New Hampshire's Home Education Law
New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated Chapter 193-A sets the rules for home education in the state. The law asks for a one-time notification, instruction in a defined list of subjects, and an annual evaluation of your child's progress that you keep in your own records. No agency approves your program at any point, and no parent credential is required. The state has been moving to loosen these rules in recent years, so what you hear about New Hampshire from older sources may overstate the current requirements.
New Hampshire's compulsory school age runs from 6 through 18. A child in that range who is not enrolled in a public or nonpublic school must be covered by a home education notification. Filing that notification once is the step that places your home school within the law. After that, teaching the subjects and keeping the annual evaluation are the two ongoing responsibilities.
The structure is worth understanding before you start. Many families expect an annual process similar to what they know from public school enrollment, but New Hampshire's system does not work that way. The notification is a one-time event, not a yearly filing. The evaluation is a private document that stays with you, not a score you send to anyone. Once you understand that framework, the process is straightforward.
Filing the One-Time Notification
New Hampshire's notification is one-time per child. You file it when you begin home educating that child, and you do not refile each year. This is one of the features that makes New Hampshire lighter than it might first appear.
You also choose where to file. New Hampshire lets you notify one of three participating agencies: the commissioner of education at the state level, your local school district, or a nonpublic school that agrees to serve as your participating agency. Many families file with the commissioner to keep the relationship at the state level rather than with the local district. Filing with the district is also lawful, but some families prefer to avoid involving the district in their home education program.
Keep a copy of your notification and any written acknowledgment you receive from the agency. Once the notification is filed, that requirement is finished for that child. You will not be refiling next year. A free assessment of where your child stands academically is a useful first step before you choose your curriculum, since knowing your starting point makes planning the year much easier.
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The Required Subjects
New Hampshire names the subjects your home education program must cover. The list includes science, mathematics, language, government, history, health, reading, writing, spelling, the constitutions of the United States and New Hampshire, and an appreciation of art and music. That list is broad, but almost everything on it falls into a normal year of instruction.
New Hampshire does not dictate which curriculum, textbooks, or publishers you use, and the state does not approve your course of study. You choose the materials and the approach. Most standard home education programs cover all the listed subjects without requiring extra effort on your part. If you build your own program from separate resources, check it against the list so each subject appears somewhere in the year. Fold the state and federal constitutions into your government and history work, and look for art and music appreciation across your broader curriculum rather than treating them as separate courses.
The subject list is the floor, not the ceiling. You can teach well beyond it, and most families do. Our planning guide maps the required subjects across a full year so you can see how each one fits without turning it into a separate checklist item.
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The Annual Evaluation You Keep
This is the requirement New Hampshire families most often misunderstand. The law requires that your child's educational progress be evaluated each year, but the result belongs to you. You do not submit the evaluation to your participating agency. You do not send it to the district. There is no date by which it must be completed. You keep it in your records.
New Hampshire gives you several ways to carry out the evaluation. A New Hampshire certified teacher can review a portfolio of your child's work and provide a written finding that progress has been made. You can have your child take a standardized achievement test. You can use a state assessment if one is available and you choose that route. You can also use another evaluation method that you and your participating agency agree on. Any of these satisfies the requirement.
The portfolio review by a certified teacher is the most common choice among New Hampshire home educators, partly because the portfolio you build through the year also serves as your ongoing record of instruction. Keeping a running record of subjects covered, materials used, and work samples from each subject makes the end-of-year review straightforward regardless of which method you choose. Your records also form the foundation of a high school transcript when those years arrive.
What New Hampshire Does Not Require
Seeing what is not on the list is as useful as understanding what is. There is no annual notification; you filed once, and that is done. There is no submission of the evaluation; you keep it. There is no parent teaching credential, no curriculum approval from any state agency, and no home visit. No official approves your program before you start or at any point during the year.
That light framework means the structure of your home education program is largely your own to design. Beyond the subjects list and the annual evaluation, how you organize your day, which materials you use, and what order you teach things in are decisions you make. New Hampshire has been weighing whether to go further and make even the notice and evaluation optional, which is why checking the current rules at the start of each year is a good habit. What is required today may change.
Withdrawing from a New Hampshire Public School
If your child is currently enrolled in a New Hampshire public school, file your one-time notification with your chosen agency and notify your child's school in writing that you are withdrawing to home educate. Keep a copy of both. Filing the notification and informing the school closes out the public enrollment and prevents the absences from being recorded as truancy while the school updates its records.
Request copies of your child's academic records, including any assessment results and report cards, before you complete the withdrawal. Those records are useful when you plan your starting point and much easier to obtain during the withdrawal process than afterward.
If your child has an Individualized Education Program, the mandatory special education services provided through the public school end when you withdraw. New Hampshire districts may make some services available to home education students on a limited basis, but the IEP entitlement that applies to enrolled public school students does not carry over. Contact your district's special education office before withdrawing if services are in place, so you understand exactly what changes.
High School, Transcripts, and Diplomas in New Hampshire
New Hampshire does not set graduation requirements or diploma standards for home education families. You establish the requirements, track credits through grades 9 to 12, and issue the diploma when your student meets them. A parent-issued New Hampshire home education diploma and transcript are accepted by the state's public universities, community colleges, employers, and professional licensing bodies.
The University of New Hampshire, Plymouth State University, Keene State College, and the Community College System of New Hampshire all review home education applications. Most ask for ACT or SAT scores alongside the transcript, so plan for your student to sit for a college entrance test beginning in grade 10 or 11. A clear transcript that lists courses by name, credit hours, and grades by year is the standard document. The portfolios you keep for the annual evaluation make assembling that transcript much easier, since the subject records and work samples you already maintain translate directly into course descriptions and evidence of completion.
Running Start and dual enrollment options let New Hampshire high school students earn college credit before graduation. Contact the specific school for its home education applicant requirements. Our full high school planning guide walks through building a four-year curriculum, structuring a transcript, and planning for the testing timelines that matter in the high school years.
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A Note from Homeschool Teacher Guide: What This Really Means for You
New Hampshire asks less than families expect, and the two things worth getting right are both easy. File the notification once, choosing the agency you prefer, and keep your copy; you will not be filing again for that child. Then treat the annual evaluation as a private checkpoint rather than a report card for the district, because the result stays with you.
We would keep a running portfolio of your child's work from the start of the year: a list of subjects covered, the materials used, and samples of completed work from each subject area. That portfolio makes whichever evaluation method you choose almost effortless, and it also makes building a transcript far easier when the high school years arrive. The subject list is broad but ordinary, and a solid curriculum handles it without extra planning on your part.
One last thing worth noting: New Hampshire has been weighing whether to make even the notice and the evaluation optional, so check education.nh.gov before you file so you are working from the rules as they currently stand. Then get on with teaching.