How to Homeschool in Montana (2026): Annual Notice, Attendance Records, and What the Law Requires

Montana's Home School Law

Montana Code Annotated Sections 20-5-109 and 20-5-111 set the rules for home schools, and the list is manageable. The law asks four things of you: notify your county superintendent each school year, maintain attendance records, teach at least 180 days in an organized course of instruction, and house the school in a building that meets applicable health and safety standards. No testing, no parent credential, and no curriculum approval are required under Montana law.

Montana's compulsory attendance requirement starts at age 7 and runs until a child turns 16 or completes the eighth grade. A child in that range who is not enrolled in a public or accredited nonpublic school must be in a home school that meets these requirements. The 2025 Legislature shortened the list with House Bill 778 by removing the old rule that families keep immunization records available to the county superintendent. That obligation is gone; attendance records remain.

For most families, Montana's framework is easy to maintain. The notice is annual and takes a few minutes. The attendance log runs throughout the year. The 180-day count is met by any full-time program. The building standard is satisfied by a normal home. What the law is really asking is that your home school be deliberate, documented, and physically safe.

Filing Your Annual Notice

Each school year, you notify the superintendent of the county where your home school is located that your child is being home schooled. Montana wants this notice before the first day of public school for that year. The target recipient is the county superintendent, not your local public school district, unless you are simultaneously withdrawing a child from public school.

Montana does not require you to use a particular form. Many county superintendents offer a printed or online notification form, and using it is convenient since it gives you exactly what the office needs. A written letter delivered or mailed to the superintendent's office that identifies your home school and the children you are teaching is also sufficient. Either way, file before the public school year opens, keep a copy of what you send, and record the date you sent it. That copy is your proof of compliance for the year.

If you move to a different county during the school year, notify the superintendent of the new county. The obligation follows the location of the home school, not the district where your child previously attended. Filing on time each year is the most important compliance step in Montana.

Keeping Attendance Records

Montana asks you to maintain records of pupil attendance and make them available to the county superintendent on request. You do not submit attendance records routinely; you keep them in your own files and produce them if the superintendent asks to see them. After the 2025 change removed the immunization-record requirement, attendance records are the one set the law names explicitly.

A simple log handles this well. Record the dates your home school holds instruction and note which children attended each day. Keep the log current as the year progresses rather than reconstructing it at year's end. Because Montana sets a 180-day instructional floor, your attendance log also doubles as your proof that the day count is being met. One document covers two requirements, which makes keeping it current worth the small daily effort.

Store your attendance log with your other home school records, including your copy of the annual notice and any course materials you save. If the county superintendent ever makes a request, you want the records organized and ready. Most Montana home school families will never receive such a request, but being prepared costs nothing.

The 180-Day Requirement

Montana home schools provide at least 180 days of pupil instruction, matching the standard that applies to public schools. The law does not set a minimum number of hours per school day for home schools, so you have real flexibility in how you structure each day. What the year must reach is 180 days of instruction, not a particular daily schedule.

Plan your school calendar with the 180-day floor in mind from the start of the year. Families who school four days a week, run a year-round calendar, or take extended breaks during certain seasons should track the running day count through the year to confirm the total is reached before the year closes. Your attendance log is the natural place to keep this count. Run a free assessment before you map out the year's instruction so you know where your child is standing and can plan which subjects need the most time.

An Organized Course of Instruction

Montana requires that your home school provide an organized course of instruction rather than casual or unstructured activity. The statute does not publish a required subject list for home schools, but the expectation is a real course of study that covers the core academic areas in a planned and sequential way.

Meeting this standard is mostly about being deliberate. At the start of each school year, write out the subjects you will teach, the materials you will use, and the general structure of your school day or week. Most families cover reading and language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies as the foundation, adding history, writing, and other subjects on top. Keep a record of completed lessons and work through the year. An organized plan built at the start of the year, paired with a record of work your child completes, shows your course is organized and progressive rather than improvised from week to week.

The Building and Safety Standard

One Montana requirement surprises some new families: the building where your home school operates must meet applicable health and safety standards. For a typical family home, this standard is not a burden. It means the space where you teach should be safe, adequately lit, and sanitary, which describes any normal, well-kept household.

You do not file a building inspection report or seek a permit to teach in your own home. Montana does not send an inspector to your door. The standard exists to set a basic safety baseline for home schools, and an ordinary home satisfies it without any special preparation. If you teach in a detached structure such as a garage or workshop, make sure that space meets the same common-sense safety expectations: clean, safe, lit, and in good repair.

Withdrawing from a Montana Public School

If your child is currently enrolled in a Montana public school, notify that school in writing that you are withdrawing them to home school. File your annual notice with the county superintendent before the school year if you have not already done so, and keep dated copies of both communications. The written withdrawal letter closes out your child's enrollment and prevents the absences from being recorded as truancy while the district updates its records.

If your child has an Individualized Education Program, the mandatory special education services provided through the public school end when you withdraw. Montana districts may make some services available to home school students on a limited basis, but the IEP entitlement that applies to enrolled public school students does not carry over to a home school program. Contact your district's special education office before withdrawing if services are currently in place and you want to understand what options may be available after your child leaves the public school.

High School, Transcripts, and Diplomas in Montana

Montana does not set graduation requirements or diploma standards for home school families. You establish the requirements, track credits through grades 9 to 12, and issue the diploma when your student meets them. A parent-issued Montana home school diploma and transcript are accepted by Montana's public universities, two-year colleges, tribal colleges, employers, and professional licensing bodies across the state.

The University of Montana, Montana State University, and Montana's community and tribal colleges all review home school applications. Most ask for ACT or SAT scores alongside the transcript, so plan for your student to sit for a college entrance test starting in grade 10 or 11. A clear transcript listing courses by name, credit hours, and grades by year is the standard document. Dual enrollment is available at many Montana institutions for high school students who want to earn college credit early; contact the specific school for its home school applicant requirements. The full planning guide walks through building a four-year high school curriculum from a Montana home school, including the transcript structure and the college application timeline.

A Note from Homeschool Teacher Guide: What This Really Means for You

Montana asks a few concrete things, and the trick is to handle them once and then let them run on their own. The notice is the one with a hard deadline, so put it on your calendar for late August and send it to your county superintendent before public school starts. Use the county's form if they have one; it is faster than writing your own letter, though either works. Keep the copy you send.

After the notice, your attendance log carries most of the weight. It proves you filed, it proves your 180 days, and it is the one record Montana names by statute, so keep it running through the year rather than scrambling to reconstruct it at the end. A simple dated list of school days is all you need. The building standard sounds more formal than it is; a safe, clean home already meets it, and no permit or inspection is required.

The 2025 change means you no longer need to track immunization records for the county superintendent, which removes one item from the list. Build an organized course around the core subjects so your program qualifies as instruction rather than informal activity, file your notice on time, keep your attendance log current, and Montana's framework runs smoothly in the background while you focus on teaching.