Homeschooling in South Dakota
What South 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 requiredWho is in charge
SD Department of Education or the local school district
Who actually reviews your child
No one. There is no review and no testing.
What you must file
Alternative Instruction Notification (AIN)
Within 30 days of beginning alternative instruction
Goes to: SD Department of Education or the resident district
SB 177, effective 1 July 2021, removed annual re-enrolment, the mandatory tests at grades 2, 4, 8 and 11, and the birth-certificate filing requirement. The DOE page, read 2026-09-17: 'Individuals are only required to submit a notification one time for each child, unless a transition has occurred', and an UPDATED notification is due within 30 days if the child moves district or open-enrols while still home schooling, or stops home schooling. Filed in the DOE's online Alternative Instruction Notification system, or on the paper form.
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 South 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 South Dakota's published standards. We do not hold South Dakota's own standards for English and Social Studies yet, and they are being added. Physical Education is not in the app for South 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 South 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.
Other places in United States
Last read at the source on 2026-09-17: doe.sd.gov. That is the date we read it, not the date the rule last changed.
Check it yourself: the authority's own page.