How to Homeschool in North Dakota (2026 Guide)

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At a Glance

Regulation Level Moderate
Notice Required Yes
Testing Required Yes
Record Keeping Required Yes

The short version

North Dakota falls in the moderate tier of state regulation. The core obligations are manageable and well-defined: you file a one-page Statement of Intent with your local school district superintendent each year, wait five days, and then begin. Your program must cover the same subject areas taught in North Dakota public schools and must run at least four hours a day for a minimum of 175 days per year. You keep academic records at home. In grades four, six, eight, and ten, your child must take a standardized achievement test — though a meaningful opt-out path exists for families who qualify.

No state agency approves your curriculum, inspects your home, or issues a homeschool license. The parent holds the legal authority to select materials, set educational philosophy, and direct instruction. North Dakota law defines “supervise” to mean exactly that — the selection of materials, determination of educational philosophy, and oversight of the method, manner, and delivery of instruction.

There is no state-funded Education Savings Account or scholarship for current home-education expenses as of 2026. Six ESA bills were introduced in the 2025 legislative session and all six failed. A competitive merit-based state scholarship worth $6,000 is available to graduating home-educated students who meet the academic requirements, which is worth knowing about well before your child reaches high school.

North Dakota’s home education framework is contained almost entirely within Chapter 15.1-23 of the North Dakota Century Code (N.D.C.C.), enacted in its current form by the 2019 Legislature. That session made several significant changes — most importantly, a new statutory definition of “supervise” that gives parents explicit legal authority over the selection of materials, educational philosophy, and delivery of instruction.

Three foundational provisions govern the right to home educate:

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-20-01 establishes compulsory school attendance for any child between the ages of seven and sixteen. Every person having responsibility for a child in that age window must ensure the child receives instruction.

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-20-02(e) creates the home education exemption. When a child is receiving home education in compliance with Chapter 15.1-23, the compulsory attendance obligation to a public school does not apply.

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23-01 contains the definitions that shape everything else in the chapter:

  • “Home education” means a program of education supervised by a child’s parent in accordance with the requirements of the chapter.
  • “Parent” includes a child’s legal guardian.
  • “Supervise” means the selection of materials, determination of an educational philosophy, and oversight of the method, manner, and delivery of instruction.

The 2019 definition of “supervise” is particularly meaningful. Under prior law, a parent who wanted to use an outside instructor — online programs, tutors, co-op teachers — had to be physically present as a filter for all instruction. The current statute removes that constraint. A parent may now use any mode of delivery, including virtual classes, independent enrichment programs, or public school courses, provided the parent retains legal responsibility for overseeing the child’s education.

Primary NDDPI resource: NDDPI Home Education page

Full text of N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23: ndlegis.gov/cencode/t15-1c23.pdf

Notice of intent

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23-02 requires every parent intending to supervise home education to file a written Statement of Intent with the superintendent of the child’s school district of residence. If the district does not employ a superintendent, you file with the county superintendent of schools.

Timing: You must file at least five days before beginning home education. You may not start before those five days have passed. After the first year, you file once each year to continue. If you move to a new school district mid-year, you must file again within fourteen days of establishing residence in the new district.

Form SFN 16909 — Statement of Intent to Home Educate: The NDDPI provides a standard form. It is available on the NDDPI’s Home Education compliance page and is the document most district superintendents will expect to receive.

What the statement must include:

  1. The name, address, date of birth, and grade level of the child receiving home education
  2. The name, address, and qualifications of the parent who will supervise the home education
  3. Any public school courses in which the child intends to participate and the school district offering those courses
  4. Any extracurricular activities in which the child intends to participate and the school district or approved nonpublic school offering the activities

Accompanying documents: The statement must be filed with a copy of the child’s immunization record and proof of the child’s identity as required by N.D.C.C. § 12-60-26.

If opting out of standardized testing: Families claiming a testing exemption (see Testing section below) must file their opt-out notification and supporting documentation at the same time as the Statement of Intent.

After the superintendent receives your Statement of Intent, the district will provide you with information about your responsibilities for maintaining academic records, available resources if your child has learning difficulties, grade-level expectations for the subjects required by statute, information about the district’s standardized test and your options regarding it, and a copy of the state home education law.

If your child is currently enrolled in public school, you do not need the school’s permission to withdraw. Contact the school directly to request the withdrawal, and submit your Statement of Intent to the superintendent’s office at the same time or shortly before.

