Homeschool Requirements in Colorado
Colorado asks for a few particular things. A short list of real requirements, none of them heavy on its own. The dates undo more families than the paperwork ever does, so put them in the calendar in the same week you begin, alongside everything else a household is carrying. Do that and the rest of this page becomes reading instead of worry.
What you send in, and when it is due
The home-based education option needs written notice, filed at least 14 days before the program starts and every year after that. It may go to any school district in the state (not necessarily your district of residence). Contents: name, age, place of residence, and number of hours of attendance for each child. Two alternative legal routes require no notice under 22-33-104.5: (1) enrolling the child in an independent or parochial “umbrella” school, or (2) being taught by a Colorado-licensed teacher under 22-33-104(2)(i).
Days and hours
172 days of instruction per year, averaging four instructional contact hours per day (roughly 688 hours). Applies to the home-based education option only.
Subjects the law names
Communication skills of reading, writing, and speaking; mathematics; history; civics; literature; science; and a course on the U.S. Constitution.
What you keep
Parent must maintain a permanent record of attendance data, test and evaluation results, and immunization records. A school district may inspect records only if it has probable cause to believe the program is noncompliant, and must give 14 days’ written notice before requesting them.
Testing and evaluation
Required in grades 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. Either (a) a nationally standardized achievement test, or (b) a qualified-person evaluation (Colorado-licensed teacher, licensed psychologist, or person with a graduate degree in education, or a teacher at an independent/parochial school). Results go to the school district or to the independent/parochial school that holds the records. A low score has consequences. A composite score at or below the 13th percentile (or an evaluation showing insufficient progress) triggers a retest with an alternate/different approved test; if the score is still at or below the 13th percentile the district must require enrollment in a public, independent, or parochial school until the next testing period. State CMAS/standardized assessments are not required.
What an evaluator or a test result gets attached to is the folder beneath the transcript. The Records Pack has the portfolio index with its evaluator summary, editable, in both editions.
The diploma and the transcript
Colorado issues no state diploma or credential to homeschoolers, and there are no state credit or Carnegie-unit requirements. The parent issues the diploma and transcript. Note the 11th-grade testing/evaluation obligation lands squarely in high school and must still be met. Homeschool graduates are eligible for CDHE-administered state financial aid and in-state institutions, but many campuses ask for a detailed parent transcript plus test scores; some ask for a GED only if the transcript is inadequate, a GED is not legally required. Concurrent enrollment/ASCENT access generally requires enrollment in a district or umbrella school, so families wanting dual credit often use the independent/parochial-school route instead of the 104.5 notice route.
One label on that transcript is not yours to write, whatever Colorado allows. What does not belong on a homeschool transcript.
Where the law names religion
The written notice at 22-33-104.5 does not reach a child enrolled in an independent or parochial umbrella school, so that route removes the yearly filing entirely. The assessment rules still apply. A teacher at an independent or parochial school can be the qualified person who evaluates your student, and results go to whichever school holds the records. Where a score stays at or below the 13th percentile, the district may require enrollment in a public, independent or parochial school. Ask an umbrella school what it holds and what it reports before you enroll.
What enrolling under a church school or an umbrella actually moves, and what it leaves exactly where it was, differs from one place to the next. Five of them, with the section cited for each.
Where this comes from
Statute: Colo. Rev. Stat. § 22-33-104.5 (and § 22-33-104(2)(i) for the licensed-teacher option)
Source: https://ed.cde.state.co.us/choice/homeschool-faq
Last reviewed: July 2026. The day is not recorded.
Homeschool law changes, and a page like this goes quietly out of date. Before a filing deadline, read the code above yourself. If we have fallen behind we would much rather hear it from you than have you find out at a district office.
All fifty states and the District of Columbia, each one citing the law it came from.
Filing is one part of it. Keeping the record is the other, and that is what our Records System is for: the editable transcript with the GPA already working, 131 academic course descriptions, the Bible and theology descriptions, and this same cited summary for every state and DC. Protestant and Catholic editions. Thirty-nine dollars, one household, however many children you teach.