Homeschooling in North Carolina
What North Carolina 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
Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE), NC Department of Administration
Who actually reviews your child
A DNPE staff member, and only on an inspection visit.
What you must file
Notice of Intent to Operate a Home School
Filed July through April; a notice of termination is filed when the school closes
Goes to: DNPE, online
One notice per home school, not per year.
Nationally standardized achievement test
Each year the school operates
Goes to: KEPT ON FILE, not submitted
Must cover English grammar, reading, spelling and mathematics. Results kept at least one year and produced for DNPE inspection on request.
Attendance and immunization records
n/a
Goes to: KEPT ON FILE, produced for DNPE inspection on request
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 North Carolina, which today is Mathematics (487 of 496). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of North Carolina's published standards. We do not hold North Carolina's own standards for English, Science and Social Studies yet, and they are being added. Physical Education is not in the app for North Carolina 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 North Carolina'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: doa.nc.gov. That is the date we checked, not the date the rule last changed.