Texas · 2026-2027 school year
Texas homeschool requirements, 2026-2027
Last checked against the statutes and the state's own guidance: 2026-09-04
What you must do, and when
Usual rule: covered from six by September 1 to the nineteenth birthday.
Close-call ages: early enrollment, pre-K and kindergarten, age 17, the nineteenth birthday
| Situation | Covered from, or what changes |
|---|---|
| Child is six by September 1 | The Texas Education Agency (TEA) uses this as the usual starting-age test for that school year. |
| Child is under six but previously enrolled in first grade | Coverage starts with that prior first-grade enrollment; the child does not wait for age six. |
| Child is enrolled in public pre-K or kindergarten | Attendance is required while the child remains enrolled. A not-yet-six child may still be withdrawn for home schooling. |
| Child is seventeen or older | A separate exemption may apply for a diploma or approved high-school-equivalency certificate. Ask about a close case. |
| Child reaches the nineteenth birthday | The usual Texas compulsory-attendance age range ends. |
- Only if a child is enrolled in a public school: send the school a signed, dated withdrawal letter before the child stops attending. A child not leaving a public school needs no letter, and Texas has no yearly letter.
- All year: run a bona fide home-school program, directed by a parent in or through the home, using a written or on-screen curriculum.
- All year: design the curriculum to meet basic goals in reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, and good citizenship.
- Know the age rule: compulsory attendance usually runs from age six to the nineteenth birthday, with edges around it worth reading once.
- Not asked of you: no registration, no annual filing, no day or hour count, no state test, no teacher license, no curriculum approval, no records submitted, no state diploma.
Texas treats a bona fide home school as a private school for attendance law, under Texas Education Code §§ 25.085 and 25.086 and Texas Education Agency v. Leeper (Tex. 1994). There is no registration, no annual filing, no day or hour count, no test, and no teacher credential. What the law asks is a real program, directed by a parent, using a written or on-screen curriculum (books, workbooks, or screen lessons), designed to meet basic goals in five areas.
1. Withdraw only when a child is enrolled
Only if enrolled.A child enrolled in a Texas public school, charter, or public virtual school needs written withdrawal. Send the notice before the child stops attending if you can. If home schooling already began, give the real start date.
Send the withdrawal to the child's current school. Use the school's form for a school document. Or send your own signed and dated letter instead. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) says that signed, dated letter works too.
In your own letter, say the child is being home schooled, give the date home schooling begins, and sign it. A signed letter with no date needs the date added. A dated letter with no signature needs the signature added.
Texas publishes no statewide home-school withdrawal form. The letter is ordinary parent correspondence, not a state filing.
The school should withdraw the student when it receives that notice. TEA says you need no personal appearance. You do not present curriculum for review.
If your child is not leaving a school, start home schooling without this letter. Texas has no registration or yearly letter.
A private school has its own withdrawal process. Its contract may matter. The public-school withdrawal letter on this page does not control a private school's contract.
An online label does not answer the question. A public virtual school is public enrollment. A curriculum website may not be a school at all.
Withdrawal is notice, not permission. Send the signed letter. We recommend keeping a copy and proof that it arrived.
Ask for school records separately, so that request never delays withdrawal.
Special situations: custody, foster care, an adult student, and the unsettled assurance letter
Most families never need this part.
Stop before using an ordinary letter if you are not sure who may withdraw the child. A custody order, foster arrangement, active attendance case, or Texas child-protection agency placement can change who decides.
Ask a Texas lawyer about a custody dispute over who may direct the child's education. A custody disagreement is a legal question, not a Trellis question.
For a minor child, the parent signs and dates the letter. At age eighteen, or after legal emancipation, educational rights usually transfer to the student. Federal law, a competency ruling, or a court order can change that. The adult student, not the parent, should make and sign the withdrawal choice.
Whether a district may still ask for a short written confirmation is unsettled. House Bill 2674 (2025) now bars TEA from regulating home-school programs. Older Texas Education Agency guidance calls this an assurance letter, and no court has said how the two fit.