Required subjects

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23-04 requires that a parent supervising home education “include instruction in those subjects required by law to be taught to public school students.” This cross-reference points to N.D.C.C. § 15.1-21, which defines the approved curriculum for North Dakota public elementary, middle, and high schools.

For elementary and middle school students, the subjects required for public schools — and therefore the reference framework for home education — are:

  • English language arts, including reading, composition, creative writing, English grammar, and spelling
  • Mathematics
  • Social studies, including the United States Constitution, United States history, geography, government, and North Dakota studies (with emphasis on geography, history, the federally recognized Indian tribes in the state, and agriculture of the state, in grades four and eight)
  • Science, including agriculture
  • Physical education
  • Health, including physiology, hygiene, disease control, and the nature and effects of alcohol, tobacco, and narcotics
  • Computer science, including cybersecurity

For high school students, the public school framework calls for units across English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and additional required courses. The NDDPI’s “Required K-12 Courses” document on the Home Education page lists the public school graduation requirements that serve as the reference point.

What this means for your home education program:

  • You must address these subject areas. There is no required curriculum, no approved textbook list, and no mandate to use state content standards.
  • Teaching to the North Dakota State Content Standards is not required for home-educated students. NDDPI does note that the standards serve as a useful reference for grade-level expectations — and that documenting proficiency can smooth any future transition back to a public or private school — but they carry no legal weight for home educators.
  • The state does not review or approve your curriculum, your lesson plans, or your scope and sequence.

Instructional time

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23-04 sets a clear minimum: instruction must have “a duration of at least four hours each day for a minimum of one hundred seventy-five days each year.”

This is a daily minimum of four hours, combined with an annual minimum of 175 days. Both conditions must be met. A family that teaches five days a week for 35 weeks reaches exactly 175 days; most families exceed that. North Dakota does not restrict which days of the week you use, what time of day instruction must occur, or how the school year is distributed across a calendar.

Lunch periods and recreational breaks do not count toward instructional time, though the statute does not define a formal method for tracking the four daily hours. Keeping a simple daily log noting the hours of instruction is a reasonable practice.

Public school courses: If your child participates in courses offered by your school district under § 15.1-23-02(1)(c), that time can reasonably form part of the instructional day.

Testing

North Dakota requires home-educated students to take a standardized achievement test in grades four, six, eight, and ten. This is one of the aspects of North Dakota’s framework that distinguishes it from lighter-touch states.

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23-09 sets out the requirement:

  • The child must take either the standardized achievement test used by the school district in which the child resides, or a nationally normed standardized achievement test if requested by the child’s parent.
  • The test must be taken in the child’s learning environment or, if requested by the parent, in a public school.
  • The person administering the test must be licensed to teach by the North Dakota Education Standards and Practices Board (NDESPB) or approved to teach by NDESPB.
  • Test results — including the composite score — must be filed with the superintendent of the district in which the child resides (or the county superintendent if the district does not employ a superintendent) by June 15.

If the child uses the district’s own standardized test, the school district bears the cost of testing. If the parent requests a nationally normed test instead, the parent bears that cost.

What happens if a child scores below the 30th percentile: If the basic composite score falls below the 30th percentile nationally, a multidisciplinary assessment team will assess the child for a potential learning problem. If the team determines the child is not disabled and the parent wishes to continue home education, the parent — with the advice and consent of a licensed or NDESPB-approved teacher — must prepare a remediation plan addressing the academic deficiencies and file it with the district superintendent. The parent bears any costs associated with developing the remediation plan. Failure to file the plan means the parent is deemed to be in violation of compulsory attendance provisions.

What happens if a child scores below the 50th percentile: Monitoring requirements may be triggered under § 15.1-23-06 (see the Parental qualifications section below for additional context).

Testing opt-out

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23-09(2) provides an opt-out from the standardized testing requirement. The requirement does not apply if the parent notifies the school district that:

  • The parent has a philosophical, moral, or religious objection to the use of standardized achievement tests, or
  • The parent is licensed to teach by NDESPB, holds a baccalaureate degree, or has met or exceeded the cutoff score on a national teacher examination given in this or any other state.

The opt-out notification and any required supporting documentation must be filed with the school district at the same time as the annual Statement of Intent.

Most families who qualify for the opt-out use either the objection ground or the baccalaureate degree ground. A parent holding any bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution qualifies under the degree prong without further documentation.

