How to Homeschool in Minnesota

What Minnesota homeschool law requires

The whole list for the 2026–2027 school year, from Minnesota Statutes 120A.22, 120A.24 and 121A.15:

Minnesota Statutes 120A.24: the reports MDE: nonpublic and homeschool (the forms)

How to start homeschooling in Minnesota

1. File the report with your district superintendent by October 1 of the first school year your child is taught at home after turning seven (within 15 days if you withdraw a child after October 1, or move to a new district): each child's name, birth date and address, the name of each instructor, which of the five instructor qualifications you meet (a parent qualifies by having the child tested each year), and the test you intend to use. Immunization statements go with it in the first year and again in grade 7.
2. Withdraw your child from the public school.
3. Teach reading and writing, literature and fine arts, mathematics and science, social studies (history, geography, economics, government and citizenship), and health and physical education. Faith Schooling covers reading, writing, literature and mathematics; you add the rest. No days or hours are set.
4. Keep the documentation at home: class schedules, copies of the materials used, and a description of how you assess your child's work. The free Homeschool Rhythm Builder's printable plan is the class schedule.
5. Give a nationally norm-referenced standardized achievement test each year, in a way agreed with the superintendent. The scores stay with you; a total at or below the 30th percentile, or one grade level behind, means arranging a further evaluation for learning problems.
6. Every later year, by October 1, send a letter of intent to continue, with any changes.

How Faith Schooling covers Minnesota's requirements

Minnesota sets no days or hours. A year of 36 weeks with four or five mornings a week is the common shape, and it is yours to set.

Minnesota asks you to keep copies of the materials used and a description of how you assess your child's work. Faith Schooling's programs are those materials for reading, writing, literature and mathematics: Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency, Grammar Garden and Building Number Sense, each a sequenced textbook with a teaching guide for every grade from Kindergarten to Grade 5, and their dated, finished pages, with the checks printed in each book, are the assessment record. Fine arts, science, social studies, health and physical education are yours to choose.

Minnesota asks for class schedules, copies of the materials used, and a description of how you assess your child's work, 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

Writing

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

Literature

Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency

Mathematics

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

Fine arts, science, social studies (history, geography, economics, government and citizenship), health and physical education

Your choice Faith Schooling does not publish these subjects; choose what fits your family

Bible

The Apostolic Academy not something Minnesota 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 Minnesota homeschoolers

Minnesota's K–12 Education Subtraction and Credit apply to a qualified home school. The subtraction is up to $1,625 per child in kindergarten through grade 6 and $2,500 per child in grades 7 to 12; the credit is limited by income (an adjusted gross income of $81,820 with one or two qualifying children, $84,820 with three, and $3,000 more for each further child).

Expenses must be required as part of a normal school day for subjects usually taught in public school grades K–12. Materials for setting up a home school (desks, whiteboards), books or programs that teach religious beliefs, and fees for instruction by the child's parent, sibling or grandparent do not qualify.

• A qualifying child attends kindergarten through 12th grade at a public, private, or qualified home school; the maximum subtraction is $1,625 for kindergarten through sixth grade and $2,500 for seventh through 12th grade. Source: Minnesota Department of Revenue, K-12 Education Subtraction and Credit, read 9 October 2026.
• For the credit, the maximum adjusted gross income is $81,820 with one or two qualifying children, $84,820 with three, and $87,820 plus $3,000 for each additional child. Source: Minnesota Department of Revenue, K-12 Education Subtraction and Credit, read 9 October 2026.
• Home school expenses must be required as part of a normal school day for subjects usually taught in public school grades K–12; materials used to set up a home school, such as desks or whiteboards, do not qualify, nor do books, materials and fees for a program that teaches religious beliefs, nor fees for instruction provided by the child's sibling, parent or grandparent. Source: Minnesota Department of Revenue, Qualifying Home School Expenses for the K-12 Education Subtraction and Credit (Fact Sheet 8a), read 9 October 2026.

K-12 Education Subtraction and Credit (Minnesota Department of Revenue)

What Minnesota does not require, and you should still do

• Place your child before the first test. Minnesota's yearly test reports a percentile after the fact; HARVEST, the free placement check, tells you at the start where your child stands in reading and math and names the grade and quarter to begin.
• Plan the year. The Homeschool Rhythm Builder turns your week into a printable plan, and that plan is the class schedule Minnesota asks you to keep.
• Keep the pages. The materials and the assessment description are two of the three things the documentation rule names; a dated stack of finished work is the third, and the one a school will want if your child ever returns.

HARVEST free placement Homeschool Rhythm Builder The Apostolic Academy