Homeschooling in New Mexico

Registering with PED is the step that makes your home school legal, and your 30 days run from the day you establish it, so you can start at any point in the year. Register before your child leaves school, then give the school a copy of your proof of registration.

Your proof depends on how you filed. The online system produces a Home School Parent Notification Report with a five-digit registration number for each child and school year; print or save it. If you mail the paper form, send it by certified mail with return receipt or another tracked method, since PED staff enter it into the same database for you.

What the registration asks for

• Your school district of residence and the physical home address
• The legal names of all parents or guardians
• Each child's name, date of birth, gender, grade, and ethnicity
• Your signature affirming the instructor's diploma or equivalent, with an email and phone

The online account also holds your child's state student ID, lets you renew each year, and is where you disenroll a child who graduates, moves out of state, or transfers to a school. A child in a New Mexico online public school is a public school student, so you do not register that child.

Beyond the immunization record, New Mexico law requires no home school records. PED encourages you to keep your notifications, instructional hours, materials, and portfolios of work, because a school or college uses them when your child transfers or applies.

On hours, the home school statute itself sets no minimum. PED's notification form, however, lists the public school minimum from section 22-2-8.1: 1,140 instructional hours a year, or 550 for half-day kindergarten. A dated log of hours is the easiest way to show you meet it.

A short yearly file covers what a school or college later asks for: your registration report, an hours log, a list of subjects and main materials, a few work samples, any test scores, and from ninth grade on, each course with its grade and credits. PED keeps your child's education records confidential under federal privacy law and has designated none of them as public directory information.

New Mexico does not require annual standardized testing for home school students. If you want one, testing companies sell standardized tests directly to families.

A test can still be worth giving at certain points. A high school that admits your child may ask for proof of competency, and a college giving dual credit may require a placement test if your child has no qualifying score.

Federal law requires every school district 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 district in writing for an evaluation.

PED and the schools do not recommend programs or provide materials and services to home schools; the parent chooses and buys the curriculum. Your local library and the New Mexico content standards are free references for what to teach.

Part-time enrollment in classes at the local public school is at the district's discretion. If the district's policy allows it, your child enrolls with the state student ID and is usually counted as a part-time student, for whom the state pays the district proportionately.

You decide the high school program. Home school students are not legally required to have a transcript, but colleges and high schools rely on one, so most families write their own.

• Each course title and the credits earned
• The textbooks, programs, or materials used
• How much of the material was covered
• The overall grade, with grades for major work
• Writing samples and other work
• Your own graduation requirements, if you do not follow the state's

Two diplomas the state recognizes

Your child can earn a New Mexico high school diploma by transferring to a public or nonpublic school and completing the state's graduation requirements there, or can take a high school equivalency exam starting at age 16. A diploma you create, or one from a correspondence, online, or purchased home school program, is not recognized by the state, and a college may not accept it if the program is unaccredited.

New Mexico's public colleges may not require a high school equivalency credential from a student who completed a home-based program and has test scores that otherwise qualify for admission. They must evaluate home school applicants fairly and without discrimination.

Dual credit

Home school students can join the New Mexico Dual Credit Program and earn high school and college credit at the same time, with tuition and general fees waived at public colleges under the Dual Credit Program Parity law. Your family pays for textbooks, materials, and course-specific fees. A home school student may take two dual credit courses a semester, or four in the last year of high school, and stays eligible only until the 18th birthday.

To apply, your child needs a state student ID, a transcript, a Next Step Plan, and a completed dual credit request form, and must meet the college's placement standards. If your account shows no ID, PED assigns one on request.

Lottery Scholarship

Since 2021, home school graduates can receive the New Mexico Legislative Lottery Scholarship. Your child must have completed the home-based program while registered with PED, enroll at a New Mexico public college within 16 months (or after military service, under its own timeline), and earn at least a 2.5 grade point average in the first full-time semester.

Homeschool dual enrollment in New Mexico

State law lets a home school student take part in up to three school district activities a year, including athletics, at the public school in the attendance zone where the student lives, under New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA) guidelines. The district checks your child's academic eligibility.

• Your child must be registered with PED and live within the school's attendance area.
• Give the athletic director documentation that your home school classes equal more than half of that school's regular schedule.
• Grades are checked when all students are ruled eligible or ineligible, and every other NMAA rule applies.
• You, your child, and the school sign a written code of conduct agreement, and you keep a physical, consent forms, and proof of insurance on file.
• Your family provides transportation to and from practice.

Moving into home schooling can affect eligibility. A student who leaves a private school, or a public school outside the attendance zone, is treated as a transfer and sits out varsity sports for 365 days unless it is the student's first transfer. A student who was academically ineligible stays ineligible until regaining eligibility under NMAA rules.

Homeschool sports eligibility in New Mexico

New Mexico has no homeschool education savings account, voucher, or tax credit, and PED provides no books, materials, or computers to home schools. You pay for curriculum and supplies.

The public money available reaches your child through college: the dual credit tuition and fee waiver while your child is in high school, and the Lottery Scholarship after graduation. Both are described in the college section.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in New Mexico

Each local school board adopts rules for placing students who transfer from a home school. Elementary and middle school students are usually placed with children their own age.

High school placement is more involved. The local school board, or a charter school's governing council, decides which home school credits it accepts, and your child may have to show competency through tests or other methods. Bring your transcript, materials, lessons covered, test scores, and a portfolio with exams.

When your child enrolls, disenroll the child in the Home School System so your registration matches.

PED, not your school district, enforces the home school law. When it finds a home school out of compliance, PED may order the student to attend a public or private school.

Each requirement is short, so staying in compliance is mostly a matter of timing: register within 30 days, renew by August 1, keep the immunization record or waiver at home, and make sure each instructor has a diploma or equivalent. Keep each year's registration report where you can find it.

A child who is 16 or 17 may leave school before graduating only on a hardship waiver, with your written, signed permission and the local superintendent's approval.