Homeschooling in Maine

For a child leaving school during the year, the 10 days run from the withdrawal. The notice itself is the legal step; the law sets no separate withdrawal form, though the Department of Education asks families to tell the school and superintendent about changes as a courtesy.

What a paper or emailed notice must show

• The school year it covers and whether it is a first or later year
• Your full name and physical address; a PO box is not accepted because the address sets your school unit
• Your child's full name and date of birth or age in years
• The start date, in a first year
• The first-year assurance of 175 days in the required subjects with an annual assessment, or for a later year, the statement that you will continue with the assessment enclosed
• Your signature and the date

Give an email address if you want an acknowledgement; the portal sends one to you and the superintendent's office. A child who is 5 needs no notice, since attendance becomes compulsory at 6. You also cannot file a notice for a single course.

Maine's record rule covers only what you file, not what you teach. Directory information you file is confidential unless you permit disclosure in writing or a judge orders it.

To get a copy of something you filed, ask the superintendent's office; only the parent who filed, or the former student, can ask, and the office requires a signed release. The state issues no grades, credits, transcripts, or grade promotion letters, so any course record your child needs later is one you make. A record of completed curricula and achievement is what a school uses to place a returning child, and a high school principal weighs it when deciding credit.

Your first year needs no assessment. From the second year on, you send one of these with each September 1 continuation notice:

• A standardized achievement test given through your school unit or by other arrangements the commissioner approves
• A test your school unit develops for your program
• A review and acceptance of your child's progress by a person with a current Maine teacher's certificate
• A review of your child's portfolio by a local homeschooling support group that includes a certified Maine teacher or administrator
• A review by an advisory board the superintendent selects: one school unit employee and two home instruction tutors

Testing through the school unit, a school unit test, and the advisory board each need the school unit's agreement before you file your first notice. An assessment is still due after a year that ends home instruction, with a note giving the exit date. A notice without one is flagged, and the superintendent's office follows up for the missing piece.

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

A home instruction student is eligible for special education and related services at the resident school unit's public school. The school must provide them only if your child takes classes there, and only to the extent the disability makes them necessary.

Classes, facilities, and books

Your child may enroll in specific public school classes or audit them. Apply in writing to the superintendent, who may not unreasonably withhold approval. Your child must show prior satisfactory achievement, follow class rules, and complete all assignments and tests, and you provide transportation unless the school's buses can carry your child at no extra cost. With the principal's approval, your child may also use school facilities and equipment for the academic program, borrow library books, and sign out spare textbooks for up to a year. Every school unit has a written policy on this, and its school board hears appeals.

Maine sets no achievement standards for home instruction, so the state issues no diploma, certificate of completion, or transcript. The parent sets the high school program, and colleges, military recruiters, and employers each decide what they require.

A local public school diploma depends on meeting every course credit and other requirement the school board sets. A board may also require a minimum amount of credit earned while enrolled at the school before it awards its diploma. Public school classes a homeschooler completes there earn credit on the same standard as any student's.

Maine has no statute on admitting homeschool graduates; each college sets its own requirements. The Department of Education tells parents to ask the colleges their child is considering what they will require.

High school students can take college courses tuition-free through Early College, also called the Aspirations Program, at University of Maine System campuses and Maine's community colleges. Home-schooled students qualify with a parent's consent. The limit is 12 tuition-free credits a year across all campuses, and from the class of 2027 an 18-credit lifetime cap applies, or 24 credits for approved community college career pathways. Some courses carry fees or textbook costs, and credits beyond the cap are billed at early college rates.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Maine

Maine law lets a home instruction student try out for extracurricular activities, sports included, sponsored by the resident school unit. Apply in writing. The student follows the same participation rules as enrolled students and shows evidence that they are met: academic standards equivalent to those for enrolled athletes, plus the same physical, immunization, insurance, age, and semester eligibility rules and the same transportation policy.

Cocurricular activities, such as those tied to a class, need the principal's written approval, which may not be unreasonably withheld. In a unit without its own school for your child's grade, the family or the unit pays tuition for activities elsewhere under local policy, and a homeschooler taking classes in more than one receiving unit cannot play interscholastic sports anywhere.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Maine

Maine has no homeschool tax credit, deduction, education savings account, or voucher, and filing a notice is free. Parents bear all costs; the school may lend spare textbooks but does not supply workbooks, lesson plans, or computers, and the Maine Learning Technology Initiative laptops are not available to home instruction students.

The largest public cost covered for a homeschooler is the tuition-free Early College credit described above.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Maine

A child who stops home instruction while still of compulsory age must enroll in a public school or another approved alternative. The receiving school places your child in a grade that matches their academic achievement. School staff decide using the curricula completed, the record of achievement, a conference with you, and tests if they find them necessary. You can appeal the placement to the superintendent and then to the school board, whose decision is final.

In high school, homeschool coursework earns credit only if the principal finds, both before and after the course, that it meets the requirements; the principal may ask for tests to help decide. Credit for other equivalent instruction is judged on the documentation you provide.

Home instruction sits inside the compulsory attendance law, so the truancy law applies to a child who is neither enrolled nor covered by a valid notice. A missing or late notice, or a continuation without an acceptable assessment, is what draws the superintendent's attention.

When a submission does not meet the law, the superintendent's office contacts you for the missing information. Answering with the notice and one of the five allowed assessments resolves it; the law asks for nothing beyond them.