Home Instruction
In Virginia, parents must ensure that a child attends school in compliance with the state compulsory attendance law as specified in § 22.1-254
of the Code of Virginia when the child has reached his 5th birthday on or before September 30 of any school year and has not passed his 18th birthday. The compulsory attendance law requires that a child subject to that law attend a private or public school or receive an education through one of the other Code alternatives to school attendance unless the child falls within one of the Code exceptions. Home instruction or home schooling is one alternative to school attendance and parents may home school “when the requirements of § 22.1-254.1 of the Code have been satisfied.”
Section 22.1-254.1 of the Code requires parents who home instruct to provide the school division with:
- A notice of intent to home instruct,
- Evidence of having met one of the criteria for providing home instruction (see options below),
- A list of the subjects to be studied for the coming year, and
- Evidence of academic progress at the end of the school year by August 1.
This information must be sent to your local school division.
The Code of Virginia will allow the parent of any child of school age to elect to home school a child if the parent provides evidence that he or she meets one of the following and the other requirements noted above:
- Option I: The parent holds a high school diploma or a higher credential.
- Option II: The parent meets the qualifications of a teacher as prescribed by the Virginia Board of Education.
- Option III: The parent provides the child with a program of study or curriculum which may be delivered through a correspondence course or distance learning program or in any other manner.
- Option IV: The parent provides evidence that the parent is able to provide an adequate education for the child.
Any parent who elects to provide home instruction in lieu of school attendance shall annually notify the school division superintendent by August 15 of his intention to so instruct the child. (§ 22.1-254.1.B) Parents who move into the school district or begin home instruction after the school year has begun must notify the school division as soon as practicable and comply with the provisions of the law within 30 days of such notice. The parent may use the Sample Notice of Intent to Provide Home Instruction (Word) model form to meet the notice requirement.
The parent is required to submit to the local school division, by the following August 1, evidence of the child’s academic progress with either:
- Evidence that the child has attained a composite score in or above the fourth stanine on any nationally normed standardized achievement test; or an equivalent score on the ACT, SAT, or PSAT test; or
- An evaluation or assessment which the division superintendent determines to indicate that the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress, including but not limited to:
- An evaluation letter from a person licensed to teach in any state, or a person with a master's degree or higher in an academic discipline, having knowledge of the child's academic progress, stating that the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress; or
- A report card or transcript from a community college or college, college distance learning program, or home-education correspondence school.
You must contact your school division for additional information. However, contact information is available for all School Divisions in the Virginia School Directories.