Homeschooling in New York

You can begin at the start of the home instruction year or in the middle of it, and a district must respond to a letter of intent at any time of year. After the letter, the regulation sets a timeline:

• Within 10 business days, the district sends you the regulation and an IHIP form for each child.
• Within 10 business days of receiving the IHIP, or by August 31, the district tells you it complies or lists deficiencies in writing.
• Within 15 days of a deficiency notice, or by September 15, you send a revised IHIP.
• Within 15 days of the revision, or by September 30, the superintendent decides whether it complies.

The district may ask you to show that your child lives in the district and is of compulsory age. It may not require you to register your child in public school, meet with school officials, or give more on the IHIP than the regulation lists. If it does not know a textbook you name, it may ask for more; you can send a scope and sequence or a copy of the book, which it returns.

Required subjects by grade

Grades 1 to 6 cover arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, English, geography, United States history, science, health education, music, visual arts, and physical education, plus bilingual education or English as a second language where needed. Grades 7 and 8 together cover two units each of English, history and geography, science, and mathematics, a half unit each of art and music, and regular physical education, health, practical arts, and library skills. A unit is 6,480 minutes of instruction.

For grades 9 through 12, the IHIP covers four units of English; four of social studies, including one of American history, a half unit of participation in government, and a half unit of economics; two of mathematics; two of science; one of art or music; a half unit of health; two of physical education; and three of electives.

United States history, New York State history, and the federal and state constitutions are taught at least once in the first eight grades. In every grade, the law also requires patriotism and citizenship, health education about alcohol, drug, and tobacco misuse, highway and bicycle safety, and fire and arson prevention. Health education includes AIDS instruction once each in grades K to 6, 7 to 8, and 9 to 12.

New York City

In New York City, email the letter of intent to the city's home schooling office with a copy of your identification. Families new to the city's schools or with changed details also send proof of the child's age and residency. The city says your child can stop attending school once you submit the letter, and telling the current school is recommended but not required.

Attendance is the only record New York requires you to keep yourself. The other documents go to the district. NYSED recommends also keeping evidence of your program, your child's achievement, and your letters with the district.

Space the four quarterly report dates in even, logical periods. If you begin in the middle of the year, the number of reports matches the time left; starting near the end of the first quarter means three reports. NYSED recommends listing hours per subject in the reports for the secondary grades.

Your own records do more work later:

• Re-entering a public school after home instruction
• Applying to college, where a portfolio of work shows what your child can do
• Taking a Regents exam with a lab requirement, which the IHIP or quarterly reports can satisfy

The annual assessment is New York's testing rule. For each child, choose one of these:

• A standardized achievement test: the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, California Achievement Test, Stanford Achievement Test, Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, Metropolitan Achievement Test, a state test, or another test the state approves
• A written narrative, allowed in any year for grades 1 to 3 and no more than every other year for grades 4 to 8, from a New York certified teacher, a home instruction peer review panel, or another person who has interviewed your child and reviewed a portfolio

Grades 9 to 12 take a test every year. Your child can test at the public school during its own testing, at a registered nonpublic school with that school's consent, or at home or elsewhere with a certified teacher or other qualified person the superintendent approves. The district orders the test on request, and you pay for testing anywhere but the public school. With the superintendent's consent, you can give the test or write the narrative yourself.

A composite score above the 33rd percentile on national norms, or one academic year of growth over a prior test, is adequate; subscores do not decide it. A narrative passes when the evaluator certifies adequate progress. NYSED recommends telling the district your choice by the end of the third quarter.

State tests are optional. Regents exams can be given only at a public or registered nonpublic school, and NYSED encourages schools to admit a home-instructed student who asks. A district gives no other tests unless your child is referred for a special education evaluation.

Federal law requires each school district to find and evaluate children with disabilities who live in it, a duty called Child Find. You can ask your district to evaluate your child for special education, and the district's Committee on Special Education (CSE) carries out the evaluation.

