You must submit a notice of intent to operate a homeschool to the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE). Submitting this notice is only required once, when you are establishing a new homeschool. Your notice must contain the name and address of your homeschool and the name of your homeschool’s owner and chief administrator. We recommend that you log into your homeschool account on the DNPE website once annually to ensure that your school is still active.

The persons who provide academic instruction in your homeschool must have at least a high school diploma or its equivalent.

Your homeschool must operate on a regular schedule for at least nine calendar months each year, except for “reasonable holidays and vacations.”

You can download a homeschool attendance form from the DNPE’s website, although the use of this form is not mandatory. Immunization records can be obtained from your child’s health care provider. Information about medical and religious exemptions from immunizations is available on the website of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

At least once during every school year, you must test your child using a nationally standardized test or other nationally standardized equivalent measurement. The test you choose must measure achievement in the areas of English grammar, reading, spelling, and mathematics. For one year after the testing, your child’s test scores must be kept “available” at the principal office of your homeschool at all reasonable hours for annual inspection by a duly authorized representative of the state of North Carolina. Although the DNPE has attempted to perform home visits under this provision, the law gives its officials no right to enter homes or to inspect any records besides test scores. There is also no statutory requirement for parents to attend record review meetings arranged by the Division of Non-Public Education for the purpose of reviewing their records.