Homeschooling in Virginia
What Virginia 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 superintendent of the local school division
Who actually reviews your child
The division superintendent, who decides whether a non-test evaluation is adequate.
What you must file
Notice of Intent to Provide Home Instruction
By 15 AUGUST each year
Goes to: Local school division
Includes a description of the curriculum and evidence that the parent meets one of the statutory qualifications.
Evidence of academic progress
By 1 AUGUST following the school year of instruction
Goes to: SUBMITTED to the local school division
Either (i) a composite score in or above the FOURTH STANINE on a nationally normed standardized achievement test, or an equivalent score on the ACT, SAT or PSAT; or (ii) an evaluation or assessment that the division superintendent determines shows the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress.
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 Virginia, which today are English (281 of 288), Mathematics (468 of 496), Science (531 of 535) and Social Studies (89 of 193). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Virginia's published standards. Physical Education is not in the app for Virginia 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 Virginia'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.virginia.gov. That is the date we checked, not the date the rule last changed.