Homeschooling in New Hampshire

New Hampshire sets no deadline and no start date for leaving public school, so you can withdraw on any school day, including in the middle of a semester. The declaration is needed at the point of withdrawal, so it goes to the school you are leaving. Until the school has it, your child is still enrolled and expected to attend.

What the declaration says

• That your child is home educated and meets New Hampshire's compulsory attendance requirements
• Your child's full name and date of birth
• Your child's current address
• A parent's signature

Adding the date and the school's name makes the copy you keep easy to match to the withdrawal. No other form is required by state law.

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

New Hampshire requires no home education records, and nobody reviews them.

A short record still saves time in four situations that ask what your child has learned:

• Enrolling in a public school later
• Joining school sports
• Applying to college or for dual enrollment, which reads a high school transcript
• Moving into the Education Freedom Account program, which requires an annual test or an evaluated portfolio

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

New Hampshire requires no tests of home educated students: no state assessment, no annual achievement test, and no evaluation.

Testing is still available if your child wants it. State law gives home educated students access to the statewide assessment and the PSAT, the Preliminary SAT. Ask the district for its dates and how to register.

Testing through the district has one privacy effect. A home educated child's data is kept out of the statewide longitudinal data system, the state's long-term student record database, unless the child takes the statewide assessment or is counted in the district's attendance figures.

Federal special education law requires states to find and evaluate children with disabilities, and New Hampshire's rules send any child aged 2.5 to 22 who may have a disability to the local evaluation team. That duty, called Child Find, covers home educated children. To start, ask the district where you live, in writing, for an evaluation. The district must finish an initial evaluation within 60 days after you sign consent.

New Hampshire's special education rules say a home educated child with a disability is not considered a private school student, so the federal system of equitable services for private school students does not apply. Instead, the access law treats a child with a disability as a home educated pupil until the child earns a high school diploma or turns 21, with the same right to the district's courses and programs as other home educated pupils. Ask the district's special education office in writing what it will provide alongside that access.

District classes and programs

Home educated students have access to the curricular courses and cocurricular programs of the district where they live. Each school board adopts a participation policy, and that policy cannot be more restrictive for home educated students than for the district's own students.

New Hampshire's graduation requirements apply to public schools, not to a home education program. You set the graduation requirements.

Certificate of completion

When your child finishes, you may sign a certificate of completion. It can list your child's name and date of birth, the parents' names, and the completion date. If you send it to the commissioner of the Department of Education, the commissioner issues a state certificate of completion within 30 days, stating that your child completed a home education program in New Hampshire under state law.

Sending a certificate or letter to the Department of Education documenting completion of a home education program at the high school level also counts as the equivalent of a high school diploma for the attendance law, so a student who does this before 18 no longer has to attend school.

A transcript lists each course by year with its grade and credit, signed by you as the program's administrator.

Federal student aid accepts a homeschooled student who completed secondary school in a home school setting that state law exempts from compulsory attendance. New Hampshire does not require its certificate of completion, so the certificate is optional for aid as well.

High school students can take college courses for credit through the Community College System of New Hampshire's Early College program, which is open to homeschooled students aged 15 or older. Up to two courses a year are tuition-free when the state's Dual and Concurrent Enrollment Scholarship program is funded. After those two, Early College classes at a high school cost $150 and classes on a college campus are half price. Course fees, textbooks, and materials may cost extra.

Homeschool dual enrollment in New Hampshire

Athletics count among the programs open to home educated students. The New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association (NHIAA) sets the eligibility rules.

To play, a parent sends a written request to the principal of the school the student will represent, which may be a public, charter, or nonpublic school in the district where the family lives. The student must meet the school board's policies and NHIAA rules on age, semesters, and scholastic standing, which means passing four units of work in the previous grading period. The principal certifies eligibility and reviews academic standing each marking period. A student can represent only one school a year.

Homeschool sports eligibility in New Hampshire

New Hampshire's Education Freedom Account (EFA) program pays the state's per-pupil adequate education grant, plus any extra aid for a student with a disability, an English learner, or a student eligible for free or reduced-price meals, into an account for approved education expenses. There is no income limit, but enrollment is capped; siblings of EFA students, children with disabilities, and families at or below 350 percent of the federal poverty guidelines can always enroll.

An EFA student is not a home educated student. Joining ends the home education program, and the family agrees to teach a list of subjects and to show yearly progress through a standardized test, the state assessment, or a portfolio evaluated by a certified or nonpublic school teacher.

Separately, the Education Tax Credit program lets scholarship organizations fund scholarships that can cover a home educated student's educational expenses.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in New Hampshire

A home education program ends when your child enrolls full time in a public school, a public charter school, a nonpublic school, or the EFA program. State law sets no rule for placing a child who returns from home education, so the district decides grade placement and course credit under its own policy.

A transcript, work samples, and any test scores give the district something concrete to place your child on. A student who took the statewide assessment through the district already has scores the district can read.

On request, the superintendent of the district where you live must work with you toward your program's goals. Beyond the declaration and the district's policy for its courses and programs, the law gives the district no authority over a home education program.

In a child protection case, taking part in a home education program is presumed to be the education the law requires. The state cannot use it, or the lack of notice, records, evaluations, or assessments, as evidence of a failure to educate, and a child is not a neglected child solely because of home education. Information you give any agency or district about your program is confidential and cannot be shared without your written consent.