Homeschool Requirements in Alabama

Alabama asks for very little. Start with the first section: what you file, if anything, and the date it is due. The rest is short. Every claim here is cited at the foot of the page, so you can check it against the code rather than take our word for it.

What you file, and by when

Depends on which of three options you use. (1) Church school (by far the most common homeschool route): enroll the child in a church school and file the church-school enrollment form with the local superintendent. Ala. Code § 16-28-7 puts it this way: “The enrollment and attendance of a child in a church school shall be filed with the local public school superintendent by the parent, guardian, or other person in charge or control of the child on a form provided by the superintendent or his or her agent which shall be countersigned by the administrator of the church school and returned to the public school superintendent by the parent.” The statute does not say how often the form must be filed. In practice most districts treat it as a one-time filing at enrollment, but the form and the practice are local, so ask your own superintendent’s office. (2) Private school: at the end of the fifth day from the opening of the public school, the school’s principal teacher reports to the local superintendent the names and addresses of all children of compulsory attendance age enrolled, and reports after that on new enrollments and on absences that were not excused or explained. (3) Private tutor: before beginning instruction, the Alabama-certified tutor files a statement with the county or city superintendent “showing the child or children to be instructed, the subjects to be taught and the period of time such instruction is proposed to be given.” Enrollment filings all go to the local city or county superintendent, not to the state. Private schools and private tutors, but not church schools, can separately be required to furnish reports to the State Superintendent of Education.

Days or hours

Church school and private school options: no minimum days or hours in statute. Private tutor option only: at least three hours a day for 140 days each calendar year, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. (Ala. Code § 16-28-5).

Meeting those hours and turning them into credits are two different jobs. How to count a high school credit when you never used a textbook.

Subjects you must cover

Church school: none specified in state law; the church school sets its own curriculum and teacher standards, and § 16-28-7 bars the state from regulating it. Private school: no general list of required subjects, but Ala. Code § 16-40-1 requires every public and private school, “except church schools as defined in Section 16-28-1”, to carry out a system of physical education conforming to the program outlined by the Department of Education. Private tutor: must teach “the several branches of study required to be taught in the public schools of this state” and must use the English language in giving instruction. The public-school branches of study requirement applies to private tutors only, not to private schools.

Records you keep

An attendance register must be kept. Ala. Code § 16-28-8 requires the principal teacher of each public school, private school and church school, and each private tutor, to keep an attendance register showing the enrollment and every half-day-or-more absence of each enrolled child. Section 16-28-7 is the reporting section: the principal teacher of a public school, private school or private tutor, but not a church school, reports enrollments and unexcused absences to the local superintendent, and it is also the provision under which a parent files a church school child’s enrollment and attendance with the local public school superintendent. The private tutor must keep a register of the child’s work showing daily hours of instruction and attendance. Church schools set their own additional record policies; most cover-school umbrellas collect attendance and grades.

Those are the pages underneath the transcript rather than the transcript itself. The Records Pack has the attendance and hours log and the portfolio index as editable forms.

Testing or evaluation

None required by the state under any option. No standardized testing, evaluation, or progress reporting. Ala. Code § 16-28-7 closes with a limit worth knowing: the section “may not be interpreted or construed as authorizing the Department of Education, the State Board of Education, or the State Superintendent of Education to license or regulate any private, nonpublic, or church school offering instruction in grades K-12.” Individual church or cover schools may impose their own testing or reporting as a condition of enrollment; those are contractual, not statutory.

Diplomas and transcripts

The high school diploma comes from the church or cover school, or from the parent where the family self-operates as a church school with the church’s authorization. Alabama does not issue or validate homeschool diplomas. Practical point: choose a cover school that will issue a real transcript and diploma if your student needs one for employment, military enlistment, or in-state college admission, because what cover schools provide varies widely. Recent change: the CHOOSE Act (Act 2024-21), codified at Ala. Code § 16-6J-1 et seq., began with the 2025-26 academic year. Under § 16-6J-3(c) the annual credit is $7,000 for a participating student enrolled in a participating school, and $2,000 for a participating student not enrolled in a participating school, with all credits for one parent’s such students capped at $4,000. The 300 percent federal poverty level income test in § 16-6J-3(b)(1) applies for the years beginning January 1, 2025 and January 1, 2026; for years beginning on or after January 1, 2027 the credit is available to any parent of an eligible student. Claiming it means submitting receipts for qualifying educational expenses to the Department of Revenue. Section 16-6J-8 was amended by Act 2025-402, and Act 2026-581 added § 16-6J-10, giving CHOOSE Act participants a cause of action over interscholastic athletic eligibility.

With no state credential standing behind it, the transcript has to hold up on its own. What a college actually does with a homeschool transcript.

Where this comes from

Statute: Ala. Code §§ 16-28-1 (definitions, incl. church school and private tutor), 16-28-3 (compulsory ages 6-17; church school exemption), 16-28-5 (private tutor), 16-28-7 (report of enrollment; church school enrollment filed with the local superintendent), 16-28-8 (attendance register); § 16-40-1 (physical education in public and private, but not church, schools); CHOOSE Act, Ala. Code § 16-6J-1 et seq. (Act 2024-21).

Source: https://law.justia.com/codes/alabama/title-16/chapter-28/article-1/

Last reviewed: July 2026, on the 26th.

Homeschool law changes, and a page like this goes stale without saying so. Before a filing deadline, read the statute above for yourself. If we are behind, we would rather hear it from you than have you find out at the district office.

All fifty states and DC, each with its statute cited.

Filing is one half of it. Keeping the records is the other, and that is what our Records System is for: the editable transcript with the GPA already wired, 131 course descriptions, and this same statute-cited summary for all fifty states and DC. Thirty-nine dollars, one household, however many children you have.