Massachusetts · current planning year 2026-2027
Massachusetts homeschool requirements, 2026-2027
Home education here. Last checked against the statutes and court cases. Checked too against the guidance of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). That check was on .
Know what the law asks. Keep your records. Teach your day.
Every legal rule below is separate from Trellis's optional record tools. This is a planning aid, not legal advice. Ask your district or a Massachusetts lawyer about an unusual case.
Your school district must approve your plan before you begin.
You write a short plan — what you will teach, roughly how many hours, what books and materials you will use, who will be teaching and their background, and how you will show progress. You send it to your district before you take your child out of school, or before the September your child turns six. The district must give you its written policy, must let you explain your plan if you ask, and if it says no, must tell you why in writing and let you fix it. Nothing starts until it says yes.
During the year you keep your plan's materials available and give the district the progress check you both agreed to — a standardized test, or progress reports or dated work samples if you and the district chose those instead. Every district we have seen asks for a new plan each year.
The state is not involved. No state form, no state deadline. Your district's policy is the one that sets your dates — ask for it, and keep it.
“The September your child turns six” means September of that calendar year. It also covers a child whose sixth birthday comes later that year. Every district we have seen asks for a yearly plan. That is not a statewide rule.
2026-2027 at a glance
Massachusetts law.- Know the ages. Approval starts in September of the calendar year your child turns six. It ends on the day they turn sixteen.
- Get your district's policy. It must give it when you first ask about home schooling.
- Write the plan, send it, wait for the yes. Approval comes before withdrawal or the first day.
- Teach the thirteen subjects. Compare your plan with the public-school list.
- Keep the hours your plan promised. Compare with 180 days and 900 or 990 public-school hours.
- Show progress the way you agreed. Use a test, reports, or dated work.
- Do it again next year. Every district reviewed gives one-year approvals. That is their own rule, not state law.
The state is not involved. There is no state form, state filing, or statewide deadline. Your local district gives the approval.
Massachusetts has no separate home-education statute. General Laws chapter 76, section 1 has the exemption. A child may learn at home under that clause. The local superintendent or school committee must approve it first. Approval comes before you begin, and before you take your child out of school. No statewide home-record rule was found.
1. Who must be approved
Approval based on age begins in September of the calendar year your child turns six. Kindergarten is not compulsory.
DESE names the day your child turns sixteen as the end. Its page gives that age, but no controlling section was found.
A child who turns six in October 2026 enters the age window in September 2026.
Who gives the yes, and on what
One district, one child, one rule.
Each child has a separate approval. The approving district is where the child actually lives.
The superintendent or school committee gives the approval. The state has no role.
A plan may not be refused because it carries religious teaching.
The approval standard is thoroughness and efficiency, and the progress made.
2. Ask your district for its written policy
DESE says the district must give you its policy the first time you ask. Ask for it and keep it.
The policy records the district's local process and dates. It is not state law.
Testing details are chosen in consultation with you. Reports or dated work instead require your approval.
DESE's exact policy words
Once the school district receives a parent's notification that they wish to educate their child at home, the district must provide the parent with the district's policy and process for approval of home schooling and ask the parent to submit the proposed home schooling plan. If the parent's notification includes the proposed plan, the district should still provide the parent with its policy and process for approval.
3. Write the plan
A district may review five parts of the plan. It may review subjects, hours, teachers, materials, and progress.
What a district may ask about the teacher
It may ask about a teacher's background. It may not require a certificate or degree. It may not choose the teaching method.
Here are the subjects a district compares against, in one list.
- Spelling and writing.
- Reading.
- Writing.
- The English language and grammar.
- Geography.
- Arithmetic.
- Drawing.
- Music.
- The history and constitution of the United States.
- The duties of citizenship.
- Health education.
- Physical education, in every grade.
- Good behavior.
- United States history and social science, with civics.
- Health details: dental health, safe and healthy relationships, and first aid with CPR.
Two things this list does not settle
Science, and the health and civics part.
“Good behavior” gets no subject bucket. Science is a main public-school subject. It is not on the first list. Districts may call it expedient.
The sources do not settle whether the health and civics sub-lists bind a home plan. This page shows them but does not score them.
The law's own words
The law behind the list above.
