Homeschool Requirements in Michigan

Michigan asks nothing of you each year. No yearly notice. No registration, no testing, nothing to send in. What your children are taught, and why, stays between you and the One you answer to. One step is still yours, and it is the one families miss: a child who is enrolled in a public school right now has to be withdrawn, and reading this page does not do it. Do that first. Everything below is what Michigan actually requires, with the code named at the foot so you can read it for yourself.

What you send in, and when it is due

None under the home education exemption. MCL 380.1561(3)(f) requires no notice, no registration, no form and no approval. MDE itself states registration is optional and it collects no student-level data, but MDE “suggests” notifying the current school of intent to homeschool to avoid truancy follow-up. Registration/approval with MDE (via the annual Homeschool Membership Report) is required only if the family wants public school services: special education via a Nonpublic School Service Plan, or enrollment in non-essential/dual-enrollment courses. To be approved, the parent must hold at least a bachelor’s degree (teacher certification is not required) or assert a religious objection to certification under People v. DeJonge, 442 Mich. 266 (1993). Families may also operate under the separate nonpublic school exemption, MCL 380.1561(3)(a), or under both simultaneously per MCL 380.1561(4).

Days and hours

None. Michigan sets no minimum instructional days or hours for home education. The statutory standard is only that the child be taught in an “organized educational program” in the listed subjects.

Subjects the law names

Nine subjects, enumerated in MCL 380.1561(3)(f): reading, spelling, mathematics, science, history, civics, literature, writing, and English grammar. MDE’s guidance is strict on two points: the parent or legal guardian must be the one teaching (a grandparent, neighbor or tutor who is not the legal guardian does not qualify), and every essential subject must be taught in the home setting. Splitting essential subjects with a public or nonpublic school takes the child outside the exemption.

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

None required by the state. MDE is explicit: parents are not required to submit curriculum or student data, and parents are “solely responsible for any/all records, including gradebooks, periodic grading/progress reports, up to and including transcripts and diploma issuance.” Keep your own records; there is no state repository and MDE cannot verify completion.

Testing and evaluation

None. Standardized testing is optional, a homeschooled student may arrange to sit for state assessments through the resident public school, but no results are reported and no assessment is required.

The diploma and the transcript

The parent issues the diploma and transcript; Michigan has no state homeschool diploma, no credit definition and no state verification of completion. MDE explicitly places transcript and diploma issuance entirely on the parent. Homeschooled students may take non-essential courses at the local district (MCL 388.1766b) and dual-enroll at postsecondary institutions (Public Act 160 of 1996), but must enroll in at least one course at a public or approved nonpublic school for dual-enrollment charges to be paid; note that for grades 9-12, algebra 1/2, geometry, English 9-12, biology, chemistry, physics, economics, geography, American and world history, the Constitution, government and civics are “essential” and therefore not available on this basis. Michigan has no homeschool ESA or voucher. Registration bills to require homeschool notification have been introduced in the 2025-2026 session but none has been enacted.

A diploma you signed yourself rests on the transcript behind it and on nothing else. What does not belong on a homeschool transcript.

If the transcript is the piece you are short of, it is free on its own: The Transcript Template, with the weighted and unweighted GPA already working.

Where the law names religion

Michigan asks nothing of a family under the home education exemption at MCL 380.1561(3)(f). Religion enters at one narrow point. If you want public school services, special education or a dual-enrollment course, approval requires either a bachelor's degree or a religious objection to teacher certification, which People v. DeJonge, 442 Mich. 266 (1993), established. Ask for no services and there is no approval step and nothing to object to.

Where this comes from

Statute: Mich. Comp. Laws § 380.1561(3)(a), (3)(f), (4); Mich. Comp. Laws §§ 388.551, 388.552 (nonpublic school teacher qualification), 388.1766b (non-essential courses); People v. DeJonge, 442 Mich. 266 (1993)

Source: https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-380-1561

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.