Homeschooling in Tennessee

You can withdraw your child from public school and register as an independent home school on any day of the school year, the same way you would move to any other nonpublic school. A first registration has no deadline. Later years need a new form before each school year starts.

Send the form and documents to your district's home school coordinator by email, mail, or in person; some districts use an electronic form with the same questions. If you mail it, attach proof of your diploma or credential; in person, bring it for staff to see. Only a parent or legal guardian may register a child, and a power of attorney does not count as guardianship.

Before you go, ask the school for copies of report cards, test scores, and any special education evaluations.

The attendance record is the one document the district collects. The rest of your records stay with you, because the home school is the school of record:

• Attendance showing four hours a day for 180 days, open to inspection by the director of schools
• Grades and transcripts you create
• Test results from grades 5, 7, and 9
• Copies of the final diploma

The state does not set the subjects. The Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) suggests using the Tennessee State Academic Standards so your child is ready for the grade 5, 7, and 9 tests. Each year TDOE also expects home schools to receive information about meningococcal disease, which it posts on its home school page.

You may test at a professional testing service or anywhere you choose, as long as the proctor is not related to your child, and the test developer must record the scores.

The state test option

In grades 5 and 7, your child may instead take the state's Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) test at the public school your child would otherwise attend, at no charge. A parent may be present for grade 5 testing. Grade 9 has no state option, because the law excludes the end-of-course exam, the only test given to public school ninth graders.

The district tests only independent home school students who choose TCAP. An umbrella school or accredited online school tests its own students.

College entrance tests

If space is available, your child may take the PSAT, Pre-ACT, or CLT10 that the public school offers. For the ACT or SAT, your child registers at any open test center.

Every school district must find and evaluate children with disabilities who live in it, homeschooled children included (34 CFR 300.111). TDOE says homeschooled students have the same special education rights as children their parents place in private schools: no individualized education program (IEP) and no free appropriate public education (FAPE), but equitable services from the district where you registered. Those services come through a services plan and are usually a related service such as speech therapy.

Classes and facilities

A principal may let home school students use public school facilities under local board rules, but the law gives no right to that use. Advanced courses offered by the public school are open to independent home school students when space is available. A high school with a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) unit must admit qualified homeschooled students who live in its area (10 U.S.C. 2031(f)(1)).

As an independent homeschooler, you pick the graduation requirements and decide when your child is ready, so early graduation is possible. You issue the diploma or a certificate of attendance and the transcript; TDOE, the State Board of Education, and districts do not issue diplomas to homeschoolers. Umbrella school students receive both from the church-related school.

A student who turns 18 before finishing can withdraw on their own, since compulsory attendance no longer applies, but cannot register as their own home school teacher. That student can still graduate under a parent's home school or earn a High School Equivalency Diploma through the HiSET or GED exam.

Tennessee's lottery scholarships are open to homeschool students. The Dual Enrollment Grant covers college courses taken in high school: a Tennessee resident who is a junior or senior and meets the college's dual enrollment admission rules can receive it, and a freshman or older can use it at a Tennessee College of Applied Technology. The first five courses at a 2-year or 4-year college are paid at the cost of tuition plus a 5 percent access fee; courses six through ten pay $100 per credit hour, up to $600 per course. Keeping it requires a 2.0 college GPA. Apply each year by June 30.

For the HOPE Scholarship, homeschool GPAs are not considered. A homeschool graduate needs a 21 composite ACT on one test date, or the equivalent SAT, or two dual enrollment courses totaling six semester hours with at least a 3.0 GPA in each. A student who completes a Tennessee home school program is also eligible for Tennessee Promise.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Tennessee

If a district's schools belong to an athletic association, such as the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA), that sets rules for home school students, the district must let independent home school students who meet those rules try out. A zoned school outside any association must also let them try out. A tryout is not a guaranteed spot, and associations can set or change their own eligibility rules.

The district may ask for proof of any health exam its own students need for the activity.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Tennessee

Tennessee has no homeschool tax credit or deduction. Its one homeschool funding program is the Individualized Education Account (IEA) for students with qualifying disabilities, which can pay approved expenses for an independent or umbrella home school.

To qualify, a student generally must have been in a Tennessee public school for the whole previous school year, unless entering kindergarten for the first time or new to Tennessee, and must have an active Tennessee IEP with a qualifying disability or a qualifying Tennessee Early Intervention System report. An IEA student cannot stay enrolled in public school. Applications for 2026-27 are closed; the 2027-28 window is projected to open February 16, 2027.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Tennessee

When your child enrolls in a public or approved private school, the school may give placement tests. In grades 9 to 12, your child may be tested in each subject for credit toward graduation, under State Board of Education rules for students transferring from home schools.

A child who did kindergarten in a registered independent home school can enter public first grade, because a home school counts as an approved kindergarten if the child turned 5 by August 15. That child may also be tested for placement. Students from an approved accredited online school are not homeschoolers, and they receive transfer credit from a certified transcript instead.