Homeschooling in Massachusetts

You can start the process at any point in the year, and your child keeps attending school while the district reviews the plan.

• Start with a letter saying you intend to home school.
• The district replies with its policy and asks for your proposed plan. If your first letter already includes the plan, the district still sends its policy, then reviews the plan.
• The district approves the plan, asks for changes or more information, or disapproves it. It must tell you, preferably in writing, within a reasonable time.
• Once you have approval, tell the school your child's last day.

What the plan covers

Districts typically review the content you will teach, the instructional materials, how long and how often you teach, your methods, how progress will be evaluated, and whether the plan lets your child make adequate progress in the areas Massachusetts identifies as essential. Your district's policy lists exactly what it asks for.

Only the district of residence approves plans. Charter schools, Commonwealth Virtual Schools, school choice districts, and vocational technical programs cannot.

Before your child leaves, ask the school for copies of report cards, test scores, and any special education evaluations.

The records you must produce are the ones your approved plan and your district's policy name, such as progress reports or the results of the evaluation method the plan describes.

A few documents carry weight later, so keep them:

• Each year's approval letter from the district. It is your proof that the child is not truant, a 16- or 17-year-old can use it to sit for a high school equivalency test, and high school sports eligibility depends on an approved plan.
• The plans and progress reports you submitted, which show what your child covered if you return to public school.
• From ninth grade on, a transcript listing each course by year with its grade. State universities read it course by course and calculate a grade point average from it.

Massachusetts has no statewide test for homeschoolers. How your child's progress is evaluated is part of the plan the district approves, so the method and schedule follow your district's policy and the agreement in your plan.

• High school equivalency exams: a homeschooler aged 16 or 17 needs a letter of non-attendance from the local high school, or the superintendent's letter approving home schooling, before scheduling one.
• College admission tests: several public campuses are test optional but still ask homeschooled applicants for scores.

Massachusetts gives homeschooled children more special education rights than federal law alone. Under state law, a home-schooled student with a disability has an individual right to special education services from the district where the family lives.

• Child Find: every district must locate and evaluate children with disabilities aged 3 through 21 who live there, including those who are home schooled.
• Evaluation and IEP: the district must evaluate a child suspected of having a disability, convene a Team to decide eligibility, write an Individualized Education Program (IEP), and re-evaluate eligible students on the normal schedule.
• Services: services paid with state or local funds are delivered at a public school or another public or neutral site, and they must be comparable in quality, scope, and opportunity to what public school students receive.
• Disputes: families served through an IEP have the full range of state and federal dispute options, including a hearing at the Bureau of Special Education Appeals.

Federal law adds equitable services through a services plan, paid from the district's share of federal special education funds. For a homeschooler the same district usually handles both.

Classes and activities

Districts are not required to open their courses, programs, or extracurricular activities to homeschoolers, but they may. Each district sets its own policy, and DESE does not review those decisions.

Massachusetts sets no graduation requirements and issues no diploma for home schooling. The high school years run under the same plan approval as earlier grades.

A homeschool graduate's main record is the transcript you keep. Because state universities measure applicants against a fixed list of high school courses, planning the four years around that list keeps public college admission open; the list is in the college section.

High school equivalency

Massachusetts residents can earn a state high school equivalency credential by passing the GED or HiSET. A student must be at least 16, not enrolled in a secondary school, and without a diploma or an earlier equivalency credential.

Homeschooled applicants to state universities and UMass campuses meet the same minimum admissions standards as other first-year applicants. That means 17 academic courses: four of English, four of math including math in the final year, three of science with lab work, two of social science including one of U.S. history, two of a single world language, and two electives. The weighted grade point average must be at least 3.0.

A homeschooler who does not meet those standards can still be admitted through the special admissions category, which is limited to 10 percent of a campus's new students. Community colleges have open admission, so the standards do not apply to them.

Dual enrollment

Homeschooled students who are Massachusetts residents, meet a course's prerequisites, and have no diploma or equivalency credential are eligible for the Commonwealth Dual Enrollment Partnership (CDEP) at participating public colleges. The first CDEP-funded course is free or carries a nominal fee, and the college sets the charge for later courses. Seats depend on each campus's capacity and state funding.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Massachusetts

Massachusetts gives homeschoolers no statewide right to play on public school teams; each district decides. Under the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) rules, a homeschooler can play on a high school team only if the local school committee has adopted a policy allowing it.

The student must also have an educational plan approved by the superintendent, live in the district with a parent or guardian, and receive a grade placement from 9 through 12 from the principal. The principal certifies that the student meets the same academic, age, transfer, and season limits as every other athlete, on the same schedule. A homeschooler plays for the traditional comprehensive high school in the district where the family lives, or, in a district with several, the one its policy assigns.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Massachusetts

Massachusetts has no state tax credit, deduction, or education savings account for homeschool costs, and an approved home schooling plan does not come with public money for curriculum or materials.

The one state program that pays toward a homeschooler's coursework is CDEP, described above, and it covers college courses only, at participating public campuses.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Massachusetts

A child can return to public school at any time, and the approved plan ends. The district decides grade placement and, in high school, which homeschool courses count toward its graduation requirements.

The plans and progress reports already on file are where that review starts. Returning early in high school leaves the most room to meet what the district asks of its own graduates.

Each town's school committee enforces school attendance for children who live there.

Without an approved plan, the ordinary attendance law applies. A parent who fails to send a child to school for seven day sessions or 14 half-day sessions within six months can, on a complaint by a supervisor of attendance, be fined up to $20. A disagreement over a plan is worked out with the district itself, through its policy and process.