Homeschool Requirements in Delaware

Delaware 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

Register the homeschool with the Delaware Department of Education and file two annual reports through the DDOE online homeschool portal. 14 Del. C. § 2704 sets both: “(a) All persons conducting nonpublic schools shall report end of the year attendance information to the Department of Education annually, on or before the July 31 … (b) Such persons shall also submit annually, no later than September 30, a statement of pupil enrollment.” Note on the deadline: the enrollment report is due no later than September 30. Two Department pages still print an October 5 date; that was superseded by a 2023 amendment and should not be relied on. DDOE states the requirement plainly: if you plan to homeschool in Delaware you must open a nonpublic school with the Department and enroll your children. One useful exemption, in DDOE’s own words: you do not have to open a homeschool with DDOE if your child is 16 or older, though the Department encourages it. Three types are recognized in 14 Del. C. § 2703A: single-family, multi-family (where one person acts as liaison to the Department for reporting enrollment and attendance for all families involved), and single-family coordinated with the local school district, where the local superintendent approves the curriculum and determines in writing that the student is or will be provided with regular and thorough instruction. The Department’s own materials describe only the first two, so the district-coordinated option runs through your local superintendent rather than the Department’s registration process.

Days or hours

No minimum, and the Department is not coy about it. 14 Del. C. § 2703A contains no day or hour count, and DDOE’s FAQ says the Department does not require a specific number of days for nonpublic schools to be open during a school year and does not collect attendance information throughout the year. DDOE adds that many nonpublic schools model their year on the public schools, starting in September and staying open for 180 school days, “however, this is not a requirement and up to each individual nonpublic school.” Treat 180 days as a common choice rather than a mandate.

Subjects you must cover

None for single-family and multi-family homeschools. Only the district-coordinated option under 14 Del. C. § 2703A(b)(3) requires “regular and thorough instruction … in the subjects prescribed for the public schools of the State”, and there the local superintendent approves the curriculum in writing. Separately, 14 Del. C. § 4103 requires regular courses of instruction in the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution and government of Delaware, and the free enterprise system, beginning no later than the opening of the eighth grade, “in all public and private schools located within this State”. Whether that section reaches a single-family homeschool has never been settled: § 4103 says “private schools”, chapter 27 says “nonpublic schools”, and § 2703A(a) deems a homeschool a nonpublic school. Nothing turns on it in practice, because the Department reviews no homeschool curriculum from anyone.

Records you keep

No statutory recordkeeping list beyond the data needed for the enrollment and attendance reports. What DDOE actually collects is average daily membership and average daily attendance during the annual attendance reporting window. DDOE keeps nothing else: its FAQ says the Department does not retain any academic records for any nonpublic school, open or closed, and strongly encourages every nonpublic school to maintain and retain a portfolio and records for its students. Keep attendance records to support the July 31 filing, and keep a transcript because nobody else will.

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. Delaware requires no standardized testing or evaluation of homeschooled students, and DDOE states it does not administer or provide state assessments to nonpublic school students.

Diplomas and transcripts

Delaware does not issue diplomas to homeschoolers and does not accredit homeschools. DDOE says the diploma will be issued by and come from the nonpublic school, that the Department does not validate any type of credential provided by those schools, and that families may wish to ask a college, training program, licensing entity or employer whether it will accept the diploma from the homeschool under consideration. Do that before you need the answer. No state credit or course requirements apply to single-family or multi-family homeschools, so keep a detailed four-year transcript with credits and grades. One trap with real money attached, in DDOE’s own words: while students of a certain age are not required to be enrolled in homeschools, students do need to be registered in a public or non-public school at the time of graduation to take advantage of state programs like the SEED and INSPIRE scholarships. Closing the homeschool before graduation can cost a Delaware student those awards.

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.

The transcript that has to carry all of this is free on its own: The Transcript Template, with the weighted and unweighted GPA already wired.

Where this comes from

Statute: 14 Del. C. § 2702 (compulsory attendance, ages 5-16); § 2703 (exemption for home-schooled students); § 2703A (homeschools defined, three types); § 2704 (nonpublic school reporting: attendance on or before July 31, enrollment no later than September 30); § 4103 (United States and Delaware Constitutions and free enterprise, public and private schools, from eighth grade).

Source: https://delcode.delaware.gov/title14/c027/sc01/

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.