G.L. c. 71, § 1:
orthography, reading, writing,
the English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic, drawing, music,
the history and constitution of the United States,
the duties of citizenship, health education,
physical education and good behavior.
G.L. c. 71, § 2(a):
history of the United States of America and social science, including civics
That covers the federal and state constitutions. It also covers the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. Local government, its branches, and a citizen's role are in it too.
G.L. c. 71, § 3:
Physical education shall be taught as a required subject in all grades.
4. Submit, be heard, and wait
Send the plan before you withdraw your child or begin home education. Notice alone is not approval. Silence is neither yes nor no.
You send it in writing. No meeting is needed to get a yes. You have a right to be heard if you ask for it.
If refused, the district must give detailed reasons and an opportunity to revise. It must let the family explain the plan and present witnesses.
While you wait, and if you are refused
No statute or case fixes a response time. Ask the district for a written timeline. Keep a dated copy of the request.
A school-committee meeting can satisfy the hearing right. If a family proceeds after refusal, the district carries the burden of proof.
The burden shift does not give permission to skip approval. Get legal advice before proceeding after a refusal.
What can happen without approval
One rule starts after seven full-day or fourteen half-day unexcused absences within six months. An attendance supervisor may then complain. The maximum fine is $20.
Another rule covers causing unlawful absence. It also covers unlawful work or hiding the child. Its maximum fine is $200. Neither rule carries jail.
A child-welfare case is the more serious exposure.
5. Hours and days
A district may consider the proposed year's length and the hours in each subject. Your district may ask you to state them in the plan.
Public schools use 180 days. Lower grades use 900 hours, higher grades 990. These figures do not become a home-school minimum.
No law defines a home-school day or instructional hour. A home uses time differently, so institutional scheduling standards do not control it.
Can your district hold you to the hours you promised?
What the sources say, and what they leave open.
- Before the yes, they count. A district may weigh your hours and your year's length when it decides.
- During the year, there is no hours check. What a district may ask for is the progress check you both agreed to.
- 900 promised and 700 taught? The sources do not settle it. No law and no court case names a penalty.
- What they do say. A district may raise concerns about progress. It may make them part of next year's approval.
6. Materials
Keep the books and materials named in the plan available. Your district may compare them. The district may see what subjects and grade level they cover.
It may not use that access to dictate how you teach.
The materials you keep may include teaching aids, lesson plans, and teaching manuals.
Charles, 399 Mass. at 337-3407. Show progress as agreed
A progress check is the one thing a district may require, not just weigh. A test is what it may require.
Your plan says which way you will use. You both agree it before the district says yes.
The sources do not settle this. May a district ask for a test outside your agreed way? They call testing periodic and do not say how often.
Who picks the way, and what a low score does
The test and place are chosen in consultation with the parents. A neutral person gives it where practical.
Progress reports or dated work may replace it, subject to the parents' approval.
No law sets a score, percentile, or consequence for a low score. The state sets no test of its own.
A district may raise concerns and consider them at the next approval. The law does not settle what more it could do.
8. No home visit as an approval condition
A district may not require a home visit without consent. This applies when the other plan terms are met.
You may say no. A district may not refuse your plan because you said no to a visit.
The Court said this too. A plan that keeps meeting what the law asks is to be approved.
The sources name no penalty for saying no. They do not say what else a district may do about it.
What the Court did not decide
Three cases stay open.
The Court left three cases open. One is poor progress. One is teaching other families' children. The last is another need under fair rules.
9. Ask about next year
Every district reviewed for this guide approves one year at a time. That is their own rule, not a statewide renewal rule.
No statute fixes how long approval lasts. Use the date in your district's policy. Massachusetts sets no statewide renewal date.
DESE Home Schooling · observed district policies10. If you move
A move to a new town means a new approval from the new district. The approving body follows the child's actual residence.
There is no separate partial-year pathway. Put the timing in the child's plan or record. Then ask the new district about approval.
No statewide rule was found that requires a courtesy letter to the former district.
G.L. c. 76, § 1 · G.L. c. 76, § 511. What is not required
A home-schooling law or state filing.
Source: G.L. c. 76, § 1; DESEA state form or due date.
Source: DESE says each school committee has a policyA teaching certificate or degree.
