Homeschool Requirements in Connecticut

Connecticut 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

Nothing is legally required through the 2026-27 school year. C.G.S. § 10-184 only requires that a child be “elsewhere receiving equivalent instruction in the studies taught in the public schools.” The Notice of Intent and the annual portfolio review in the State Board’s Circular Letter C-14 are policy, not statute. C-14 describes its own purpose as “to provide local boards of education with suggestions concerning procedures”, and the Connecticut General Assembly’s Office of Legislative Research says the procedure “is suggested rather than mandatory”. Current State Department of Education guidance calls notification a best practice and tells parents to ask their district how it prefers to receive it. Filing within ten days of starting, which is a C-14 item rather than a legal deadline, does create a helpful record. Be ready for pushback: some district letters and an older Department memo use the word “must” about the Notice of Intent, and C-14 itself says continued refusal to file it or to take part in an annual portfolio review “may cause the child to be considered truant.” The statute does not say that. A change is coming. Public Act 26-37 (HB 5468), signed May 26, 2026, imposes Connecticut’s first statutory homeschool requirements and rewrites § 10-184 around a new defined term, “parent-managed learning”. Beginning with the school year commencing July 1, 2027, a parent withdrawing a child from public school for parent-managed learning must personally appear at the school district office and sign a withdrawal form, and within two business days the superintendent must have the Department of Children and Families run a records check on every person who resides with the child and is 18 or older. If that check finds any such person on the state child abuse and neglect registry or currently under investigation for an allegation of abuse or neglect, the withdrawal is not effective. Beginning with the school year commencing July 1, 2028, on or before October 1 each year a parent must complete an “intent to educate form” stating whether the child will be enrolled in a public school, attending a nonpublic school, or instructed through parent-managed learning, submitted to the school district office for the town of residence. Attending public school, or a nonpublic school’s own § 10-188 attendance filing, counts as compliance, so in practice the form falls on parent-managed learning families. Per-section effective dates, from the enrolled act: sections 2 (the Department must develop both forms by July 1, 2027), 3 (the § 10-188 amendment) and 5 (the child-protection disclosure provision) took effect July 1, 2026 and are already law; section 1, the rewritten § 10-184, and section 4 take effect July 1, 2027. The Department’s own Circular Letter C-1 for 2026-27 adds that a district with no form on file by November 1 must make at least three attempts to contact the parent and then report the family to the Department.

Nothing to file is not the same as nothing to know, and the group of states in that position is smaller than the forums suggest. How to read your own state code in about ten minutes.

Days or hours

None specified for homeschoolers. No statutory day or hour minimum.

Subjects you must cover

C.G.S. § 10-184 itself names the subjects: all parents shall instruct their children or cause them to be instructed “in reading, writing, spelling, English grammar, geography, arithmetic and United States history and in citizenship, including a study of the town, state and federal governments.” That list survives verbatim in the rewritten § 10-184(b) under PA 26-37. The same section adds that a child taught outside public school must be “elsewhere receiving equivalent instruction in the studies taught in the public schools”, language the 2027 rewrite drops in favour of naming parent-managed learning as an express option. The much longer public school program of instruction in § 10-16b is not a homeschool checklist. There is no reporting mechanism to verify any of it. The district-side duty is § 10-220(a), which requires each board to cause resident children to attend school in accordance with § 10-184.

Records you keep

No statutory requirement. Circular Letter C-14 contemplates “an annual portfolio review … with the parents and school officials”, inside a document C-14 itself labels suggested procedures. Current Department guidance lists as best practice keeping a log of attendance reflecting days and hours of instruction, and maintaining a portfolio for each child containing samples of activities, assignments, projects and assessments. Keeping records is sensible to show “equivalent instruction” if ever challenged. PA 26-37 adds no portfolio or evaluation mandate; its only new duties are the intent to educate form, the withdrawal form, the DCF records check, and a headcount added to the § 10-10a data reporting.

Nothing goes to a district, so the only account of the four years is the one you write. Writing the counselor letter when the counselor is you.

Testing or evaluation

None required. No standardized testing, no mandated evaluator. The annual portfolio review with district officials is voluntary policy and parents may decline it. PA 26-37 did not add testing or evaluation.

Diplomas and transcripts

No state-recognized homeschool diploma and no state-mandated high school credits. Parents write their own transcript and issue their own diploma. Be clear-eyed about what the state will and will not do: the Department of Education does not accredit homeschools and does not recognize credits or credentials earned through them, and its published position is that the route to an official Connecticut high school diploma for a homeschooled student is to pass the GED test. Whether a college, employer, or licensing body accepts a parent-issued diploma is up to that institution, so ask before you need the answer. A local school district is not required to award graduation credit for work completed while homeschooling in grades 9 through 12 (C.G.S. § 10-221a). Families graduating students during the PA 26-37 phase-in should note that the new annual intent to educate form reaches a child who is five or over and under eighteen and not a high school graduate, starting with the 2028-29 school year. No ESA or voucher program for homeschoolers.

If the transcript is the piece you are missing, it is free on its own: The Transcript Template, with the weighted and unweighted GPA already wired.

Where this comes from

Statute: C.G.S. § 10-184 (duty of parents; required subjects; compulsory attendance), as repealed and re-enacted by Conn. Public Act 26-37, § 1 (eff. July 1, 2027); § 10-188 (nonpublic school attendance reports), as amended by PA 26-37, § 3 (eff. July 1, 2026); § 10-220(a) (district duty); § 10-221a (graduation credit); Conn. Public Act 26-37 (HB 5468) (2026).

Source: https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_168.htm

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.