That guidance says the curriculum is real and designed to meet the five basic education goals. It allows this request only after a district learns of possible home schooling.
Education Code § 1.010 was added by House Bill 2674 (89th Legislature, effective September 1, 2025). “Homeschool Freedom Act” is a nickname, not the bill's title. It now bars covered public institutions from adopting “a rule or policy that regulates an educational program of a home school.” In plain terms: a covered public institution may not write a rule about your home-school program. No higher Texas court has decided how the two rules fit.
TEA's Commissioner's Home School Policy Letter (July 11, 2019) is the agency's own statement of the older rule. A district “may request in writing a letter of assurance from the parents that the student is being home schooled”. In plain terms: the district may ask, in writing, that you confirm your child is being homeschooled. A student who later enrolls in a public school is placed by the district. TEA's letter puts records first: districts “may place students according to a review of the curriculum, course of study, and work of the student”. Testing is a local choice. When a test is used, the passing standard “should be no higher than the standard required of students transferring from unaccredited private schools”. The letter then splits the test by level. Elementary: “should be assessed by means of a nationally recognized norm-referenced test or by a previously released STAAR assessment for the appropriate grade level”. A secondary student “may be assessed using credit-by-examination methods for individual subject areas or by previously released STAAR end-of-course assessments”. STAAR is the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness. In plain terms: a younger child is placed by a national test or a past STAAR test. A middle or high schooler is placed by credit exams in each subject, or by past end-of-course STAAR exams.
Do not send an assurance every year. Do not ignore a real attendance inquiry. Answer narrowly or get Texas legal help when a request goes beyond enrollment status.
TEA Home Schools letter, July 11, 2019 · Adult-student rights: TEC § 26.002 · TEC § 1.0102. Run a real home-school program
Required by law.A parent, guardian, or person acting as the parent directs the education. The program operates in or through the home. Lessons may happen at tutors, co-ops, online classes, libraries, museums, and other places outside the house, as long as a parent directs the program.
For attendance law, Texas treats a real home school as a private school. This does not turn it into a state-approved school.
The program must be bona fide. That means real education in good faith, not a name used only to avoid attendance law.
A grandparent or other adult standing in parental authority may direct the program, the same as a parent or guardian.
The curriculum has to be written or on a screen. Leeper recites the judgment it affirmed. Its list: “books, workbooks, other written materials, including that which appears on an electronic screen of either a computer or video tape monitor”. Any mix of those counts. Printed books satisfy that by themselves. A screen lesson also satisfies it by itself. “Visual curriculum” is the common shorthand for this element; neither the court nor TEA uses the word.
Hands-on activities are welcome extras, not the written-or-on-screen requirement itself. Conversation, projects, experiments, field trips, and hands-on work may add to the program. Lessons that are only spoken risk failing the written-or-on-screen element above.
You may build your own plan, combine materials, or buy a package. No agency approves your materials, and no approved-provider list exists.
TEA: Home Schooling · TEC § 25.086(a)(1) · Texas Education Agency v. Leeper, 893 S.W.2d 432, 439 (Tex. 1994)3. Cover five educational areas
Required by law.Design the curriculum to meet basic goals in reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, and good citizenship. Those are the five Texas areas, in this order: reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, and good citizenship. Both the list and step 2's curriculum test are Leeper's construction of § 25.086(a)(1). The statute's own words ask only for “a study of good citizenship”. Good citizenship, not science, is the fifth area. Spelling and grammar are two separate areas, not one combined area.
- Reading develops the ability to understand written text. It can include phonics, literature, novels, poetry, and reading across other subjects.
- Spelling covers correct word spelling. It is its own area, separate from grammar, and may stand alone or live inside language arts. A writing course that practices sentences does not teach spelling; spelling needs its own coverage.
- Grammar covers sentence structure and language rules. It may live inside English, writing, or composition.
