Virginia Homeschool Laws

Homeschooling Laws, Information, and Resources for Virginia

If you’re living in Virginia and are looking into homeschooling, you’re in the right place! This page provides the resources and information you need to determine whether homeschooling in the Old Dominion State.

Summary of Virginia Homeschool Laws

Knowing the requirements for homeschooling in Virginia is one key to successful homeschooling. Below is a summary of the homeschool laws in the state of Virginia. You can find additional information on Virgina Homeschooling at Home School Legal Defense Association’s (HSLDA) website.

Homeschool Options in Virginia

Virginia State Law Homeschool Summary

Homeschooling under the home instruction option.

Ensure that you possess one of four home instructor qualifications:
- High school diploma or higher degree
- Current Virginia teacher’s license,
- Provide your child with a curriculum or program of study as part of your home instruction program
- Offer evidence that you are able to provide your child an adequate education
File annual notice with your school superintendent that you intend to provide home instruction to your child and indicate your home instructor qualification. With the notice, you need to provide a curriculum description for each child. This needs to be done every year by August 15. You do not need the superintendent’s approval to start homeschooling—you just need to file your notice.
Provide an annual evaluation by August 1 to your superintendent showing that your child has achieved an adequate level of educational growth and progress. (This does not apply if your child was 5 or younger on September 30 at the start of the school year.)

There are four types of evaluations you can submit:

Results of any nationally normed standardized achievement test showing the child attained “a composite score in or above the fourth stanine” (i.e., 23rd percentile)—for example, an ACT, SAT, or PSAT score
An evaluation letter from a person licensed to teach in any state, or a person with a master’s degree or higher in an academic discipline, who knows about the child’s academic progress, stating that the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress
A report card or transcript from a community college or college, college distance learning program, or home-education correspondence school
Another type of “evaluation or assessment which the division superintendent determines to indicate that the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress.”(If you plan to submit this type of assessment, you should discuss this with the school system early in the school year.)

Homeschooling with a religious exemption.

Under Virginia law, your school board must excuse your child from school if the child, “together with his parents, by reason of bona fide religious training or belief is conscientiously opposed to attendance at school.” To homeschool under this option, you must follow these requirements:

Send a religious exemption application letter to your school board, in which you:
- State up front that you are asking the school board to excuse your child based on Virginia’s religious exemption statute
- Explain how your beliefs lead you to the conviction that putting your child in public school would be wrong in the eyes of God
- State that you are training your child in the same beliefs that you hold
- According to the HSLDA, your application letter should not discuss philosophical, moral, political, or social issues, because the law says that those cannot be grounds for receiving an exemption. Mail your application letter to your school board as soon as possible, and keep a copy of the application letter for your records. The school board may ask you to forward letters from people who will confirm that you are sincere in your beliefs and may also ask for a letter from a pastor, priest, etc., to confirm that your beliefs are of a religious nature.
Obtain a reply to your religious exemption letter. As long as you have your application letter on file, you can proceed to homeschool with reasonable confidence—even though technically your child is not excused until the board acts on your letter. Once your child is excused, he or she does not need to attend public school (or follow the requirements for any of the other homeschool options).
Exempt any additional children. Depending on how your exemption letter was worded, additional children may or may not be exempted.
If needed, reapply next year.

Homeschooling with a certified tutor.

A person with a current Virginia teacher license can ask the school superintendent to approve them as a tutor. Once approved, the person can tutor any children they want—including their own. If a child is being taught under such a tutor, the child is in compliance with compulsory attendance. When you ask to be approved as a tutor, you should not list the children you plan to tutor. It is not required and not relevant. Do not mention homeschooling or home instruction, as this will only cause confusion that could take much effort to straighten out.

Homeschooling under the private school option.

Virginia law allows private school students to attend their school without physically being present at the school if the student’s attendance is for the same number of hours per day, for the same number of days per year, and during the same period of the year as public schools. If a private school student receives instruction while at home, it will resemble homeschooling in many ways.

Virginia State Education Resources

Virginia Homeschooling Support Groups

Top Virginia Homeschooling Field Trip Ideas

One of the many benefits of homeschooling is the flexibility to explore! Here are some ideas for amazing–and educational–field trips around the great state of Virginia!