Homeschooling in New York
What New York 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
Superintendent of the resident school district
Who actually reviews your child
The district superintendent, four times a year plus the annual assessment. New York is the heaviest reporting cadence in the United States.
What you must file
Written notice of intent
By 1 JULY each year; or within 14 days of commencing home instruction mid-year
Goes to: District superintendent
Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP)
Within four weeks of receiving the district's IHIP form, or by 15 AUGUST, whichever is LATER
Goes to: District superintendent
Names the syllabi/curriculum materials or plan of instruction for each required subject, the dates the four quarterly reports will be filed, and the instructor for each subject.
Quarterly reports (four per year)
On or before the dates the PARENT specified in the IHIP, spaced in even and logical periods
Goes to: District superintendent
Each report must contain: the number of hours of instruction that quarter; a description of the material covered in each subject listed in the IHIP; EITHER a grade in each subject OR a written narrative evaluating progress; and a written explanation if less than 80 PER CENT of the planned course material was covered in any subject.
Annual assessment
Filed WITH the fourth quarterly report
Goes to: District superintendent
A commercially published norm-referenced achievement test, or, for grades 1-3 every year and grades 4-8 no more often than every other year, a written narrative evaluation by a person the superintendent consents to. Standardized testing is the required form in grades 9-12.
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 New York, 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 New York's published standards. We do not hold New York's own standards for English and Social Studies yet, and they are being added. Physical Education is not in the app for New York 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 New York'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
Partly read at the source on 2026-08-28: NYSED's own Home Instruction Questions and Answers at nysed.gov confirms the mechanics verbatim - the district supplies the IHIP form, 'within 4 weeks of receiving it, the parent must submit the completed IHIP to the district', the district has 10 business days to accept it or give written notice of deficiency, the parent has 15 days to cure, and home visits are permitted only on three days' written notice and only while a programme is on probation. Quarterly reports and the annual assessment are governed by 100.10(g) and (h). NOT CONFIRMED TODAY: the 1 July date for the notice of intent. NYSED's public pages state the process but not that date, and the regulation PDF they link now 404s. Treat 1 July as our earlier reading, and confirm it with your district.
Check it yourself: the authority's own page.