Missouri's Home School Law
Missouri Revised Statutes §167.031 exempts children from compulsory public school attendance when they are receiving home instruction that meets the requirements of the statute. Missouri does not require home school families to file a notice with the school district, register with the state, or submit any records to any government body. The requirements that do exist -- the hour count, the subject list, and the private record-keeping obligation -- are enforced through family compliance, not through inspections or submissions. No government official visits your home or reviews your records unless a court proceeding requires it.
Missouri's compulsory school age runs from 7 through 16. Children younger than 7 or older than 16 are not subject to the compulsory attendance law, though most families continue home schooling through high school graduation regardless.
No Notice Required
Missouri home school families file nothing with anyone when they begin. There is no Notice of Intent to the district superintendent, no affidavit to the county office, and no registration with the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. You begin teaching your children at home, cover the required subjects, meet the hour requirement, keep your private records, and the compulsory attendance obligation is satisfied.
If you are withdrawing a child from public school, send a brief written notice to the school stating you are removing the child to provide home instruction. The school updates its enrollment records. That letter is an internal school document -- it is not required by the home school statute and it does not trigger any review or approval process. After sending it, no further contact with the school or the district is required.
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Five Required Subjects
Missouri requires home instruction to cover five subjects: reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. The statute does not define what constitutes adequate coverage of each subject, specify textbooks or publishers, or set grade-level benchmarks. You decide what to teach within each subject, which curriculum to use, and how to sequence instruction across the year.
The five-subject list is one of the shorter required-subject lists in the country. Reading and language arts together cover literacy in its full range: phonics and decoding in early grades, comprehension and vocabulary as the child advances, and writing across all years. Mathematics runs from arithmetic through whatever level the child reaches. Social studies encompasses history, geography, economics, and civics. Science covers whatever combination of life, earth, and physical science the family addresses. Most standard curriculum packages reach all five areas without supplemental planning.
The 1,000-Hour Requirement
Missouri's hour requirement is what distinguishes it from states like Illinois or Indiana that impose no hour floor at all. The statute requires a minimum of 1,000 hours of instruction per year, with two internal allocations: at least 600 of those hours must be spent in the five required subjects, and at least 400 of the hours must occur at a regular home location.
A 1,000-hour year at 36 weeks of schooling works out to about 28 hours per week, or between 5 and 6 hours per school day across a 5-day week. Most full-time home school programs meet or exceed this threshold without any special planning. The 400-hour minimum at home accommodates families who supplement with co-ops, community classes, or field-based learning as long as the bulk of instruction happens at the family's regular home location.
Keep a running total of your instructional hours throughout the year. You do not submit this total to anyone, but you need to be able to document it if the question ever arises. A simple weekly log of school days and hours is sufficient. Many families use a planner or online record-keeping tool that tracks subject time alongside the daily log. A reading assessment at the start of the year helps you calibrate where your child is before you plan your instruction hours in each subject area.
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Record-Keeping Requirements
Missouri requires home school families to maintain three types of private records for each school year and to keep them for two years. The three items are: a plan book, diary, or other written record showing subjects covered and the activities performed during instruction; a portfolio of samples of the child's academic work; and a record of evaluations or assessments of the child's academic progress.
None of these records are submitted to the school district or any other government body under normal circumstances. You keep them at home. The statute allows a court to order the records produced in a legal proceeding, but outside of that context they remain entirely private.
Building the record system early in the school year makes the two-year retention requirement easy to meet. A dedicated folder or binder for each school year -- one section for the plan log, one for work samples, one for any assessment results -- keeps everything organized with minimal effort. Many Missouri families use a simple weekly planner that serves as both the plan book and the instruction log at once.
The work samples portfolio does not need to be elaborate. A selection of completed assignments from each subject area across the school year shows that instruction occurred across all five required subjects. Choose samples that reflect the range of what your child studied -- not just the strongest work, but a representative cross-section of the year.
No Testing, No Evaluator
Missouri does not require home school families to administer any standardized test or to have their child evaluated by a third party. There is no annual assessment requirement, no minimum score standard, and no professional evaluator process. Any testing the family does is voluntary, and the results stay with the family.
Voluntary standardized testing is worth considering for its usefulness to the family rather than for compliance purposes. Many Missouri home school families administer tests annually to gauge academic progress, identify areas needing more attention, and build a record for college applications. But this is a family tool, not a legal obligation.
Withdrawing from a Missouri Public School
Send a written notice to the school that you are withdrawing the child. The school updates its records. Then begin home instruction at whatever pace makes sense for your family -- there is no waiting period and no district approval required. Keep a copy of the withdrawal letter in your records.
If your child has an IEP, mandatory special education services through the public school end at withdrawal. Missouri allows school districts to make certain services available to private school students with disabilities on a voluntary basis, but the entitlements under an IEP end when the child leaves the public system. Contact your district's special education office before withdrawing if services are currently in place.
High School, Transcripts, and Diplomas in Missouri
Missouri does not set graduation requirements or diploma standards for home school programs. You set the requirements, track credits through grades 9 to 12, and issue the diploma when the student meets them. A parent-issued Missouri home school diploma and transcript are accepted by Missouri's public universities, community colleges, employers, and licensing bodies.
The University of Missouri system, Missouri State University, and other Missouri public institutions are experienced reviewing home school applications. Most ask for ACT or SAT scores from home-educated applicants alongside the parent-issued transcript. A transcript that lists courses by name, credit hours, and grades by year is the standard document. Selective programs may ask for course descriptions. Prepare those if your student is applying to competitive schools.
Missouri's community colleges are broadly accessible to home school graduates, and many offer dual enrollment to high school students. Check with the specific institution for their home school applicant requirements. The curriculum guide at the guide can help you build a full high school plan that accounts for the courses and assessments your student's target institutions will want to see.
No State Funding for Missouri Home School Families
Missouri does not have an education savings account or voucher program for families providing home instruction under §167.031. All curriculum, materials, and other educational costs are the family's responsibility.
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A Note from Homeschool Teacher Guide: What This Really Means for You
Missouri's home school framework gives families substantial freedom inside a clear structure. No notice, no testing, no evaluator. You run the program, you keep the records, and the records stay with you. The 1,000-hour requirement sounds like a lot, but it is a full school year at a normal pace. The piece families underestimate is the record system. Missouri does not ask you to submit those records, and because nothing compels you to build them in real time, it is tempting to let the plan book and work sample portfolio slide. Do not. The two-year retention requirement is there for a reason, and the records serve your child's future -- for college applications, military enlistment, licensing, and employment -- whether or not Missouri ever asks to see them. Set up a simple folder system in the first week of your school year and add to it as you go. The rest of Missouri's framework is genuinely easy to work within.