New York law treats a home-instructed child with a disability as a nonpublic school student for special education during the regular school year. The child must live in the district, and the superintendent must have found the IHIP compliant. The CSE writes an individualized education services program (IESP), built the same way and with the same contents as an Individualized Education Program (IEP), around your decision to teach at home.

To receive services, send a written request to the board of education by June 1 before the school year. A child first identified after June 1 and before April 1 can request within 30 days of identification, and a family that moves can request within 30 days. Services are provided on an equitable basis at a location the board chooses, which can be your home, and you have the same due process rights as nonpublic school families.

Beyond special education, the district does not have to provide health services or remedial programs. It may let your child use the library, career center, or gym by mutual agreement, and it may admit your child to band or music lessons it treats as extracurricular.

A student who turns 16, or 17 in New York City, during the school year stays of compulsory age for that whole year, so the IHIP covers the full year. The district does not review an IHIP for a student past compulsory age.

A home-instructed student cannot receive a local or Regents diploma, which goes only to a student enrolled in a registered high school who completes its requirements. A diploma from an online-only school is not a New York diploma either. These documents can show completion instead:

• A letter from the superintendent on district letterhead stating that your child, past compulsory age, completed home instruction under the regulation; the superintendent may write it but does not have to
• A district letter listing the Regents exams your child took, with dates and scores
• A high school equivalency diploma, through the GED test or 24 semester hours earned as a college degree candidate

Colleges set their own admission requirements, and NYSED says gaining admission is the family's responsibility. It suggests a portfolio of work, SAT or other admission test scores, and the letters and diploma described above.

A student of compulsory age can meet the attendance law through full-time study at a degree-granting college, meaning at least 12 semester hours a semester. The IHIP says so and names the college and the subjects, and the college needs the approved IHIP from your district before enrolling the student full time.

For a student past compulsory age without a high school diploma, passing five specific Regents exams or approved alternatives meets the preliminary education requirement for earning a college degree.

Homeschool dual enrollment in New York

New York's regulations require a student in interscholastic sports or intramurals to be enrolled in the public school, so a home-instructed student cannot play on public school teams. New York City likewise says homeschooled students do not have access to most school programs, sports included.

Clubs are different. Children taught outside the public school may take part in school-sponsored club activities, and NYSED recommends that each board of education adopt a policy allowing it.

Homeschool sports eligibility in New York

New York has no state program that pays for home instruction, and districts cannot claim state aid for home-instructed students. You pay for testing away from the public school and for any evaluator who writes a narrative.

A district does not have to lend home-instructed students the textbooks, library materials, and software it must lend to private school students, but it may. It may also lend available items such as library books or microscopes.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in New York

A home-instructed child can return to public school at any point in the year. As with any transfer, the principal decides grade placement. Only schools award high school credit, and NYSED recommends that the principal grant it based on an assessment or evidence that your child completed the coursework.

Partial enrollment is not available. The legislature has not authorized part-time attendance, so apart from special education services a home-instructed student cannot join the district's instructional program. District summer school is open to all residents, home-instructed students included.

The superintendent, not the board of education, reviews the IHIP and must tell you when it complies; NYSED recommends doing so in writing. A superintendent cannot find a program deficient on the view that your child needs socialization.

If a revised IHIP still fails, the superintendent explains why in writing and names a board meeting at least 10 days away. To contest, tell the board at least three business days before the meeting and present proof of compliance there. You can appeal the board's decision to the Commissioner of Education within 30 days. Once review ends against you, enroll your child elsewhere and tell the superintendent your arrangements within 10 days, unless you choose public school.

An inadequate annual assessment puts the program on probation for up to two school years. You submit a remediation plan, which the district reviews. If your child meets less than 75 percent of its objectives in any semester, or not all of them after two years, the board reviews compliance. Only during probation can the superintendent require home visits, after three days' written notice.

If no annual evaluation arrives after a registered-mail reminder, NYSED says the district must report suspected educational neglect.