Homeschooling in North Dakota

Q: Do you have to register or notify anyone to homeschool in North Dakota?

Statement of Intent to Home Educate. At least 5 days before beginning to home educate, within 14 days of moving into a district, and annually thereafter Submitted to: Local school district superintendent

What North Dakota actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.

United StatesFiling required

Who is in charge

Local school district superintendent; ND Department of Public Instruction sets the form

Who actually reviews your child

The district superintendent, who informs the parent of record-keeping duties and of testing options.

What you must file

Statement of Intent to Home Educate

At least 5 days before beginning to home educate, within 14 days of moving into a district, and annually thereafter

Goes to: Local school district superintendent

Official state form SFN 16909.

Standardized achievement test

During those school years

How often: at grades 4, 6, 8 and 10

Goes to: SUBMITTED to the district superintendent

A parent claiming a moral, philosophical or religious exemption AND holding at least a bachelor's degree may be excused from the testing requirement.

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 Dakota, 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 North Dakota's published standards. We do not hold North Dakota's own standards for English and Social Studies yet, and they are being added. Physical Education is not in the app for North Dakota 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 Dakota'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.

Start your record

Other places in United States

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois

Not yet confirmed at the government's own source. The requirements above agree across the sources we could reach, but we have not read them on the authority's own page. Treat them as a guide and confirm before you file.
Sources last checked on 2026-08-11: nd.gov. That is the date we checked, not the date the rule last changed.
Check it yourself: the source we used.