Homeschool Requirements in Virginia
Virginia asks very little of you. You did not bring your children home for the sake of a form. Here is the form anyway. Begin with the first heading: what you send in, if anything, and the day it is due. There is not much after that. Every claim is cited at the foot, so you can hold it against the code rather than take our word for it.
What you send in, and when it is due
Home instruction statute (Option 1): file a Notice of Intent with the division superintendent no later than August 15 each year, including a description/list of subjects to be studied and evidence of meeting one of the four qualifying criteria. Starting mid-year: notify as soon as practicable and comply within 30 days. Certified-tutor option (22.1-254(A)): submit evidence of Virginia teacher licensure for superintendent approval; no NOI or year-end assessment. Religious exemption (22.1-254(B)(1)): apply to the local school board; once granted, no notice, testing, or reporting at all (some boards ask for periodic reaffirmation, which HEAV argues is not required by statute).
Days and hours
None. Virginia sets no minimum instructional days or hours for home instruction.
Subjects the law names
No state-mandated subject list. The parent must simply list the subjects to be studied in the annual Notice of Intent.
What you keep
No state-mandated records. Parents should retain the NOI, curriculum descriptions, and the annual evidence-of-progress documentation. No portfolio submission or inspection.
Testing and evaluation
Home instruction statute only: by August 1 following the school year, submit one of the following. (a) A nationally normed standardized achievement test composite score at or above the fourth stanine; (b) an evaluation or assessment showing adequate progress, signed by a person licensed to teach in any state, or a person with a master’s degree or higher in an academic discipline with knowledge of the child’s academic progress; (c) a report card/transcript from a community college, college, distance learning program, or correspondence school. Failure to submit places the program on probation for one year with a remediation plan. Certified-tutor and religious-exemption routes require no assessment.
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
Virginia issues no diploma or credits to homeschoolers; the parent issues the diploma and writes the transcript. Standards of Learning tests and the state’s verified-credit graduation requirements do not apply. School boards must make AP, PSAT/NMSQT, and PreACT exams available to homeschooled students and notify families of financial assistance (22.1-254.1(E)). Religious-exemption students are exempt from compulsory attendance entirely, which occasionally raises documentation questions with colleges and the military - keep a thorough transcript and course descriptions.
One label on that transcript is not yours to write, whatever Virginia allows. What does not belong on a homeschool transcript.
Where the law names religion
Virginia has a genuine religious exemption, at Va. Code 22.1-254(B)(1). You apply to the local school board, and once it is granted there is no notice, no testing and no reporting at all. It is the lightest route in the state, and the cost of it lands later. An exempt student sits outside compulsory attendance altogether, so there is no state paper trail behind the four years. Keep a full transcript and written course descriptions anyway. Nothing else will speak for the work. Some boards ask for periodic reaffirmation, which HEAV argues the statute does not require.
Where this comes from
Statute: Va. Code 22.1-254.1 (home instruction); Va. Code 22.1-254(A) (tutor/teacher option); Va. Code 22.1-254(B)(1) (religious exemption)
Source: https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title22.1/chapter14/section22.1-254.1/
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.