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New Hampshire Home Education Guidebook
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Legal Requirements Disclaimer: The following information is provided as a courtesy to homeschooling families in New Hampshire and is not intended as legal advice. The New Hampshire Homeschooling Coalition strongly urges all parents or legal guardians to read and thoroughly understand the text of the home education law (RSA 193-A) which has been modified by House Bill 406 effective May 12, 2006 and administrative rules (Ed 315) before initiating contact with their participating agency. Summary of the Legal Requirements for Homeschooling in New Hampshire RSA 193-A (New Hampshire Home Education law)
HB406 (Changes to RSA 193 removing the requirement for
submitting a curriculum)
RSA 193:1
(Compulsory Attendance Law)
How will SB18 and HB99 affect homeschoolers? Read more... The passage of HB 87 creates some confusion for homeschoolers and the Department of Education. More... Summary of the Legal Requirements for Homeschooling in New Hampshire Home education in New Hampshire is governed by RSA 193-A, which went into effect on July 1, 1991, and by the changes under House Bill 406 which went into effect May 12, 2006. Under this law, parents or legal guardians who wish to homeschool their child(ren) are required to:
Notification The compulsory attendance law (RSA 193:1), and by extension, the home education law (RSA 193-A), applies to those children who are six years of age (by September 30) and under 16 years of age. Although the law states that parents may choose to notify either the commissioner of education, resident district superintendent, or a nonpublic school principal, we strongly recommend that you do not use the Commissioner of Education at the New Hampshire Department of Education (DOE) The Department of Education does not have the resources to handle a large number of homeschoolers. The DOE has returned, for lack of sufficient information, a large number of homeschool evaluations. Most homeschoolers use their local school district as the participating agency. Many nonpublic schools make themselves available to homeschoolers to use as a participating agency. This private school does not need to be in your area. Typically, nonpublic schools that are willing to act as the participating agency charge a fee for this service, which may or may not include access to the nonpublic school's curriculum, classes or other activities, and/or participation in the school's testing/evaluation programs. According to RSA 193-A and HB 406, the letter of notification should include:
We have two sample letters of notification that you can take a look at; one is a basic letter, the second has a place for the participating agency to sign and return to you. For the first time, in 2006-2007, you are not required to submit a curriculum or scope and sequence with your letter. Many school districts may not be aware of the change in the law and you might want to mention or attach a copy of HB406 with your letter of notification. To protect your privacy, you may also want to add "All information provided herein is considered privileged and confidential. Any further disclosure of this information requires written parental consent prior to such disclosure." If a child is withdrawn from a public school after the school year has started, parents should ensure that officials are aware that the child will be homeschooling in order to avoid being charged with truancy. You need to put this in writing and keep a copy. The participating agency is required to acknowledge your notification, in writing, within 14 days, assuming it contains the information listed above. If you decide to end your home education program prior to age 16, written notice should be filed with your participating agency within 15 days of termination of the program. Portfolio Parents are required to keep a log of reading materials and a portfolio of the child's work related to the homeschooling program for two years. The portfolio is the property of the parents; the superintendent cannot require that you submit it to the district for review. If you plan to use the portfolio method for your evaluation, you will want to include enough samples of your child’s work so the evaluator can determine that educational progress has been made. How much is enough? It varies depending on the evaluator, but one or two pages of work in each of the subject areas your child has studied, taken at three different times of the year, is often sufficient to demonstrate progress. Evaluation Parents are required to have their child's educational progress evaluated each year, and submit the results of the evaluation (in writing) to the participating agency. The child's progress may be evaluated by any of the following methods:
The results of the evaluation, typically no more than one or two pages, are to be submitted to and reviewed by the participating agency. An evaluation is not considered complete unless it has a parent's signature, so if you feel your child's evaluation is not accurate, do not sign it. We have posted more information on compiling a Homeschool Portfolio Evaluations and a Form that an evaluator can use, if they would like. We have provided a sample cover letter to send with the teacher's portfolio evaluation, as well as a letter to send with test results.. These are simply suggestions, and not necessities. Please use your own judgment. If the child has not demonstrated educational progress at a level commensurate with his ability, the superintendent or principal will notify the parent that acceptable progress has not been achieved, and the parent shall have one year from the date of receipt of the written notification to provide remedial instruction to that child. At the end of the one-year probationary period (or sooner, if the parent chooses), the child shall be reevaluated, using any of the four methods, and may continue homeschooling if educational progress is demonstrated. Conclusion It is very important that homeschooling families become thoroughly familiar with the requirements of the law, and that they not submit to any requests other than those required by law. Even if your family doesn't mind complying with requests for information which are beyond the scope of the law, your doing so may make things more difficult for the other homeschooling families (who may have different opinions about what is "reasonable" than you do) who come after you.
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Hampshire Homeschooling Coalition,
PO Box 2224,
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