State guide
Homeschooling in North Carolina: notice, records and the annual test
North Carolina is a records state. You file once to open the school, wait for written acknowledgment, then keep attendance, immunization and test records at home. This page states each requirement and maps Faith Schooling against the four subjects the annual test must measure.
Checked 31 August 2026
What does North Carolina require to homeschool?
North Carolina requires you to hold at least a high school diploma or its equivalent, send the Division of Non-Public Education a Notice of Intent to Operate a Home School, conduct instruction on a regular schedule for at least nine calendar months a year, keep attendance and immunization records, and have a nationally standardized achievement test administered to each student every year.
Home schools here are administered by the Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE), which sits within the Department of Administration rather than the Department of Public Instruction. The distinction matters when you are looking for the right office. State law defines a home school as a non-public school of the children of not more than two families or households, in which the parents or guardians determine the scope and sequence of the academic instruction.
| Requirement | What it means | Governing authority |
|---|---|---|
| Notice of Intent | Send DNPE a Notice of Intent to Operate a Home School. Choose an academic school name; a notice submitted without one is assigned a name from the chief administrator's surname. Include diploma documentation for every person named as a provider of academic instruction. | G.S. 115C-563(a); NC Division of Non-Public Education |
| Wait for acknowledgment | DNPE states: do not withdraw your child from his or her present school, or begin your school, until you have received written acknowledgment that your completed Notice of Intent has been received. | NC Division of Non-Public Education |
| Instructor qualification | The chief administrator and all instructors must hold at least a high school diploma or its equivalent. Proof of military or college enrollment or completion will suffice. | NC Division of Non-Public Education |
| Nine calendar months | Conduct instruction on a regular schedule for at least nine calendar months of the year, excluding holidays and vacations. | NC Division of Non-Public Education |
| Records kept at the school | Annual attendance records and disease immunization records for each enrolled student. | NC Division of Non-Public Education |
| Annual standardized test | A nationally standardized achievement test administered during each academic year to each student, measuring at least English grammar, reading, spelling and mathematics. The first test falls within the academic year of the school's start date, and annually thereafter. | NC Division of Non-Public Education |
| Test records | Results are retained at the home school for at least one year and made available to DNPE when requested; for one year after testing, records are available at the school's principal office for annual inspection by an authorized state representative. | NC Division of Non-Public Education; G.S. 115C-174.13 |
| Annual update | Update your home school information and enrollment annually with DNPE. A new Notice of Intent is not sent each year unless the school was previously terminated and is reopening. | NC Division of Non-Public Education |
| Not required | No curriculum approval, no prescribed curriculum, no hour count, no teaching license, no submission of test results. | NC Division of Non-Public Education |
Do not withdraw your child until DNPE writes back
This is the single most practical point on the page, and it is easy to miss. DNPE states directly that you should not withdraw your child from his or her present school, or begin your own school, until you have received written acknowledgment that your completed Notice of Intent has been received. Withdrawing first leaves a gap that the previous school records as absence.
Two related details from the same guidance: include diploma documentation — an official high school or GED transcript, or a college transcript certifying graduation — for everyone who will provide academic instruction; and do not send a Notice of Intent if the school will operate only during the summer months, or if the student is living outside North Carolina, where the state has no authority.
The test is the shape of the year
North Carolina publishes no required subject list of the kind Wisconsin and Ohio have. DNPE says home school families are not required to follow any prescribed curriculum. What the state does publish is a tested list: the annual nationally standardized achievement test must measure English grammar, reading, spelling and mathematics. That list quietly defines what a North Carolina home school is expected to be teaching, and it is the sensible frame for planning.
You choose the qualifying test and arrange for it. Results stay at the home school for at least a year and are made available to DNPE when requested. DNPE is authorized to annually inspect attendance and test result records, and says chief administrators should anticipate a request to meet virtually with a DNPE representative while the school is in operation — which may involve emailing documents or a video call. Treat the test as an honest annual read on whether the year worked.
How Faith Schooling maps to the four tested subjects
Faith Schooling covers all four tested subjects, which is a closer fit than in states with a broad statutory subject list, because North Carolina's tested list happens to be the reading, language arts and mathematics core.
It is not the whole of a good education, and this page will not pretend otherwise. Science, history and social studies are not tested in North Carolina and are not published by Faith Schooling — its own curriculum map says the publisher does not currently publish science or history programs. Most families teach them anyway. Plan them deliberately rather than by default.
| Tested subject | Faith Schooling material | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | Phonics, Decoding and Early Fluency — six full-year student texts (8,952 student pages) with teaching guides; 300 decodable readers, fifty per grade; Foundations to Fluency, 96 workbooks arranged by pattern | Covered |
| English grammar | The reading and language arts sequence, which the publisher describes as complete for language arts; the Grammar Garden browser game; language arts sets in the practice library | Covered — there is no standalone grammar textbook |
| Spelling | Phonics Lab encoding-and-decoding worksheets with answer keys; the weekly check day of each lesson set; spelling and word-work sets in the practice library | Covered |
| Mathematics | Building Number Sense — a student text for every grade K–5, with practice workbooks and teaching guides for Kindergarten through Grade 2 today; the Faith Thinkers math practice library underneath it | Sequenced and growing — each grade page lists exactly what exists now |
| Science, history, social studies, health | None published | Not tested in North Carolina, and not published here — you supply these |
Nine calendar months, and the attendance record that proves it
North Carolina counts months on a regular schedule rather than hours, excluding holidays and vacations. That is close to a conventional school year and is not a demanding standard, but it is one you have to be able to evidence, because annual attendance records are a named requirement and DNPE may ask to inspect them.