Parental qualifications and monitoring

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23-03 specifies that a parent may supervise home education if the parent holds a high school diploma or GED. A parent who does not hold either credential may still supervise home education but is subject to monitoring under § 15.1-23-06 and § 15.1-23-07 for the first two years, and for any additional year in which the child scores below the 50th percentile nationally on the standardized test.

When monitoring is required, the school district assigns and compensates a licensed or NDESPB-approved teacher to monitor the child’s education — unless the parent elects to select and compensate their own monitor. The monitor spends approximately one hour per week in contact with the home education program. Once a parent completes monitoring requirements for one child, the monitoring obligation does not extend to other children the parent later home educates.

For the vast majority of families, this provision is not relevant — a high school diploma or GED satisfies the qualification requirement with no monitoring attached.

Records

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23-05 requires that a parent supervising home education “maintain an annual record of courses taken by the child and the child’s academic progress assessments, including any standardized achievement test results.”

This record stays with you. You do not submit it to any agency on a routine basis. If the child transfers to a public school district, you must furnish the record upon request to the school district superintendent or another administrator. The district superintendent is also responsible for seeing that a district-level academic record is maintained for each home-educated child.

There is no prescribed format for the academic record. A reasonable approach includes:

  • A year-end list of courses or subject areas covered for each academic year
  • Any test scores, including scores from the grade-level standardized assessments required by § 15.1-23-09
  • Any other progress assessments — portfolios, evaluations, work samples — that reflect academic development

Beyond the statutory minimum, most families find it worth maintaining more detailed records for practical reasons:

  • High school transcripts and diplomas: Under § 15.1-23-17, a home-educated child’s diploma is typically issued by the parent. Families that keep contemporaneous course records for grades nine through twelve — including course titles, objectives, and how those objectives were met — are positioned to produce a credible transcript. Some school districts and the North Dakota Center for Distance Education will issue a diploma to a home-educated student who meets their graduation requirements, but this is a local decision, not a state mandate.
  • North Dakota Scholarship applications: The merit scholarship described in the Scholarships section below requires notarized transcripts and four years of filed Statements of Intent. These cannot be reconstructed retroactively.
  • College admissions: Universities evaluate home-educated applicants individually. ACT or SAT scores, transcripts, and course descriptions are the standard documentation package.
  • Re-enrollment in public school: Organized records make the district’s placement process smoother and give your child the best starting position.

The North Dakota Scholarship

North Dakota’s primary financial incentive for home-educated graduates is the North Dakota Scholarship, a merit-based award worth $6,000 that can be applied toward tuition at approved colleges, universities, professional schools, and registered apprenticeship programs within the state.

The scholarship was created during the 2021 legislative session (SB 2289) and replaced the prior Academic and CTE Scholarships beginning with the graduating class of 2025. For students graduating in 2024, either the old or new requirements could be used; from 2025 forward, only the new North Dakota Scholarship framework applies.

Eligibility structure: The scholarship has two tiers of requirements:

  1. Essential skills — all applicants must satisfy the essential skills component.
  2. Pathway components — applicants must meet any two of three pathway components: Post-Secondary Ready, Workforce Ready, and Military Ready.

Common ways to satisfy the pathway components include:

  • An ACT composite score of 24 or higher (Post-Secondary Ready or Workforce Ready pathway; ACT superscores are accepted)
  • WorkKeys scores of 5 or higher on Graphic Literacy, Workplace Documents, and Applied Math (CTE pathway)
  • An ASVAB score of 50 or higher (Military Ready pathway)

Home-educated students are eligible. The application window opens in January each year and closes on the first Friday in June.

What home-educated applicants must submit to NDDPI:

  1. The online North Dakota Scholarship application
  2. A copy of ACT, WorkKeys, or ASVAB score report (ACT scores may be submitted electronically using NDDPI’s four-digit code 2927)
  3. Copies of the Statement of Intent to Home Educate (SFN 16909) filed with the local school district for every year the student was home educated — all four high school years are typically required
  4. A completed and notarized Scholarship Home Education Transcript form (SFN 60374) listing course titles and grades earned for grades nine through twelve
  5. A completed and notarized Home Education Verification Form for the North Dakota Scholarship
  6. Copies of any college transcripts if dual-credit or early-entry college courses are being used toward scholarship requirements

The notarization requirement on the transcript and verification forms means families should plan ahead. These documents cannot be completed and submitted in a single day before the deadline.

