Homeschool Requirements in Vermont

Vermont 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 an enrollment notice with the Secretary of Education (Vermont Agency of Education) on the AOE form at least 10 business days before starting home study. 16 V.S.A. § 166b(a) sets out what the first-time notice must contain: the child’s name, age, and date, month and year of birth; the names, mailing addresses, email addresses, town of legal residence and telephone numbers of all parents or guardians with legal custody who are legally authorized to make educational decisions; an attestation that the child’s academic progress will be assessed at the end of each school year and that the parent will keep the record of those assessments; for a child not previously enrolled in a Vermont public school or Vermont home study program, independent professional evidence on whether the child has a documented disability and how it may affect progress; an attestation that the child will be provided the equivalent of at least 175 days of instruction in the minimum course of study; and the signatures of all custodial parents or guardians, or an attestation of sole primary educational decision-making authority. In practice AOE accepts a Vermont public school report card, an IEP, or a 504 plan in place of the independent professional evidence form. Annual renewal is still required. Under § 166b(k) the parent must notify the Secretary before the start of each following year of the intention to continue, again at least 10 business days before the intended start date, on a shorter Annual Notice form. AOE sends a written acknowledgment within 10 business days of a complete notice, and that acknowledgment is the enrollment verification, so keep the child in school until it arrives. On ending the program, notify the Secretary in writing within 10 business days.

Days and hours

The equivalent of at least 175 days of instruction per year in the minimum course of study. No hourly minimum.

Subjects the law names

The “minimum course of study” in 16 V.S.A. § 906: basic communication skills (reading, writing, use of numbers); citizenship, history, and government in Vermont and the United States; physical education and comprehensive health education (including effects of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs); English, American, and other literature; the natural sciences; and the fine arts. For a child 13 or older, § 166b(a)(5)(B) requires only the subject areas in § 906(b)(1), (2), (4) and (5): basic communication skills; citizenship, history and government; literature; and the natural sciences. Physical education and comprehensive health education and the fine arts are not required at that age.

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

Since the July 1, 2023 amendments (2023, No. 66, § 5), the end-of-year assessment must still be completed each year but is no longer submitted to the Agency of Education. AOE states it plainly: families are no longer required to submit an End of Year Assessment to AOE. The family keeps it in the student’s records. Keep the assessment, the AOE acknowledgment letters, day counts, and work samples.

Testing and evaluation

An assessment of academic progress is required at the end of every school year. 16 V.S.A. § 166b(a)(3) permits five means: (A) a standardized assessment, which may be administered by the local school district or a testing service or administered in a manner approved by the testing company; (B) a review of the student’s progress by an individual who holds a current Vermont teacher’s certificate; (C) a parent or guardian report and portfolio including a summary of what the student learned during the school year and at least four samples of student work; (D) grades from an online academy or school; or (E) evidence of passing of the GED. The family retains the assessment. It is not filed with AOE.

An assessment is read against what you wrote down while it was happening, which is the part a morning hour tends to lose. Putting morning time and the church year on a record without inflating it.

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

Vermont does not issue diplomas or transcripts to home study students and there is no state-recognized homeschool diploma; parents issue their own. AOE says it directly: students enrolled in home study do not receive grades or diplomas from the State. No state-mandated high school credit distribution applies to home study. Home study students may enroll at their local school for up to two of the five main courses (math, science, reading and writing, history/civics/government, and literature), plus electives, athletics and extracurricular activities as space permits, arranged with the local school, and may apply to their regional CTE center. Vermont’s town tuitioning does not extend to home study programs, and there is no ESA program for homeschoolers. Vermont’s 2025 education-governance overhaul did not change 16 V.S.A. § 166b, whose amendment history still ends at 2023, No. 66. AOE enrollment windows shift each year, so verify the current one.

Where this comes from

Statute: 16 V.S.A. § 166b (home study program), as amended by 2023, No. 66, § 5, eff. July 1, 2023; 16 V.S.A. § 906 (minimum course of study)

Source: https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/16/003/00166b

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.