Homeschooling in Arkansas
What Arkansas actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
United StatesFiling requiredWho is in charge
Resident school district superintendent; DESE Home School Office
Who actually reviews your child
The district home-school coordinator, for filing only.
What you must file
Notice of Intent to Home School
By 15 August each year
Goes to: Resident school district superintendent
Online at noihs.ade.arkansas.gov (preferred) or on paper at the district. The form opens 1 June for the following school year. Filing after the deadline can trigger a 5-day waiting period before the district releases the student, unless waived. NOTARIZATION IS NOT REQUIRED, the notary block on the form is optional and exists only for other purposes such as the GED. Miss 15 August and, unless the superintendent or the district board waives it, the public school MAY require a 5-day waiting period before releasing the child.
The part the paperwork does not cover
Filing on time is the easy half. The harder half is the year in between: showing what your child actually learned, in words the reviewer recognises, without turning your home into a school.
That is what this tool is for. You say what your child did, in a sentence. It maps that to the published standards we hold for Arkansas, which today are Mathematics (487 of 496) and Science (525 of 535). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Arkansas's published standards. We do not hold Arkansas's own standards for English and Social Studies yet, and they are being added. Physical Education is not in the app for Arkansas yet. A moment in any of those subjects is kept on the general map for your child's age and named that way in the record, so the record never cites Arkansas's curriculum where we hold none of it. Then it builds the record you can hand over the day someone asks. See how it works.
Other places in United States
Read at the source on 2026-08-28: the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education's own 2026-27 Notice of Intent information sheet at dese.ade.arkansas.gov. Its words: 'Arkansas law requires parents who wish to home school their children to file a Notice of Intent (NOI) to home school with their local school superintendent by August 15th of each year. After this deadline, unless waived by the superintendent or local school district board, the public school may require a 5-day waiting period before releasing a student to be homeschooled.' The 15 August date is confirmed; the 5-day consequence of missing it was NOT on this page before today and has been added.
Check it yourself: the authority's own page.