savings account for homeschool costs, and KDE gives homeschools no financial assistance. The state's college scholarships for homeschoolers are described above.

In 2026 the legislature opted Kentucky into the federal tax credit for contributions to scholarship-granting organizations, and named the Secretary of State to report the state's participation and write its regulations. Those scholarships come from private organizations rather than the state, and whether they cover homeschool expenses depends on federal law and those regulations.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Kentucky

Each district sets its own process for enrolling a child who has been homeschooled. For a high school student, a state regulation treats the homeschool as a nonaccredited school, and the district assigns the class or grade best suited for the student.

The district awards credit for a homeschool course in one of two ways:

• The student passes an exam similar in nature and content to the one the district uses for other students earning credit in that course, graded the same way.
• In a sequential subject such as English, math, history, or science, the student earns at least a C in the next course by the 12th week of school.

A student who takes neither route does not receive the credit, so the transcript and scholarship reports matter most for a teen returning midway through high school.

The district's Director of Pupil Personnel enforces the attendance law and may inspect your attendance records and scholarship reports. Those records are what show that a bona fide school is operating.

If the district believes the law is not being met, the director must first serve you a written notice of the violation, by certified mail or in person, and give you one day to end it. Intentionally failing to comply after that can bring a $100 fine for a first offense and $250 for a second; each later offense is a Class B misdemeanor. A court can suspend the fine if the child is placed in school right away.