Source: Charles, 399 Mass. at 337-340A home visit as an approval condition without consent.
Source: Brunelle, 428 Mass. at 519A dictated curriculum or teaching way.
Source: Charles, 399 Mass. at 337-340A calendar matching the public schools.
Source: Brunelle, 428 Mass. 512; 603 CMR 27.03(3); 603 CMR 27.04(1); 603 CMR 27.04(2)A set home teaching day or hour.
Source: no home-program definition was found; 603 CMR 27.02 is for public schoolsA test the state picks, a score to reach, or a percentile. Your district may still agree a test with you as your progress check (step 7).
Source: Charles, 399 Mass. at 337-340The MCAS test, or the passing mark the state sets for public schools.
Source: G.L. c. 69, § 1D covers public schoolsA sign-in book or class-time report.
Source: no home-education rule was found in G.L. c. 76Immunization as part of home-plan approval.
Source: G.L. c. 76, § 15 concerns admission to schoolA state diploma, any diploma, or state recognition of one.
Source: no state diploma rule was foundDESE approval or an appeal to DESE.
Source: DESE says it does not review a district's answerThat the parent be the only teacher. Teaching wholly by others is unsettled.
Source: Charles, 399 Mass. at 337-340; Lawrence district policyA refusal based on religious teaching.
Source: G.L. c. 76, § 1Truancy exposure for a plan the district approved.
Source: G.L. c. 76, § 1; G.L. c. 76, § 2
Things a district may ask that state law does not
Newton lists district registration and proof of residence. Lawrence lists a birth record and a signed hours statement.
Springfield lists an end-of-year report on its own schedule. Newton and Lawrence publish local rules for activities and sports.
Nothing enacted in the 194th General Court changed these rules. H.518 remains in committee and is not law.
G.L. c. 76, § 1 · G.L. c. 76, § 15 · Charles, 399 Mass. at 337-340 · Brunelle, 428 Mass. at 519 · DESE guidance12. Special education
DESE's exact words
Under Massachusetts law, home-schooled students have a right to special education services. In addition, school districts are required to evaluate students suspected of having a disability and re-evaluate students eligible for special education services consistent with federal and state requirements.
The district of residence provides evaluation and eligible services. Ask its special-education office about the arrangement.
Nothing here decides whether disability may be weighed in approval. The sources do not settle that separate question.
603 CMR 28.03(1)(e) · DESE SPED 2018-113. High school and after
Massachusetts issues no home-school diploma. The family sets graduation requirements and issues its own diploma and transcript.
What the state does not ask of that diploma
The law is silent on the standing of that diploma. MCAS does not apply here. Nor does the passing mark the state sets for public schools. Nor does a state exit requirement.
A high school equivalence certificate is a test. The state runs it, not your district. Your child passes the HiSET or the GED parts, or a mix of the two.
A sixteen- or seventeen-year-old cannot book a test yet. First the district writes a letter of non-attendance. DESE must approve it.
An HSE is not a required ending. Nothing is asked after the compulsory-age window.
This page does not carry the sign-up steps. Use DESE's own high school equivalency page.
District courses, programs, and sports stay the district's own call.
DESE High School Equivalency · G.L. c. 69, § 1D14. Health and work permits
The immunization rule concerns admission to school. It is not a home-plan approval requirement.
This page does not settle health rules for public-school activities. Ask the district before a child participates.
A child over fourteen needs a work permit before a job. Your school superintendent issues it, for a child taught at home as for any other.
The sources do not name a job that needs no permit. Ask your district's office before your child starts.
G.L. c. 76, § 15 · G.L. c. 149, § 86Questions Massachusetts families ask
When do I send a Massachusetts home-education plan?
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What if the district does not answer?
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Does Massachusetts require 180 days or 900 hours at home?
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Can the district require a home visit?
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Does Massachusetts give a homeschool diploma?
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Do I file anything with DESE?
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Is there a homeschool compliance planner for Massachusetts?
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Keep the family's record together
In Trellis.Massachusetts sends nothing to the state. Keep the plan and the district's policy and answer. Keep the progress method you agreed to.
Trellis keeps those answers by child and year. They sit beside your calendar, learning log, grades, and print records. Trellis never sends a plan or decides approval.
Start your family's records High school and the family diploma in Massachusetts