Regulation Categories
All Regulation Categories Entries
Equivalency Requirement
An equivalency requirement is a state law provision requiring homeschool education to be "equivalent" or "substantially equivalent" to public school instruction—though what this actually means varies dramatically and is often left deliberately vague.
High-Regulation State
High-regulation states require homeschool families to meet multiple compliance layers beyond basic notification—including curriculum approval, standardized testing, professional evaluations, and detailed record-keeping. New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island have the strictest requirements.
Low-Regulation State
Low-regulation states require minimal or no government oversight for homeschooling—typically just notification or nothing at all—with no mandatory testing, curriculum approval, or teacher certification requirements for parents.
Moderate-Regulation State
A moderate-regulation state requires homeschooling parents to submit notification to authorities plus test scores and/or professional evaluations of student progress, representing a middle ground between minimal and extensive oversight.
No-Notice State
No-notice states are the 11 U.S. states where homeschooling families have no legal requirement to notify any government agency, school district, or official that they are educating their children at home.
Notification-Only State
A notification-only state requires parents to submit formal notice that they intend to homeschool but imposes few or no additional requirements like testing, curriculum approval, or assessments.