Homeschool Requirements in West Virginia

West Virginia asks for a few specific things. A handful of real requirements. None of them hard on their own. The dates are the part that catches people, so put them in a calendar the week you start. Here is the whole list.

What you file, and by when

Two routes, both inside W. Va. Code § 18-8-1(c). Option 1, § 18-8-1(c)(1), is county board approval: the board approves the place of instruction and the instructor, instruction runs for a time equal to the public school instructional term, and the board may require attendance and progress records on request. It is rarely used. Option 2, § 18-8-1(c)(2), is the standard route. Present a written notice of intent to the county superintendent or county board upon commencing home instruction; if the child is enrolled in a public school, the notice must be given on or before the date home instruction is to begin. There is no two-week advance deadline in current law. The notice must include the name, address, and age of any child of compulsory school age to be instructed, an assurance that the child will receive instruction in reading, language, mathematics, science, and social studies, and an assurance that the child will be assessed annually. Separately, the person providing instruction submits satisfactory evidence of a high school diploma or equivalent, or a post-secondary degree or certificate from a regionally accredited institution or from a West Virginia institution authorized to confer one. It is a one-time filing per county, not annual. Notify the superintendent when home instruction ends, and on moving to a new county, notify the previous superintendent and file a fresh notice in the new one. The superintendent may ask a circuit court to deny home instruction, but only on clear and convincing evidence of educational neglect or other compelling reasons.

Days or hours

No minimum days or hours under the notice of intent route, § 18-8-1(c)(2). Under the county board approval route, § 18-8-1(c)(1), instruction must run “for a time equal to the instructional term” set by § 18-5-45, which is 180 separate instructional days or an equivalent amount of instructional time. Almost every family uses the notice route, so the 180 days does not reach them.

Subjects you must cover

Reading, language, mathematics, science, and social studies. The notice of intent must include an assurance that the child will receive instruction in those five subjects. The statute prescribes no scope and sequence beyond that.

Records you keep

Keep copies of each child’s academic assessment for three years. If an annual assessment does not show acceptable progress, the person providing instruction must start a remedial program. If the child does not reach acceptable progress for a second consecutive year, submit additional evidence to the county superintendent that appropriate instruction is being provided. Nothing in the statute revokes the exemption for low scores. If you use the portfolio option, keep the portfolio of the child’s work. On request the county board will tell you in writing what services are available to help assess whether your child is eligible for special education, and identifying a disability does not end your ability to home school.

Testing or evaluation

An annual academic assessment is required, but results go to the county superintendent only for grades 3, 5, 8, and 11, by June 30 of the year the assessment was administered. Four options under § 18-8-1(c)(2)(C): (1) a nationally normed standardized achievement test in reading, language, mathematics, science, and social studies, published or normed not more than 10 years from the date of administration and administered by a person qualified under the test publisher’s guidelines, where acceptable progress means the mean of the child’s results is within or above the fourth stanine, or, if below the fourth stanine, shows improvement from the previous year’s results; (2) the testing program currently in use in the state’s public schools, administered at a public school in the county of residence; (3) review of a portfolio of samples of the child’s work by a certified teacher, who writes a narrative on progress in the five subject areas and notes any areas needing improvement or remediation; or (4) an alternative academic assessment of proficiency mutually agreed upon by the parent and the county superintendent. The fourth stanine sits roughly in the 23rd to 40th percentile band, so it is a lower bar than the 50th percentile figure that circulates in secondary sources.

What a test result or an evaluator gets attached to is the folder underneath the transcript. The Records Pack has the portfolio index with its evaluator summary as an editable form.

Diplomas and transcripts

The state issues no diploma or credits; parents issue the diploma and prepare the transcript. The grade 11 assessment submission is the last reporting point the statute requires. A West Virginia public school must accept a transcript or other credential from a homeschool, microschool, or Hope Scholarship program and place a transferring student at the developmentally and academically appropriate grade level (§ 18-8-1a). Two adjacent programs to know. The Hope Scholarship ESA (W. Va. Code § 18-31-1 et seq.) reached universal eligibility for the 2026-27 school year at $5,435.62 per student, paid in four quarterly installments. Hope families file a notice of intent to participate in the Hope Scholarship Program with the county superintendent under § 18-8-1(m) instead of the standard home instruction notice, and Hope’s own assessment and reporting rules apply, which are not the same as § 18-8-1(c). Microschools and learning pods sit in § 18-8-1(n), added by 2022 S.B. 268. They follow the same notice, instructor-credential, and annual assessment rules as home instruction and are otherwise exempt from laws relating to education, except that a pod or microschool serving a student who requires special education instruction must comply with § 18-20-11. The statute says outright that this does not make a learning pod or microschool the same as homeschooling.

A diploma you signed yourself gets read against the transcript behind it. What a college actually does with a homeschool transcript.

Where this comes from

Statute: W. Va. Code § 18-8-1(c)(1)-(c)(2) (home instruction exemptions); § 18-8-1(m) (Hope Scholarship exemption); § 18-8-1(n) (learning pods and microschools, added 2022 S.B. 268); § 18-8-1a (compulsory attendance; placement of transferring students); § 18-5-45 (180-day instructional term); § 18-31-1 et seq. (Hope Scholarship)

Source: https://code.wvlegislature.gov/18-8-1/

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.