- Mathematics grows from arithmetic into the courses that fit the child.
- Good citizenship is required, the same as the other four areas. It can include civics, government, history, community responsibility, and service.
Science and a separate history course are not among the five areas the law requires. They remain wise for a complete education and future plans.
Good citizenship: TEC § 25.086(a)(1) · Leeper, 893 S.W.2d at 4394. Texas leaves these choices with your family
Read this once.A parent may direct a bona fide Texas home school with no teaching certificate, license, or degree.
- Start without registering. Texas has no state or district home-school registration.
- Continue without an annual filing. There is no renewal and no yearly form to sign.
- Set your own calendar. Texas fixes no home-school day count, hour count, term, or attendance percentage.
- Choose the curriculum. Texas public-school learning standards, called TEKS, and curriculum approval are not required.
- Choose whether to test. Texas requires no routine standardized test, STAAR test, annual assessment, or home-school graduation exam.
- Choose the instructor. Texas asks for no teaching license, degree, diploma, or GED.
- Keep records privately. No routine attendance log, portfolio, report card, grade report, or test result goes to the state or district.
- Name your school only if useful. Texas requires no school name, seal, accreditation, notary, or state-issued diploma.
Optional programs: dual credit, the $2,000 education savings account, UIL sports, the driver's-licence form, special education
Each has its own rules; none is a duty of homeschooling.
Optional programs can ask for more. School activities, driver's-license enrollment forms, dual credit, education-account benefits, special-education services, and a future school each have separate rules. Two are now in the Education Code. For dual credit, Education Code § 51.9675 (House Bill 3041, 2025, from the fall 2025 semester) requires a college to “apply the same criteria and conditions to each student…including a home school”, so a college applies the same admission criteria to a home-school student as to everyone else. For the education savings account (Senate Bill 2, 2025), TEA's guidance says “If a child is homeschooled, the total amount of funding is limited to $2,000 per school year.” That guidance is a letter about children with disabilities.
School activities. Education Code § 33.0832, as amended by Senate Bill 401 (2025, from the 2025-26 school year): a public school in a University Interscholastic League (UIL) activity “shall provide a non-enrolled student, who otherwise meets league eligibility standards…with the opportunity to participate in the activity on behalf of the school in the same manner” as enrolled students, unless the district's board has adopted a policy declining to. In plain terms: a home-schooled student who meets the league's standards may take part unless the district opted out. A student who leaves a public school midyear cannot play under this section for the rest of that school year (§ 33.0832(i)). The student shows a passing grade in each course by the parent's periodic written verification. To play in the first six weeks, the student must have shown grade-level proficiency on a nationally normed assessment. A score carries over to the next school year (§ 33.0832(f) and (g)).
Driver's license. A home-schooled applicant under 18 uses the same Department of Public Safety (DPS) Verification of Enrollment and Attendance form as everyone else. It covers “public, charter, home, or private” schools under Transportation Code § 521.204, as the form itself cites. The form has one administrator-or-designee line shared by every kind of school. For a home school that person can only be the parent, though the form does not say so in words. The form expires 30 days after it is issued. One issued in the last five days of the school year lasts until the first day of the next school year (DPS form DL-104, the VOE). The parent signs a second time as parent or guardian, and the student signs too.
Special education. TEA's guide for parentally placed private-school children (PDF): child find “extends to children parentally placed in private schools, including home-schooled children.” Education Code § 29.004's evaluation clock (45 school days after written consent) names a student “enrolled in a private or home school setting.” Services after an evaluation come as an equitable-services plan through the district, not an individual entitlement to a full program.
Choosing one of those programs does not turn its rules into duties for every Texas home school.
5. Read the age rule against your child
Required by law.This Texas compliance page does not ask for or use a birth date or enrollment history. It does not decide whether compulsory attendance applies.
The usual rule runs from age six to the nineteenth birthday. The points below are the edges around that range.