NDDPI North Dakota Scholarship page: nd.gov/dpi/familiescommunity/students/north-dakota-scholarship

Scholarship FAQ: nd.gov/dpi/familiescommunity/students/north-dakota-scholarship/scholarship-faq

No state ESA or voucher program

North Dakota does not have a state-funded Education Savings Account, voucher, or direct subsidy for families providing home education. In the 2025 legislative session, six separate ESA bills were introduced. All six failed. Governor Kelly Armstrong vetoed House Bill 1540 (which would have provided income-based ESA funds to nonpublic and home-educated students), and Senate Bill 2400 (a broader universal ESA proposal) was rejected by the House 78 to 14. The Governor’s office and several legislative leaders stated publicly that school choice legislation would return in the 2027 session, but no program exists as of June 2026.

Extracurricular activities and public school courses

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23-16 gives home-educated students the right to participate in extracurricular activities at their school district of residence or at an approved nonpublic school. Home-educated students who participate are held to the same conduct, eligibility, and participation standards as full-time enrolled students. They are also subject to the transfer rules in the constitution and by-laws of the North Dakota High School Activities Association (NDHSAA).

When filing the annual Statement of Intent, you list any extracurricular activities your child intends to participate in and the school offering them. Contact your resident district’s activities director before the school year begins to confirm eligibility requirements and timelines.

N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23-02(1)(c) also allows home-educated students to enroll in specific public school courses. List those courses in the Statement of Intent. Part-time enrollment does not require full-time re-enrollment, and the academic work in those courses can form part of the instructional day.

Withdrawing from public school

If your child is currently enrolled in a public school, the process for withdrawing to begin home education is straightforward.

  1. Notify the school in writing that you are withdrawing your child. There is no state-prescribed form for the withdrawal notice itself. A brief written statement to the school principal identifying your child’s name, the effective date of withdrawal, and the reason (beginning home education under N.D.C.C. § 15.1-23) is sufficient. The school cannot block the withdrawal.
  2. File your Statement of Intent (SFN 16909) with the school district superintendent. Under § 15.1-23-02, you must file at least five days before beginning instruction. You may submit the withdrawal notice and the Statement of Intent at the same time, or submit the statement slightly before the withdrawal notice — either approach works as long as the five-day waiting period before beginning instruction is observed.
  3. Wait five days from the filing of your Statement of Intent before your child begins home education.

When withdrawing, ask the school for a copy of your child’s academic records, including any prior test scores, evaluations, and an enrollment history. These records belong to your child and are useful for your own planning, and they will support the district’s placement process if your child later returns.

Returning to public school: A district receiving a transfer student from a home education program will conduct its own placement assessment or review. Well-organized records — particularly a course list and any available test scores — will give your child the clearest picture for placement decisions. The district’s placement process is governed by local policy; if you disagree with a placement decision, you may seek review through the district’s administrative process.

Support and community

North Dakota has an active, well-established homeschool community anchored by a statewide advocacy organization that has operated since 1985.

North Dakota Homeschool Association (NDHSA) ndhsa.org — The NDHSA is the primary statewide organization serving home-educating families. It maintains a communication network, monitors legislation, retains a lobbyist who tracks and works on homeschool-related bills, operates a directory of support groups and co-ops across the state, publishes a monthly e-newsletter (The Eclectic), and holds an annual statewide convention with speakers, workshops, a vendor hall, and a used book sale. Every two years the NDHSA organizes a Day at the Capitol for families to meet their legislators. Membership is $45 per family per year and includes a teacher identification card with national retailer discounts. Support and convention attendance are available to non-members as well. Phone: 701-936-0356. Email: office@ndhsa.org.

NDHSA Support Groups directory: ndhsa.org — The NDHSA website lists statewide support groups and co-ops organized by region. Local groups across North Dakota offer shared classes, field trips, athletic associations, and social activities.

Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) hslda.org — HSLDA is a national membership organization of attorneys who provide legal consultations to member families. The NDHSA refers all legal questions to HSLDA. If you anticipate any dispute with a school district — particularly around testing, monitoring, or a student’s low test score — an HSLDA membership provides access to attorney representation.

North Dakota Department of Public Instruction (NDDPI) nd.gov/dpi/familiescommunity/families/home-education — The NDDPI home education page is the official hub for compliance forms, guidance documents, and links to the statute. The NDDPI also maintains the “Supervision” Guidance document (updated September 2025) that explains the 2019 statutory changes and provides practical guidance on record-keeping and foster care arrangements.