Homeschool Requirements in District of Columbia

District of Columbia asks more of a family than most places do. There is more of it here than in most places, and the deadlines hold. That is a discouraging thing to read in the week you have decided to teach your children yourself, and it should not put you off. None of it is beyond an ordinary household once it is written down in one place, which is what this page is for. Read the dates first. The rest can wait until they are on the calendar.

What you send in, and when it is due

Submit a Notification of Intent to Homeschool to OSSE. Under 5-E DCMR 5202.1(b) it “shall be submitted to the OSSE at least 15 days, not including Saturdays, Sundays, or District holidays, prior to the first date of home instruction”, and OSSE says review and processing take roughly ten calendar days. Continuing families file again each year: 5-E DCMR 5203.1 requires a parent to file a notification form identifying each child being home schooled “no later than August 15th of each year”. Discontinuing requires notice at least 15 business days before discontinuation (5203.2). If your child is leaving a DCPS or public charter school you do not need the school’s permission, but work with the school so the child is properly withdrawn for truancy reporting. OSSE emails an approval verification letter within five business days of approving your submission, and homeschooling officially begins once you have that letter.

Days and hours

No specific day or hour count. 5-E DCMR 5204.1(a) requires the parent to “provide thorough, regular instruction of sufficient duration to implement the home school program.”

Subjects the law names

Language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, art, music, health, and physical education. The rule frames these as a floor rather than a ceiling: 5-E DCMR 5204.1(b) requires instruction that includes “but need not be limited to” those subjects, and 5204.2 adds that no home schooling program shall be required to adhere to specific curricular frameworks or any other program of instruction adopted by the District’s public schools.

The law names the subjects. It does not name the course titles a registrar will read, and Bible is where that gap costs families most. Booking Bible as a real subject on a transcript.

What you keep

Maintain a portfolio of homeschooling materials for each child which includes evidence of the child’s current work, such as examples of writings, worksheets, workbooks, creative materials, assessments, or any other materials showing the child is engaged in thorough, regular educational activities “in a range of subjects” (5-E DCMR 5205.1). The rule says the portfolio should be kept for at least one year and made available for review by OSSE upon written request. OSSE may ask to review it, but 5206.1 sets conditions: the request must be in writing, the review is held at a time and place mutually agreeable to OSSE and the parent, there may be no more than two reviews in a school year, and the purpose is to ensure the child is receiving thorough, regular instruction. The same section adds that nothing in it “shall be interpreted to require a regular periodic review of all portfolios”. No home visit is required. If OSSE finds the program deficient it issues a written Notification of Deficiencies within 30 business days of the review; the parent then has 30 business days to respond with a corrective action plan, and OSSE answers within 15 business days. Only if that fails does OSSE issue a Letter of Non-Compliance, appealable in writing to the State Superintendent within 15 calendar days and then to D.C. Superior Court.

The log is easy to keep and easy to invent in June, and only one of those survives a reader. Writing down a morning hour while it is still happening.

Those are the pages beneath the transcript rather than the transcript itself. The Records Pack has the attendance and hours log and the portfolio index, editable, in both editions.

Testing and evaluation

No testing requirement and no scores reported to OSSE. Oversight runs through the portfolio review process. Testing is available if you want it: 5-E DCMR 5209.1 provides that a child receiving home schooling “may participate free of charge in the regularly scheduled standardized testing programs that are administered in the public school the child is eligible to attend.” OSSE asks that you register at least 40 business days before testing.

The diploma and the transcript

OSSE does not create report cards or transcripts for homeschooled students, and D.C. public high school graduation requirements do not apply, so the parent normally issues the diploma and prepares the transcript. The District does offer two of its own routes to a District credential if you want one: the GED, open to a student not enrolled in a traditional high school program for at least six months, and the National External Diploma Program. The instructing parent or guardian must hold a high school diploma or its equivalent (5-E DCMR 5207.1), or may petition OSSE for a waiver by providing evidence of the ability to provide thorough, regular education (5207.2). Compulsory attendance runs from age 5, or from turning 5 on or before September 30 of the current school year, until the child turns 18, so the notification, portfolio and annual continuation duties continue through the high school years. Special education services are available only through public school enrollment, but the District’s child find obligation to locate, identify and evaluate children continues after a child begins homeschooling, so an evaluation may be requested at any time. On re-entry to a D.C. public school, 5210.1 provides that placement and any credits toward graduation are determined by evaluation, which may include standardized tests, other examinations, and interviews with the child.

Where this comes from

Statute: D.C. Code § 38-202 (compulsory attendance, from age 5 until the child turns 18); D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 5-E, ch. 52 (5-E DCMR 5200 through 5210 and 5299, District of Columbia Home Schooling), adopted 55 DCR 7989 (July 25, 2008).

Source: https://osse.dc.gov/page/homeschooling-district-local-requirements

Last reviewed: July 2026, on the 26th.

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.