Close-call ages
An already-enrolled five-year-old, pre-K and kindergarten enrollment, turning seventeen, emancipation, early graduation. Open if one is yours.
- TEA uses September 1 for the usual starting-age test. It treats a child as part of the age group for the school year if the child is six by that date.
- The statute itself does not name September 1. It says "at least six." Ask TEA or a Texas lawyer before relying on a close or unusual age case.
- Prior first grade starts the rule sooner. A child younger than six is covered after prior first-grade enrollment. For example, a five-year-old with prior first-grade enrollment is covered now. The child does not wait until age six or the next September 1.
- Public pre-K and kindergarten are optional to enter. Once enrolled, attendance is required while the child stays enrolled, even before the usual age six. A four-year-old enrolled in public pre-K falls under that attendance duty while enrolled. A five-year-old enrolled in public kindergarten falls under that same attendance duty while enrolled. Enrollment itself is what creates the duty, not the child's age.
- A kindergarten enrollment is not a one-year lock-in. TEA says a child who was not six on September 1 may still be withdrawn for home schooling. A five-year-old enrolled in kindergarten may be withdrawn. A child who was already enrolled in first grade is a separate case, covered by the bullet above.
- This does not end the age range at 17. The range still ends at the nineteenth birthday. At age seventeen, a separate exemption may apply. The statute names a high-school diploma or a high-school equivalency certificate. It also names a 17-year-old attending a course to prepare for the equivalency exam, under one of four conditions (§ 25.086(a)(5)).
- This changes who signs, not the age rule. At age eighteen, educational rights usually belong to the student. A legally emancipated student also makes the choice. Federal law or a court order can change that.
- Early home-school graduation before seventeen remains unsettled. Do not assume a parent-issued diploma alone ends attendance at that age. Ask a Texas lawyer before stopping instruction based on an early diploma.
A bona fide home school satisfies the private-school exemption while the age rule applies. After the nineteenth birthday, a person is no longer in the usual attendance age range.
Compulsory attendance: TEC § 25.085 · Exemptions: § 25.086 · TEA general FAQ6. Your family controls high schoolPlan for the next door
The family issues the diploma. Texas issues no home-school diploma.
Your family also sets graduation requirements and issues the transcript. Texas sets no home-school credit total.
Build the plan around the student's next goal. A college, employer, military branch, scholarship, or license may ask for particular courses or proof.
Texas public colleges generally apply the same admission standards to a successful home-school graduate. Admission rules and testing still belong to each program.
If a student returns to public school, the district evaluates placement and credit. It may review records, work, curriculum, or assessments.
Before age seventeen, ask a Texas lawyer about attendance law. Do not rely on a parent-issued diploma alone to stop instruction. At age seventeen or older, the statute's diploma or high-school-equivalency exemption may apply.
Your High School planner holds courses, credits, grades, the transcript, and the diploma record.
TEA: graduation and public-school transfer · Age-17 diploma exemption: TEC § 25.086(a)(5) · Public higher education: TEC § 51.9241Questions Texas families ask
Do I have to register or notify anyone to homeschool in Texas?
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How many hours or days are required?
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Is testing required?
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What subjects do I have to teach?
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What records do I have to keep?
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My child is five. Do I do anything?
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Does Texas issue a homeschool diploma?
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What if the school or an attendance officer contacts us?
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How you would know you are meeting these
Texas files nothing, so what carries the weight is the program itself and your own record of it. In Trellis the ordinary work keeps that record as you go:
- The five areas (step 3)
- your subjects lined up against reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, and good citizenship, so a missing area shows
- A real, written-or-on-screen program (step 2)
- the curriculum you import, listed by subject and year, and the calendar of work the children check off
- The withdrawal letter (step 1)
- a private walk-through of whether a letter fits, and a place to record the date you sent one; Trellis sends nothing for you
- High school (step 6)
- courses, credits, and grades that become the transcript and the diploma record your family issues