How to Homeschool in North Carolina

What North Carolina homeschool law requires

The whole list for the 2026–2027 school year, from the Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE) and the General Statutes:

File the Notice of Intent (DNPE portal) DNPE's home school requirements

How to start homeschooling in North Carolina

1. File the Notice of Intent to Operate a Home School online with the Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE), with a school name and proof of the teaching parent's high school diploma or equivalent. It is filed once.
2. Wait for DNPE's email acknowledgment (about three to five business days), then withdraw your child from the public school.
3. Plan nine calendar months of instruction a year on a regular schedule, holidays and vacations excluded; there is no hour count. North Carolina names no subjects, so Faith Schooling's reading, language arts and mathematics programs give the year a sequence and you add the rest. The free Homeschool Rhythm Builder puts the regular schedule on paper.
4. Keep attendance and immunization records for each child at home, shown only if DNPE asks.
5. Choose a nationally standardized achievement test in the autumn and give it once a year, covering at least English grammar, reading, spelling and mathematics; keep the results for a year and submit nothing. There is no passing score.
6. Each year after, update your school's information in the DNPE portal.

How Faith Schooling covers North Carolina's requirements

North Carolina sets no days or hours. North Carolina counts nine calendar months on a regular schedule rather than days or hours; a September-to-May year of four or five mornings a week is the common shape.

The yearly test is the one check North Carolina makes, and it measures exactly what Faith Schooling teaches: English grammar, reading, spelling and mathematics. Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency carries the reading and spelling, Grammar Garden the grammar and writing, and Building Number Sense the mathematics, each a sequenced textbook with a teaching guide, so a year on them is a year of preparation for that test without ever teaching to it.

North Carolina asks for attendance and immunization records for each child, kept at home. The dated, finished pages of each program are that record, and a HARVEST report is a placement note for the file.

English grammar (tested each year)

Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency and Grammar Garden reading in Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency; grammar, writing and composition in Grammar Garden

Reading (tested each year)

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

Spelling (tested each year)

Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency and Grammar Garden spelling patterns are taught with the phonics; grammar and writing in Grammar Garden

Mathematics (tested each year)

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

Science, history, the arts

Your choice North Carolina names no subjects; the yearly test covers only the four above

Bible

The Apostolic Academy not something North Carolina 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 North Carolina homeschoolers

North Carolina's ESA+ program (the Education Student Accounts for children with disabilities, run by the State Education Assistance Authority) lets a family choose a home school as the setting. The program rules require the home school to be registered with the Division of Non-Public Education before funds are disbursed; a home school student is not reimbursed for tuition, and a paid tutor, teacher or therapist may not be a member of the student's household or immediate family. The General Assembly sets the award amounts.

• A participating student will enroll in and attend an Eligible School or a Home School in a grade level no lower than kindergarten for the school year, and will not be enrolled in the assigned North Carolina public school for that semester unless as a part-time student. Source: NCSEAA, Rules Governing the North Carolina Personal Education Student Accounts for Children with Disabilities (ESA+), read 9 October 2026.
• The parent of a participating student who is in a Home School must register that Home School with the Division of Nonpublic Education and be identified as meeting the requirements of Part 3 of Article 39 of Chapter 115C before scholarship funds are disbursed. Source: NCSEAA, Rules Governing the North Carolina Personal Education Student Accounts for Children with Disabilities (ESA+), read 9 October 2026.
• Home School students are not eligible for reimbursement of tuition, and providers of tutoring, teaching services or educational therapies may not be members of the student's immediate family or of the households of the student's Home School. Source: NCSEAA, Rules Governing the North Carolina Personal Education Student Accounts for Children with Disabilities (ESA+), read 9 October 2026.

ESA+ Program (NC State Education Assistance Authority)

What North Carolina does not require, and you should still do

• Place your child before the year begins. North Carolina's test comes at the end; 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 nine months. The Homeschool Rhythm Builder turns your week into a printable plan, so a regular schedule, the law's own words, is on paper.
• Choose the test early. Pick a nationally standardized test in the autumn, not the spring; the law lets you choose, and the dated pages of the year are the record that sits beside the scores.

HARVEST free placement Homeschool Rhythm Builder The Apostolic Academy