A dated attendance record is the simplest compliance artifact in the state. The Faith Readers structure lines up neatly with it: 35 weeks per grade, five daily lessons a week — Introduce, Reader, Handwriting, Apply, Check — with 210 weekly sets across K–5, each week's lessons published at 10 to 15 minutes a day. A finished week is a documented week. Keep the completed pages beside the attendance log and the year documents itself.
What happens if the requirements are not met
DNPE states that if a home school does not meet all its legal requirements, it will notify the local public school superintendent that the North Carolina compulsory school attendance law is not being satisfied, and the superintendent will then take appropriate action.
That is the practical reason to keep the four records — attendance, immunization, test results and your DNPE acknowledgment — in one place from the first week. None of them takes long to maintain while the year is running, and none of them can be reconstructed convincingly afterwards.
North Carolina associations and co-ops
North Carolinians for Home Education (NCHE) is the statewide organization. It tracks the law, publishes filing guidance, and holds Thrive!, its annual conference, with workshops and a vendor hall. Check NCHE for the current year's dates and venue rather than a date read elsewhere.
Christian co-ops in North Carolina range from church-hosted enrichment mornings to graded academic co-ops with teachers and tuition, alongside homeschool sports leagues and fine arts programs. Ask each group about its statement of faith, its cost and its weekly commitment before enrolling. Where a group is not listed in a directory, ask locally — many have no web presence at all.
Field study across three regions
North Carolina gives you coast, Piedmont and mountains inside one state, which covers most of the science and history you are supplying yourself.
Categories worth building a year around: coastal and maritime study on the Outer Banks, including early flight at Kill Devil Hills; Atlantic marine science and estuaries; Appalachian ecology and geology along the Blue Ridge; textile, furniture and tobacco industrial heritage across the Piedmont; state government at the Capitol and legislature in Raleigh; colonial and Revolutionary-era sites; and agricultural science on working farms. Write the visits up and file the work with the year's records.
Before you rely on this page
This is a plain-language summary written to help you plan. It is not legal advice. The North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education and Article 39 of Chapter 115C of the General Statutes are the final word, and requirements change; confirm anything that matters directly with DNPE before you file.
Faith Schooling is a Christian K–5 curriculum publisher, not a school, and is not accredited. Its material is sold as one household All Access membership — $39 a month, or $299 for a founding first year and $349 a year after that — covering every child and every grade where the material exists.
Common questions
- Do I file the North Carolina Notice of Intent every year?
- No. The Notice of Intent to Operate a Home School is sent to the Division of Non-Public Education to open the school, and DNPE says not to send another unless the school was previously terminated and is reopening. What continues each year is updating your school information and enrollment with DNPE, and keeping attendance, immunization and annual test records at the home school.
- Which test does North Carolina require, and do I send in the results?
- A nationally standardized achievement test measuring at least English grammar, reading, spelling and mathematics, administered during each academic year to each enrolled student, beginning within the academic year of your school's start date. You choose the qualifying test. Results are retained at the home school for at least one year and made available to DNPE when requested, rather than submitted routinely.
- What qualifications does the teaching parent need?
- The chief administrator and all instructors must hold at least a high school diploma or its equivalent, and DNPE says proof of military or college enrollment or completion will suffice. Diploma documentation is included with the Notice of Intent for everyone named as a provider of academic instruction. No college degree, teaching license or subject certification is required.
- Does Faith Schooling cover the subjects North Carolina tests?
- It covers all four. Reading, spelling and mathematics are covered through Phonics, Decoding and Early Fluency, Phonics Lab and Building Number Sense; English grammar sits inside the reading and language arts sequence, the Grammar Garden game and the language arts practice sets, with no standalone grammar textbook. Science, history and social studies are neither tested in North Carolina nor published here.
- What does "nine calendar months on a regular schedule" mean?
- North Carolina counts months, not hours. DNPE states that a home school conducts instruction on a regular schedule for at least nine calendar months of the year, excluding holidays and vacations. There is no minimum hour count and no required daily length. Because annual attendance records are separately required and may be inspected, keep a dated log as you go.
Sources
- NC Division of Non-Public Education — home school requirements and recommendations — checked 2026-08-31
- NC Division of Non-Public Education — file a Notice of Intent to operate a home school — checked 2026-08-31
- North Carolinians for Home Education (NCHE) — Thrive! conference information — checked 2026-08-31