Homeschool Laws by State
Homeschooling is lawful in all fifty states. Although the United States Supreme Court has never ruled on homeschooling specifically, there is ample case-law that supports homeschooling in all 50 states. In the case of Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court supported the rights of Amish parents to keep their children out of public schools for religious reasons. Additionally, the Court has ruled that parents have a fundamental right to "establish a home and bring up children" along with the right to "worship God according to the dictates of [their] own conscience". This combination of rights is the basis for calling homeschooling a fundamental right under the Supreme Court's concept of liberty protected by the Due Process Clause. For this reason, any laws that restrict fundamental rights are subject to very strict scrutinity, the highest standard, and the assumption that any law that curtails individual rights must do so because any other alternative would cause great harm and would not be in the overall interest to the rest of society.
The final two sentences from the Supreme Court's opinion in Runyon v. McCrary, cited Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, 268 U.S. 510 (1925) and provided further guidance. The Court held that a State may set educational standards but it may not limit how parents choose to meet those educational standards. Almost all states have passed some form of legislation or regulations affirming the rights of parents to homeschool their children and in some cases, providing guidelines as to how homeschool should be conducted to meet the education standards of that particular state. Click on your particular state below, to learn more about the specific rules and regulations governing homeschooling in your state, graduation requirements for high school homeschoolers, record-keeping, the Notice of Intent to homeschool process (if required), and other important information you must know: