How to Homeschool in Montana

What Montana homeschool law requires

The whole list for the 2026–2027 school year, from the Montana Code Annotated (2025) and the Office of Public Instruction's home school packet:

MCA 20-5-109: home school requirements OPI's home school packet (PDF)

How to start homeschooling in Montana

1. Tell the county superintendent of schools of the county where your home school is, in each school fiscal year (July 1 to June 30), that your child attends it. Most county superintendents have a one-page intent form; some also ask for last year's attendance by September 1.
2. Withdraw your child from the public school.
3. Plan at least the public schools' minimum hours: 720 a year in grades 1 to 3 and 1,080 in grades 4 to 12 (360 for half-day kindergarten, 720 for full-day). You set the days and the calendar; the free Homeschool Rhythm Builder turns your week into a printable plan with an hour count.
4. Build an organized course of study in the subjects the public schools must teach as their basic instructional program, taught in your own residence. Faith Schooling's reading, language arts and mathematics programs give the year a sequence, and you add the rest; the parent is solely responsible for philosophy, materials, curriculum, textbooks, time, place and method.
5. Keep attendance records and show them to the county superintendent on request. No test and no reporting of results: the parent evaluates the instruction.

How Faith Schooling covers Montana's requirements

Montana asks for the public schools' minimum hours: 720 a year in grades 1 to 3, about four hours a day over 36 weeks of five days, and 1,080 in grades 4 to 12, about six (360 for half-day kindergarten, 720 for full-day). You set the days and the calendar.

Montana's statute makes you solely responsible for your home school's philosophy, materials and curriculum, and asks for an organized course of study in the basic subjects. Faith Schooling's programs are that organized course for reading, language arts and mathematics: a sequenced textbook for every grade from Kindergarten to Grade 5 with teaching guides, and the lesson count printed in each book is how 720 or 1,080 hours become a schedule. Science, social studies, health, the arts and practical skills are yours to choose.

Montana asks for attendance records, shown to the county superintendent on request. 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 Montana names no subjects; science, social studies, health and the arts are yours to choose

Bible

The Apostolic Academy not something Montana 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 Montana homeschoolers

Montana's Education Savings Account for students with special needs, run by the Office of Public Instruction, is a reimbursement account for a child identified as a child with a disability under IDEA who was counted for public school funding (ANB) in the previous school year or enrolled in a listed program. The amount follows the ANB formula and varies by district; applications open twice a year, May 1 to June 1 and November 1 to December 1.

• The student is identified as a 'child with a disability' under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. Source: Montana Office of Public Instruction, Education Savings Account, read 9 October 2026.
• The student was counted during the previous school year for purposes of school district ANB funding, or was enrolled during the previous school year in a program listed in subsection (7)(b). Source: Montana Office of Public Instruction, Education Savings Account, read 9 October 2026.
• The amount families receive is determined by the ANB formula and varies slightly from district to district; applications are available twice a year, May 1 to June 1 and November 1 to December 1. Source: Montana Office of Public Instruction, Education Savings Account, read 9 October 2026.

Education Savings Account (Montana Office of Public Instruction)

What Montana does not require, and you should still do

• Place your child. Montana tests no homeschooled child, and the evaluation is yours to make; HARVEST, the free placement check, names the grade and quarter to start in reading and math.
• Plan the hours. The Homeschool Rhythm Builder turns your week into a printable plan with an hour count and an attendance record, the one record Montana asks you to keep.
• Keep the pages. The parent evaluates the instruction, the law says; a dated stack of finished work is the evaluation written down, and the record a school will want if your child ever returns.

HARVEST free placement Homeschool Rhythm Builder The Apostolic Academy