How to Homeschool in South Dakota (2026): One-Time Notice, Two Required Subjects, and What the Law Requires

South Dakota's Alternative Instruction Law

South Dakota Codified Laws Chapter 13-27 sets the rules for home schooling, and since 2021 they are brief. The state uses the term "alternative instruction" for what most people call home schooling. The law asks two things of you: file a one-time notification and provide instruction in language arts and mathematics. There is no annual filing, no standardized testing, no portfolio review, and no parent credential required.

South Dakota'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 an alternative instruction notification. Filing that notification is the step that places your home school within the law and satisfies the attendance requirement for your child.

For families moving from another state, South Dakota's framework is a notable change from most places. The legal floor here is low by design. You are expected to teach language arts and mathematics, file one document within your first 30 days, and take it from there. Everything else, including how you teach, what materials you use, what additional subjects you cover, and how you track progress, belongs to you.

What Changed in 2021

Before 2021, South Dakota home schools filed annually and families dealt with standardized testing requirements. Senate Bill 177, effective July 1, 2021, rewrote the framework. It moved families to a one-time notification and removed the requirement to report assessment results. Standardized testing is no longer required for alternative instruction students.

This was a real simplification, and it is part of why the number of South Dakota families using alternative instruction has grown since the law changed. The yearly cycle of filing, testing, and reporting is gone. What replaced it is a single notification and an ongoing teaching obligation that you fulfill without checking in with any government office each year.

If you home schooled in South Dakota before 2021, the yearly filing and the testing report are no longer on your list. If you are new to South Dakota home schooling, you will file a single notification and then focus on teaching rather than on annual paperwork.

Filing the One-Time Notification

Within 30 days of beginning alternative instruction, file a standard notification form. South Dakota lets you file with either the South Dakota Department of Education or your local school district. The Department of Education provides the standard form on its website. Filing it once is enough; you do not refile at the start of each school year.

The notification identifies the child or children who will be receiving alternative instruction. Keep a copy of what you submit along with any written acknowledgment you receive from the Department or the district. Because the filing is one-time rather than annual, the main task is making sure you get it done within that first 30-day window after you begin. If you move within South Dakota, confirm with the Department of Education whether any update to the notification is needed when your address changes.

Filing the notification before you begin teaching or within 30 days of starting puts you inside the law. Before you finalize your plan for the school year, run a free reading and academic assessment so you know where each child stands and can set the right starting point for language arts instruction.

The Two Required Subjects

South Dakota's subject requirement is unusually short: language arts and mathematics. Those are the two areas the law names for alternative instruction. You are free to teach far more, and most families do, but the legal floor is language arts and mathematics.

In day-to-day terms, this gives you wide latitude. You choose the curriculum, the schedule, and the pace. The state does not approve your materials, does not send an inspector, and does not set grade-level standards for home schools. Most families build a full program that includes science, social studies, history, writing, and other subjects on top of the required two. Adding those subjects is not a legal obligation under South Dakota law, but it is a practical one: a well-rounded education serves your child and prepares them for college, technical school, and the workforce in ways that a two-subject minimum alone would not.

The language arts requirement covers the full literacy range. Reading, writing, grammar, and composition all fall within language arts across the grades. In the early years, language arts means phonics, decoding, and beginning writing. In the middle years it means reading comprehension, paragraph writing, and grammar. By high school it covers literature analysis, essay writing, and advanced grammar. Mathematics runs from arithmetic foundations in the early years through algebra, geometry, and higher-level coursework in high school. South Dakota does not break these subjects down further or specify which topics to cover at which grade. You decide the scope and pacing for each child and each year.

Because you have wide freedom in how you approach these two subjects, your choice of curriculum matters more here than in states that prescribe textbooks or publishers. Take time at the start of each year to map what you will cover in language arts and mathematics, assess where your child is currently, and set a plan that builds from that point. The structure the law does not provide is yours to supply.

Testing and What South Dakota Does Not Require

Since 2021, South Dakota does not require standardized testing for alternative instruction students. There is one narrow exception: a child who is enrolled in the public school 50 percent or more of the time falls under the public school's testing rules, since that child is partly a public school student. For a child taught entirely at home under the alternative instruction framework, no standardized testing is required at any grade level.

Beyond testing, South Dakota does not require an annual report, a portfolio, an evaluator, or curriculum approval. The framework is light by design. Keeping your own simple records, such as a list of subjects and materials used each year and a sample of your child's work from each subject, is a good practice even though the state does not require it. Those records help you track your child's progress through the years, make building a high school transcript far easier when you reach that stage, and give you something to reference if a question about your program ever arises.

Withdrawing from a South Dakota Public School

If your child is currently enrolled in a South Dakota public school, file your alternative instruction notification and notify the school in writing that your child is withdrawing. Keep copies of both. Filing the notification and informing the school closes out the public enrollment record and prevents the absences from being recorded as truancy while the district processes the change.

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

High School, Transcripts, and Diplomas in South Dakota

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

The University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University, and the state's technical colleges all review home school applications. Most ask for ACT or SAT scores alongside the parent-issued 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 colleges and employers expect. Dual credit is available to South Dakota high school students through state programs at reduced cost; contact the specific institution for its home school applicant requirements. The full planning guide walks through building a four-year high school curriculum, structuring the transcript, and preparing a strong college application from a South Dakota alternative instruction program.

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

South Dakota is one of the simplest states to start in since the 2021 change, and the trick is to not overthink it. File the one-time notification in your first 30 days, keep a copy, and that piece is finished for good. There is nothing to refile, no testing cycle to plan around, and no annual report to prepare. Once the notification is in, the administrative side of South Dakota home schooling is done.

The two-subject requirement, language arts and mathematics, is the legal floor, not a ceiling, so we would treat it as the minimum and build a fuller program around it for your child's sake rather than the law's. Science, social studies, history, writing, and other subjects belong in your program because they serve your child well, not because South Dakota requires them.

Because there is no testing and no annual report, the structure is entirely yours to set. We would keep a simple file of subjects and a few work samples per child, not because South Dakota asks for it, but because it keeps you oriented and makes a transcript easy to build later. Get the notice filed, cover language arts and math and more, and you have met everything the state requires.