Homeschooling in Louisiana
What Louisiana 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
Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), via the Louisiana Department of Education
Who actually reviews your child
BESE, through LDOE staff, on an approval decision each year.
What you must file
Initial application for approval of a home study program
Within 15 days after the program commences
Goes to: BESE / Louisiana Department of Education
Must be accompanied by a certified copy of the child's birth certificate.
Renewal application
By 1 OCTOBER of the school year, or within twelve months of approval of the initial application, whichever is later
Goes to: BESE / LDOE
Evidence of a sustained curriculum
With the renewal
Goes to: SUBMITTED to BESE
Any one of: satisfactory scores on a standardized test approved by the board; evidence of progress at a rate of one grade level per year; a complete outline of subjects taught WITH student work samples (roughly one to two pages of completed work per core subject); or results of the state competency-based examination.
Not required, but often assumed
State testing
Not required. State testing is not required of BESE-approved home study programs.
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 Louisiana, which today are Mathematics (487 of 496) and Science (502 of 535). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Louisiana's published standards. We do not hold Louisiana's own standards for English and Social Studies yet, and they are being added. Physical Education is not in the app for Louisiana 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 Louisiana'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
Sources last checked on 2026-08-11: doe.louisiana.gov. That is the date we checked, not the date the rule last changed.