How to Homeschool in Vermont (2026 Guide)

Last reviewed:

At a Glance

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

The short version

Vermont calls homeschooling “home study” and governs it through 16 V.S.A. §166b, a statute that was substantially simplified by Act 66, signed in June 2023 and effective July 1, 2023. The core obligations are manageable: you file a Notice of Intent with the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE) at least 10 business days before you start, renew it every year, provide the equivalent of 175 days of instruction in the required subject areas, and conduct and keep records of an end-of-year assessment of your child’s progress. You keep your curriculum plan and assessment records privately — since the 2023 update, you no longer submit them to the AOE.

Vermont enrolls families directly with the state-level Agency of Education, not with the local school district. The AOE’s Home Study Team processes the paperwork and returns a written acknowledgment, which is your official confirmation that your program is legally recognized. You should not pull your child from public school until that confirmation arrives, or at minimum until the 10-business-day window has elapsed.

No teacher certification is required. No state-approved curriculum list exists. No minimum hours per day are specified. Vermont does not issue grades or diplomas to home study students. Funding is entirely the family’s responsibility — Vermont has no Education Savings Account program, and the Town Tuitioning system is unavailable to home study families.

Home study in Vermont is established by 16 V.S.A. §166b, which sits within Title 16 (Education), Chapter 3 (State Board of Education). The statute was originally enacted in 1987 and has been amended multiple times, most recently by Act 66 of 2023 (signed June 14, 2023, effective July 1, 2023). The 2023 amendments eliminated the requirements to submit a Minimum Course of Study to the AOE, eliminated mandatory submission of end-of-year assessments, removed all AOE hearing procedures, and streamlined the enrollment process to a notice-based system.

The subject areas that home study families must cover are drawn from 16 V.S.A. §906, Vermont’s Minimum Course of Study statute, which also governs public school curriculum requirements.

The right of home study students to access public school programs is established by 16 V.S.A. §563(24), which describes the powers and duties of supervisory unions.

Vermont law does not require home study families to have any particular teaching credential, follow any state-prescribed instructional method, or obtain prior approval of their curriculum. The AOE’s role under current law is described on its own website as that of a “processor of home study programs — not a school.”

Primary AOE resource: Vermont Agency of Education — Home Study

Governing statute: 16 V.S.A. §166b — Vermont Legislature

Minimum Course of Study guidance: AOE — Minimum Course of Study and Curriculum Development

AOE Home Study Team contact: aoe.homestudy@vermont.gov — (802) 828-6225

Mailing address: Home Study Office, 1 National Life Drive, Davis 5, Montpelier, VT 05620-2501

Enrollment

Vermont requires annual enrollment with the state Agency of Education. Unlike most states, where a one-time notification or a notification to the local school district suffices, Vermont families submit their Notice of Intent directly to the AOE every year and receive written acknowledgment in return. This acknowledgment letter is your proof of legal compliance.

First-year enrollment

When starting a home study program for the first time, you must submit two documents to the AOE:

1. Notice of Intent form

Available online through the AOE’s secure portal (link on the Home Study page) or as a printable paper form. The form collects:

  • The student’s full legal name, date of birth, and age
  • Names, mailing addresses, email addresses, town of legal residence, and telephone numbers for all parents or guardians with legal custody who are authorized to make educational decisions for the student
  • An attestation that you will provide the equivalent of at least 175 days of instruction in the Minimum Course of Study (see subject area requirements below, which vary by age)
  • An attestation that you will conduct an end-of-year assessment of the student’s progress using one of the five approved methods, and that you will maintain the resulting records privately
  • An attestation that you have developed (or will develop) a Minimum Course of Study plan for your child
  • Signatures from all parents or guardians with legal educational decision-making authority (or an attestation of sole primary educational decision-making authority if applicable)

2. Independent Professional Evidence (IPE) or accepted alternative

For students who have not previously been enrolled in a Vermont public school or a Vermont home study program, you must also submit documentation regarding whether the student has a documented disability. This can be:

  • A copy of a Vermont public school report card (or equivalent attendance/enrollment documentation from a prior Vermont school)
  • The AOE’s Independent Professional Evidence Form, completed by a licensed professional who is not related to the student (the form asks whether the student has a documented disability and how it may affect their educational progress)
  • A copy of an IEP or 504 Plan
  • Other documentation of a disability

If the student has recently attended a Vermont public school, a copy of the most recent report card typically satisfies this requirement. If the student is new to Vermont or has never been enrolled anywhere, the IPE form from a licensed professional is the standard path.

Annual re-enrollment

For families continuing into a second or subsequent year, the requirement is simpler: submit the Annual Notice form (also available online or in paper form through the AOE). On this form, you attest that you successfully completed the previous year of home study and that you maintained records of an annual assessment. No assessment documentation is submitted to the AOE — only the attestation that you have it.

Timing

The Notice of Intent (and, for re-enrolling families, the Annual Notice) must be submitted at least 10 business days before your intended start date. The AOE then has 10 business days to send you a written acknowledgment of receipt, which constitutes official enrollment verification.

