If you’re not sure what’s expected from New York State, the homeschool paperwork process can seem overwhelming. Don’t worry – once you set it up it can take as little as an hour a year. How can this be? Well, what you’re actually required to send is quite minimal. Some parents take it upon themselves to be more thorough, but this isn’t actually required. It’s sort of like writing a 15 page essay when your teacher just asked for one page. You don’t benefit in any way for providing more information.
For the complete homeschool regulations, click here.
How do you send it in?
That’s up to you. You’ll find parents who say you MUST hand it in in person, or parents who say you MUST send it in via certified mail. We send ours in via email and have never had a problem. If you want a “receipt” simply install Mailtrack and you’ll receive verification that your email has been read. A few times ours weren’t opened and they send a letter saying they didn’t receive it. I simply forwarded them the original email and all was well. The people at our district have been absolutely lovely to work with.
Many districts don’t respond even though technically they’re supposed to. For us, we assume no news is good news.
Where do you sent it?
The short answer is that you can always just sent it to the superintendent’s office. Many districts have specific people who handle it and it’s more streamlined to send it there. For a complete contact list for Monroe County, click here.
What’s required?
You are legally required to send the school district 7 pieces of documentation each year. Remember to ask yourself what the purpose of the paperwork is – it’s literally to check a box. Awards aren’t given for most thorough paperwork so it’s not worth any stress in your life.
- Letter of Intent (LOI) – simply has your child’s name, birthday, grade and the sentence “we intend to homeschool our child for the academic school year.” Click here to view a sample. The due date for this is July 1st or within 2 weeks of deciding to homeschool.
- Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP) – what content, curriculum or resources you plan to use for the school year for each required subject. This can be very brief and broad. You can change what you’re covering by simply writing it on your quarterly (e.g. we switched curriculum to ABC Curriculum this quarter). For a list of what topics legally need to be covered in each grade, click here. Time spent on each subject is not required for an IHIP and the quarterly can simply say hours were met or exceeded. For a sample IHIP for elementary school click here. For a sample IHIP for middle school, click here. The due date is within 4 weeks of the district’s response to your letter of intent, or by August 15th, whichever is later.
- Four quarterly reports – you write a brief sentence about your child’s progress in each area or assign a grade. For an example, click here. You can keep the wording basically the same each quarter and just update the pertinent parts. The due dates for these are set by you.
- End of Year Assessment/Test Scores – are usually combined with the fourth quarterly report. Test scores are required in 4th, 6th and 8th grade or 5th and 7th grade (your choice) and every year in high school. For a fourth quarterly report with parental narrative click here. To include test scores, simply send in the composite scores page you receive from the testing company. The due date for this is set by you but is typically sent in with the 4th quarterly report.
NYS Requirements Explained
- New York State requirements for completing grades 1-6
- New York State requirements for completing 7th and 8th grade
- New York State requirements for completing high school
If you want to, you can send the LOI and IHIP, end of year assessment and test scores at the end of the year, meaning you’re only sending in paperwork four times. So really it’s not as bad as it sounds.
Need more support? Check out some of our options below! Homeschool Coaching is 1:1 coaching sessions that are personalized to your needs. Roadmap is a group experience where we cover the basics and then split up into breakout sessions that fit your interests. If you’re unsure about paperwork and would like an experienced homeschooler to review yours, select paperwork review! We’re here to equip you on your homeschooling journey!
Test scores are required either 4th, 6th AND 8th OR 5th and 7th…your choice. The wording is, “every other year between 4th and 8th grades.”
And the IHIP is due by August 15th OR 4 weeks after LOI is sent in, which ever date is later.
You’re absolutely right, thank you!! I fixed it.