Homeschooling in Oregon

You can start homeschooling on any school day; ODE says children may move between public school and homeschooling at any time without restriction. No notice to the school is required by law. Telling the school in writing the date your child leaves lets it close the enrollment.

What the notice contains

• Your child's name and your name
• Your address; a phone number and email address are optional
• Your child's birth date
• Your child's current or last school, or your home district if your child never enrolled

Each ESD runs its own notification page or form, and ODE posts a list of them. The ESD must acknowledge your notice in writing within 90 days and tells your school district, at least once a year, which homeschooled children live in it. A child whose sixth birthday falls after September 1 needs no notice until the next school year starts.

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

Oregon law requires one kind of record: the results of each required test, which you submit when the ESD superintendent asks. ODE tells families to keep the scores. For a child with a disability whose progress is measured under an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or a privately developed plan (PDP), the homeschool version of an IEP written with private providers, you keep that progress report instead and share it on request. Keep the ESD's acknowledgment letter with the scores.

Nothing else is required, and no one reviews your materials. A short file still saves time when someone asks what your child has learned:

• Enrolling in public school
• School activities
• The Oregon Promise grant
• College applications and employers that read a high school transcript

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

Testing is the main ongoing duty in Oregon. ODE says there is no opt-out, and homeschool testing goes on even when public school testing is suspended.

Which test, and who gives it

The State Board of Education approves the two most recent versions of three nationally normed achievement tests: the TerraNova, the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills or Tests of Achievement and Proficiency, and the Stanford Achievement Test. The tester cannot be related to your child by blood or marriage and must qualify under state rule, for example by holding an Oregon teaching license. ODE updates its list of approved testers every spring, and testers set their own rates.

When the tests fall

Grades are counted by age. A child who is 6 on September 1 is treated as a kindergartner, and first grade is the school year in which your child is 7 on September 1, unless you place your child higher. Exceptions to the schedule:

• A child withdrawn from a public or private school takes the first test at least 18 months after withdrawal, so homeschooling for less than one school year needs no test.
• A child with an IEP or PDP is evaluated the way that plan says, and testing accommodations written into the plan apply.
• A student in school activities tests every year, as explained below.

Every school district must find and evaluate children with disabilities who live in it, homeschooled children included; federal special education law calls this Child Find. If your district suspects a disability, it asks for your consent and evaluates. You can also ask the district for an initial evaluation.

Oregon does not treat a homeschool as a private school for special education; a separate state rule covers homeschooled children. When the district learns that a child with a disability is homeschooled, it must offer two things in writing: special education services if your child enrolls, and an IEP meeting to consider services alongside homeschooling. The IEP team decides, and ODE says the district does not have to provide services. You cannot request a due process hearing over a decision not to serve, but you can file a complaint if the district never makes the offer.

While your child stays eligible and unserved, the district must remind you each year that it stands ready to serve your child on enrollment.

Classes at the public school

A district may adopt a policy letting homeschoolers take academic classes. ODE says a child taking more than half of their classes at the school is no longer homeschooled. Where a district allows part-time classes, a child with a disability may take part to the same extent as other children.

Oregon's diploma requirements apply to public schools. The state has no official homeschool diploma and does not issue one, so the record of a homeschool graduate is the transcript you write: each course by year with its grade and credit. ODE notes that some colleges accept a homeschool transcript in place of a diploma, but apprenticeship programs, trade schools, the military, and some scholarship and grant providers do not.

The GED

ODE points to the GED tests as one way to finish high school with a credential recognized everywhere. A 16- or 17-year-old may take them with a signed consent form from a parent or guardian. A student who enrolls in a high school completion program may also need a release from compulsory attendance, which the resident school district or the ESD can give.

Coursework done at home counts toward an Oregon diploma only if a public school accepts it, as the section on going back explains. The section on returning explains the credit options a district may use.

State law sets no admission rule for homeschool graduates at Oregon's public universities; each university decides. Community colleges must admit Oregon high school graduates and may admit other residents of any age who can benefit from a course. For a student younger than 16, the college administration makes the final decision.

The Oregon Promise grant, which helps pay community college tuition, counts finishing 12th grade as a homeschooler under the testing law the same as a diploma. The student must have lived in Oregon for at least 12 months, have a high school grade point average of at least 2.0 or show equivalent ability as the state's Office of Student Access and Completion decides, file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and start college within six months of finishing high school. Most students apply during the senior year. Awards for 2026-27 run from $2,280 to $4,716 a year.

A homeschooled high school student can also take community college courses for credit by applying to the college under that same age rule.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Oregon

A school district cannot keep a homeschooled student out of interscholastic activities, including athletics, music, and speech, at the school whose attendance area the family lives in. In kindergarten through grade 8, this covers only activities held before or after school. The student meets the district's eligibility rules, except attendance and course-credit rules, and the same practice and behavior standards as other players.

Academic eligibility takes a composite score at or above the 23rd percentile on a state-approved test taken by August 15 before the school year, or an alternative the district adopts with the parent, such as a portfolio of work samples. The Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) does not require the test before a student first enters ninth grade, and it requires the ESD notice to be on file before the school's first day.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Oregon

Oregon has no homeschool tax credit or deduction, no education savings account, and no state funding for homeschooling families. ODE says there is no public money for materials or testing, and the family pays the whole cost of the required tests, including the test itself, the tester, and the scoring. Families also cannot redirect their school taxes away from public schools. For a graduate, the main state aid is the Oregon Promise grant described above.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Oregon

A child can enroll in an Oregon public school at any time, and you tell the ESD that your child has gone back to school. State law sets no rule for the grade placement of a returning homeschooler; the district decides.

High school credit is where returning gets harder. A district may grant credit when a student shows proficiency through classroom or equivalent work, by passing an exam, through a collection of work, or with documents of prior learning such as certificates or awards. Whether to accept homeschool coursework at all is each district's policy, and ODE says some accept none, so a student who returns in high school may need to earn some credits again.

The ESD is your main contact. It may ask for test scores at any time, and you send them when asked.

After a low score

If the retest after a score below the 15th percentile shows a lower score, your child takes a third test within a year, and the ESD superintendent may either let you keep teaching or place your child's education under a licensed teacher you choose and pay for. If scores keep declining, the superintendent may continue either arrangement with another test within a year, or order your child into school for up to 12 consecutive months. If you refuse the licensed teacher, the superintendent may order school for up to 12 consecutive months.

Penalties and truancy

Violating the homeschool law, for example by skipping a required test, is a Class C violation, which carries a fine of up to $500 and no jail time. ODE asks a family that missed a test to contact the ESD and plan one. A child who is not exempt, for example because no notice was sent, falls under the attendance law: the attendance supervisor sends a written notice that the child must appear at school the next school day.