This 10-day minimum is a hard legal requirement, not an administrative preference. If your child is currently enrolled in public school, do not stop attending before you have received the acknowledgment letter from the AOE. Until the AOE processes your enrollment, your child remains legally enrolled in their current school, and absences accumulate as unexcused. Vermont truancy law is enforced by school districts using the AOE’s weekly enrollment reports, and 20 unexcused absences can trigger involvement from the Department for Children and Families.

For families starting at the beginning of a school year, the AOE recommends submitting paperwork by early August to ensure confirmation before the school year begins.

How to submit

You may submit online through the AOE’s secure portal or by printing the paper forms and submitting them by email (aoe.homestudy@vermont.gov), fax (802) 828-6433), or mail. The online portal allows you to save and resume your work before submitting.

Religious waiver

Under 16 V.S.A. §166b(j), after a Notice of Intent has been filed, a family may request a waiver of specific home study requirements if compliance is impossible due to a deep religious conviction shared by an organized group. The AOE may grant the waiver if it determines the educational purposes of the statute are being or will be substantially met. This provision is narrow in scope and applies only to specific requirements, not to the enrollment process itself.

Required subjects

Vermont’s Minimum Course of Study (MCOS) is drawn from 16 V.S.A. §906. The required subjects differ based on the student’s age. When you file your Notice of Intent, you attest that your home study program will cover the applicable subjects — you do not submit the curriculum itself.

For students under age 13

  • Reading and writing
  • Mathematics
  • History, government, and citizenship
  • Natural science
  • Literature
  • Fine arts
  • Physical education
  • Comprehensive health

For students age 13 and older

  • Reading and writing
  • Mathematics
  • History, government, and citizenship
  • Natural science
  • Literature

The law does not specify a minimum number of hours per day, a particular grade-level standard within each subject, or any prescribed instructional method. Parents choose how deeply to cover each area, which materials to use, and how to structure the school day.

Developing your MCOS

The AOE encourages families to develop a written Minimum Course of Study — essentially a curriculum plan — each year and keep a copy in their records, even though it is not submitted to the state. The AOE’s Home Study page provides sample MCOS documents for different age ranges (ages 5–7, 7–10, 9–11, middle school, and high school) as starting-point templates. Families are not required to follow these templates; they are offered as guidance for parents who find them useful.

For students with documented disabilities, the MCOS attestation also includes a commitment to providing adaptations to support the student’s learning in the home study program.

End-of-year assessment

16 V.S.A. §166b(a)(3) requires parents to attest that they will assess each student’s academic progress at the end of each school year and maintain the record of that assessment. The assessment records are kept by the family — they are not routinely submitted to the AOE.

Vermont accepts five methods of assessment:

Option A: Standardized assessment

A nationally normed standardized test, which may be administered by the local school district or a testing service, or administered by the parent in a manner approved by the testing company. The AOE publishes a chart of accepted standardized tests on its Home Study resources page. This is the most flexible option for families who want an objective, norm-referenced measure of their child’s progress.

Option B: Review by a Vermont-certified teacher

A teacher who holds a current Vermont teacher’s certificate reviews the student’s progress and provides documentation of that review. The parent selects the teacher; no district coordination or prior approval is needed.

Option C: Parent report and portfolio

A parent-created report summarizing what the student learned during the school year, accompanied by at least four samples of student work. This option requires no outside professional and no standardized testing. The AOE provides Word and PowerPoint portfolio templates on its Home Study resources page for families who want a structured format.

Option D: Grades from an online academy or school

If the student is enrolled in an online school or academy for some or all of their coursework, the grades or progress reports from that program serve as the assessment.

Option E: Evidence of passing the GED

For students who have taken the General Educational Development exam, passing scores serve as assessment documentation.

Families choose whichever method works best for their child and educational approach. Vermont law sets no minimum score or performance threshold — the requirement is that an assessment takes place each year and that the family retains documentation of it for at least two years.

Record keeping

Vermont requires families to maintain records of their end-of-year assessments for at least two years from the date the records are created. This is the only statutory retention requirement for assessment records.

The AOE strongly encourages — though does not require — families to also maintain:

  • A copy of each year’s Notice of Intent and the AOE’s acknowledgment letter (proof of legal enrollment)
  • A written Minimum Course of Study plan for each year
  • Reading logs, work samples, attendance calendars, and other documentation of the student’s learning

For high school students, the practical need for records goes beyond the two-year minimum. Vermont does not issue diplomas or transcripts for home study graduates. Families must document completed coursework themselves if their student plans to apply to college, pursue dual enrollment at institutions such as the Community College of Vermont or Vermont State University, or enter post-secondary career programs. Records kept throughout the high school years — including course descriptions, graded work samples, standardized test scores, and the AOE acknowledgment letters — form the raw material for any transcript you generate as the parent.

Scholarships and funding

Vermont currently has no Education Savings Account (ESA) program, no state voucher program, and no scholarship program available to home study families. Legislative proposals for ESA-style programs have been introduced in Vermont but have not passed as of the date of this guide.

