Homeschooling in Texas

Texas has no deadline and no start date, so you can withdraw on any school day, including in the middle of a semester. Until the school receives your letter, your child is still enrolled and each day at home counts as an absence, so send it before the first day you keep your child home.

What the letter says

• Your child's full name, grade, and school
• That you are withdrawing your child to homeschool
• The date homeschooling begins
• Your signature and the date

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) tells districts that a signed, dated letter like this is enough to record the withdrawal, and a school's own withdrawal form works as well. Email or hand delivery both count; keep a copy with the date you sent it.

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

Texas does not ask for homeschool records, and no one reviews them. A short record still saves time in four situations that ask what your child has learned:

• Enrolling in a public school later, when the district places your child and awards course credit
• A district's request for a letter of assurance
• Applying to college, which reads a high school transcript and diploma
• Applying for a learner license, when the home school signs a form confirming the teen is enrolled and attending

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

Texas requires no tests of homeschoolers: no STAAR, no annual achievement test, and no evaluation. Tests come up only when your child steps into a school or college system.

• PSAT/NMSQT and AP exams: a district that gives these tests to its own students must let homeschoolers take them, and must publish the dates, who may take them, and how to register.
• College readiness: Texas public colleges check reading, writing, and math readiness through the Texas Success Initiative. Qualifying SAT or ACT scores exempt a student; otherwise the student takes the TSIA2 test.

School sports and activities and a return to public school can each call for a test; both are explained below.

Texas school districts must find and evaluate children with disabilities from birth through age 21, and that duty, called Child Find, includes homeschooled children. To start, ask the school district where you live, in writing, for a full evaluation. Once you sign consent, the district has 45 school days to finish it, and a child's absences cannot extend that deadline.

If the evaluation finds a disability, what the district offers depends on whether your homeschool counts as a private school for special education. TEA says it does when it uses an adopted curriculum with a scope and sequence of courses and formally reviews and documents progress. Its students can then receive equitable services: the district writes a services plan for the services it provides to private school students from its share of federal special education funds. That is a narrower offer than the full program an enrolled student receives.

Younger children are the exception. From the third birthday until the end of the school year in which a child turns five or becomes eligible for kindergarten, a child with a disability can be homeschooled and still receive services from the district where the family lives, through what TEA calls dual enrollment.

Texas's graduation plans, credit requirements, and end-of-course exams apply to public schools, not to a homeschool. The parent sets the graduation requirements and awards the diploma; the state does not issue diplomas to homeschoolers. TEA treats completing a homeschool education as equivalent to graduating from a public high school.

A homeschool graduate's record is two documents: the diploma and a transcript that lists each course by year with its grade and credit, signed by the parent as the school's administrator.

Driver's licenses

A teen under 18 applying for a learner license brings the Department of Public Safety (DPS) the Verification of Enrollment and Attendance form (VOE). The home school completes the school section, and a parent signs it as the school official. A VOE issued during the school year is good for 30 days; one issued in June, July, or August is good for 90.

Texas public colleges and universities must consider a homeschool graduate on the same terms as a public high school graduate, including the same test score requirements. They cannot require a GED or any exam or other requirement that other applicants skip. Where a college sorts applicants by class rank, a homeschooler is placed at the average rank of applicants with equivalent test scores. Private colleges set their own rules.

High school students can also take college courses for credit, called dual credit, by applying directly to a college. A student who is not seeking a degree does not have to prove college readiness first; a degree-seeking student needs a Texas Success Initiative exemption or a passing TSIA2 score.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Texas

Under a 2025 state law, a Texas school district must let homeschoolers take part in University Interscholastic League (UIL) activities, sports included, unless its school board votes to opt out. A student plays for the school assigned to their home address. If that district opted out, the closest campus that allows homeschoolers may take them, but another district does not have to.

The student meets the same rules as enrolled students, including residence, fees, and physicals, plus one more: a grade-level score on a nationally recognized, norm-referenced test for the first six weeks of the school year. A qualifying score counts for that year and the next. A student enrolled in public school earlier in the same school year cannot compete as a homeschooler until the next one.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Texas

Texas has no state income tax, so there is no homeschool deduction or credit to claim. The state's education savings account program, Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA), pays up to $2,000 a year for a homeschooled student.

TEFA funds go to approved expenses such as textbooks and other instructional materials, tutoring, assessments, and approved online courses. Computers and software are capped at 10 percent of a year's funds, money cannot go to a family member, and unused funds roll over while the child stays in the program.

Applications for 2026-27 closed March 31, 2026. When applications exceed funding, awards follow a priority order that starts with children with disabilities in households at or below 500 percent of the federal poverty level, then households at or below 200 percent. The next application window is announced on the TEFA site.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Texas

A child can enroll in a Texas public school at any time. The district treats them like a transfer from an unaccredited private school and decides grade placement and course credit by reviewing the curriculum and work, by testing, or both; which method is a local choice.

TEA suggests a nationally recognized norm-referenced test or a released STAAR test in elementary grades, and credit by examination or released end-of-course exams in high school. The passing score can be no higher than for a private school transfer, and a student testing for a course already taken needs 70 percent, not the 80 percent required to test out of a course never taken. TEA also asks districts to give students time to prepare, especially for several exams.

A district may ask when it learns a school-age child is being homeschooled, often right after a withdrawal. A short signed letter that names your child, says you are homeschooling, and says your written curriculum covers the five required subjects answers the request.

If a district believes a child is truant, the district or a court decides whether the attendance law was met. Child Protective Services does not decide that question, although schools must report suspected abuse or neglect to it.