Homeschool Requirements in Maryland
Maryland 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
File a Home Instruction Notification Form (MSDE form) with the local school system superintendent at least 15 days before beginning home instruction, and verify/renew annually each school year. If using an umbrella (Option 2-4), the supervising church organization or nonpublic school notifies/reports instead and the local system does not conduct portfolio reviews.
Days and hours
No day or hour count. COMAR requires instruction “of sufficient duration to implement the instructional program” during the school year.
Subjects the law names
English, mathematics, science, social studies, art, music, health, and physical education.
What you keep
Portfolio option (Option 1): maintain a portfolio of relevant materials - instructional materials, reading materials, and samples of the child’s writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials - in each required subject. Umbrella options: records per the supervising school/church program’s requirements.
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 standardized testing required and no test scores submitted to the state. Under the portfolio option the local superintendent (or designee) may review the portfolio to confirm “regular, thorough instruction,” not more than three times per school year, with reviews normally at the end of a semester. Since August 2019 reviewers may not observe instruction. If a deficiency is found the parent has 30 days to correct it; there is an appeal path to the local board and the State Board. Umbrella-supervised families are exempt from local portfolio review.
The diploma and the transcript
Maryland does not issue diplomas or transcripts to homeschoolers and awards no state credits. Parents issue the diploma and produce the transcript; homeschooled students are not required to meet Maryland public high school graduation/service-learning requirements. Maryland law does require public colleges and many employers to accept a homeschool credential, but keep detailed course descriptions and a credit-bearing transcript. High school students in the portfolio option are still subject to the same up-to-three portfolio reviews per year.
Where the law names religion
Maryland gives supervision by a bona fide church organization the same standing as review by the local school system. Under COMAR 13A.10.01.05 the supervising church organization or nonpublic school notifies and reports in your place, and the local system does not conduct the portfolio reviews. That is a real difference in who reads your student's work. It is a transfer of oversight rather than a removal of it, because the supervising organization sets requirements of its own.
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: Md. Code Ann., Educ. 7-301(a) (compulsory attendance / home instruction authorization); COMAR 13A.10.01.01-.05 (Home Instruction)
Source: https://regs.maryland.gov/us/md/exec/comar/13A.10.01
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.