Town Tuitioning — not available for home study

Vermont operates one of the oldest school choice programs in the country, known as Town Tuitioning. In towns that do not operate their own public school at a given grade level — roughly 90 Vermont towns participate at the high school level — the municipality pays tuition for students to attend any approved public or independent school the family selects, up to the state’s per-pupil expenditure cap (approximately $19,000–$20,000 for high school students in recent years).

Home study families are not eligible for Town Tuitioning. Vermont’s home study statute (16 V.S.A. §166b) is entirely separate from the tuitioning framework, which applies only to approved public and independent schools. There is no administrative or legislative mechanism to direct Town Tuitioning funds toward home study costs.

Federal tax-advantaged accounts

Under federal law, families may use 529 savings plan funds for qualified K–12 education expenses — including homeschool curriculum materials and tutoring — up to the applicable annual federal limit per beneficiary. The Coverdell Education Savings Account similarly allows tax-free withdrawals for qualified K–12 homeschool expenses up to $2,000 per year in contributions. Consult a tax professional regarding current federal and Vermont state tax treatment before withdrawing funds.

Home study programs in Vermont are funded entirely by the family. The AOE states plainly: “There is no money available to pay for a Home Study Program at either the State level or the local level.”

Withdrawing from public school

If your child is currently enrolled in a Vermont public school and you want to begin home study, the order of operations matters:

  1. Submit your Notice of Intent to the AOE at least 10 business days before your intended start date. Do this before pulling your child from school.

  2. Wait for the AOE’s acknowledgment letter. Processing can take up to 10 business days. Until you receive this letter, your child remains legally enrolled in the public school and any absences are unexcused.

  3. Once you receive the acknowledgment letter, notify the school in writing that your child is withdrawing to begin a home study program. You do not need the school’s permission. Keep a copy of your withdrawal notification.

  4. Begin home study only after completing steps 1–3.

If your child has an active Individualized Education Program (IEP) and is currently receiving special education services, be aware that by enrolling in home study, your child is no longer entitled to receive special education supports and services through the school. The AOE’s home study guidance states this clearly. Before withdrawing a student with an IEP, contact the district’s special education office to understand what services will end and what remains available. Vermont Legal Aid’s education unit and the Vermont Family Network (see Support and community below) are good resources for navigating the transition of special education rights.

If your child has never been enrolled in a Vermont public school or a prior Vermont home study program, remember that first-year enrollment requires the IPE form or other disability documentation in addition to the Notice of Intent.

Returning to public school

When a home study program ends and a student returns to public school, the family must notify the AOE in writing within 10 business days. To formally withdraw, email the Home Study Team at aoe.homestudy@vermont.gov. The receiving school determines placement based on the student’s age and the records the family provides. Vermont does not have a statutory mechanism guaranteeing credit for specific home study coursework, so maintaining organized course records and assessment documentation strengthens any placement conversation with the school.

Support and community

Vermont has an active home study community for a small state. The population of home-educated students is estimated at roughly 10,000–12,000, distributed across a geographically spread-out state, which means community tends to be regional rather than statewide.

  • Vermont Home Education Network (VHEN) — vhen.org — The state’s primary home study advocacy organization, operating as a volunteer-run nonprofit. VHEN monitors legislation relevant to home education, provides guidance on the Notice of Intent process and the 2023 statutory changes, maintains an email list for community announcements, and connects families with regional co-ops and support groups. For families new to Vermont home study, VHEN is the best free starting point for both legal orientation and community connections.

  • Vermont Agency of Education — Home Study Team — education.vermont.gov/vermont-schools/school-operations/home-study — The official state resource for all current enrollment forms, FAQs, MCOS guidance, assessment resources, and contact information. The Home Study Team can be reached at aoe.homestudy@vermont.gov or (802) 828-6225.

  • Vermont Association of Home Educators (VAHE) — A non-sectarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting families who choose to home educate in Vermont. Discoverable through VHEN’s regional listings.

  • SoVT Homeschoolers — sovthomeschoolers.org — A Southern Vermont community for homeschooling families of all approaches. Operates two active Google Groups: a general all-ages list and a teen co-op list for students ages 11–18. Maintains shared calendars and resource listings.

  • Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) — hslda.org — A membership-based national legal advocacy organization covering Vermont members. Membership is approximately $150 per year. Vermont’s home study statute is relatively family-friendly after the 2023 updates, so most families do not encounter legal difficulties — but HSLDA membership is worth considering if you anticipate a difficult withdrawal or have concerns about IEP transitions.

  • Vermont Family Network — vermontfamilynetwork.org — A federally funded parent training and information center for families of children with disabilities, including students who are home educated. A useful resource for navigating special education rights before and after withdrawal from public school.

Regional co-ops are active in Chittenden County (Burlington area), Rutland, the Montpelier-Barre area, and the Upper Valley (Windsor County, including the Vermont/New Hampshire border region). Because co-ops form, dissolve, and reorganize frequently, VHEN’s contact list and local Facebook groups for your county are the most current way to find active groups near you.