How to Homeschool in Indiana

What Indiana homeschool law requires

The whole list for the 2026–2027 school year, from the Indiana Department of Education's reading of Indiana Code 20-33-2:

IDOE's homeschool help sheet IDOE's homeschool questions and answers (PDF)

How to start homeschooling in Indiana

1. Tell the school in writing when you withdraw your child; a high school student's parent signs the school's withdrawal form. A school may not require the Department's enrollment report first; it is voluntary and filed once if you choose.
2. Plan 180 days of instruction in the school year, which runs July 1 to June 30. You decide which days and how long, and days your child spent that year in a public or accredited school count. The free Homeschool Rhythm Builder turns the days into a printable plan.
3. Keep a daily attendance record at home, in any form; it is shown on request to the Secretary of Education or your district superintendent, and nothing is sent to the Department.
4. Choose your materials. The law asks for instruction equivalent to the public schools and exempts a homeschool from their curriculum rules; Faith Schooling's reading, language arts and mathematics programs give the year a sequence, and you add the rest.
5. Keep the pages. The Department recommends good attendance and work records; a dated stack of finished work is what a school will want if your child ever returns.

How Faith Schooling covers Indiana's requirements

Indiana asks for 180 days a year, with no hour count: 36 weeks of five days, or 45 weeks of four.

Indiana asks for days and an attendance record and leaves the subjects to you. Faith Schooling's programs are the shape of those days: a sequenced reading, language arts and mathematics textbook for every grade from Kindergarten to Grade 5 with teaching guides, and their dated, finished pages are the record of continuing educational activity the Department recommends as the best answer to any question. Science, social studies and health are yours to choose.

Indiana asks for a daily attendance record, kept at home. The dated, finished pages of each program are that record, and a HARVEST report is a placement note for the file.

Reading

Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency K–5 reading textbooks in four quarterly volumes a year, with complete teaching guides

Language arts and writing

Grammar Garden K–5 language and writing coursebooks, four a year, with Preceptor Guides

Mathematics

Building Number Sense K–5 mathematics textbooks; Kindergarten to Grade 2 add practice workbooks and teaching guides

Everything else

Your choice Indiana names no subjects; science, social studies, health and the arts are yours to choose

Bible

The Apostolic Academy not something Indiana requires; free: Scripture memory, Bible study and printables for the family

The curriculum map Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency Grammar Garden Building Number Sense HARVEST placement Homeschool Rhythm Builder

Financial assistance for Indiana homeschoolers

Indiana gives a $1,000 income tax deduction for each dependent child who is home schooled or enrolled in a private school in grades K–12 and for whom you paid unreimbursed education expenditures: tuition, fees, computer software, textbooks, workbooks, curricula, school supplies (other than personal computers) and other written materials used primarily for academic instruction or tutoring. The child must be eligible for a free elementary or high school education in an Indiana school corporation and claimed as your dependent; it is claimed on the state return.

• A $1,000 deduction per qualified child for education expenditures paid for each dependent child enrolled in a private school or homeschooled. Source: Indiana Department of Revenue, Deductions, read 9 October 2026.
• Education expenditures include tuition, fees, computer software, textbooks, workbooks, curricula, school supplies (other than personal computers), and other written materials used primarily for academic instruction or for academic tutoring, or both. Source: Indiana Department of Revenue, Income Tax Information Bulletin #107, Unreimbursed Education Expenses Deduction (November 2022), read 9 October 2026.
• The dependent child must be eligible to receive a free elementary or high school education in an Indiana school corporation and qualify as the taxpayer's dependent; the term does not include instruction in a home setting for a child enrolled in a school corporation or charter school, and a husband and wife are entitled to only one deduction. Source: Indiana Department of Revenue, Income Tax Information Bulletin #107, Unreimbursed Education Expenses Deduction (November 2022), read 9 October 2026.

Indiana deductions, Private School/Homeschool Deduction (Department of Revenue)

What Indiana does not require, and you should still do

• Place your child. Indiana tests no homeschooled child; HARVEST, the free placement check, names the grade and quarter to start in reading and math.
• Plan the 180 days. The Homeschool Rhythm Builder turns your week into a printable plan and a daily attendance record, the one record Indiana asks you to keep.
• Keep the pages. Nothing is filed, but a dated stack of finished work is what the Department means by work records, and it is the record a school will want if your child ever returns.

HARVEST free placement Homeschool Rhythm Builder The Apostolic Academy