Every homeschool Facebook group has someone insisting you need a portfolio, a standardized test, and a notarized letter of intent. Half of that might be true where you live. The other half is what somebody's state required, three states away, and it got repeated as universal advice. The actual answer is boring and specific: it depends entirely on where you're registered, and most families over-build their plan trying to satisfy a rule that doesn't apply to them.
What's usually actually required
Requirements vary a lot, but most states fall into one of a few patterns:
- Notice only. A letter of intent filed once a year, sometimes just once ever. No testing, no portfolio, no approval needed. Several states work this way, and families here often still build elaborate compliance binders out of habit or anxiety.
- Notice plus some form of assessment. An annual standardized test, a portfolio review, or a certified teacher's evaluation, one of these, not all three, and usually the family picks which option from a short list.
- Notice plus attendance and subject requirements. A minimum number of instructional days and a short list of required subjects (often just the basics: reading, math, and a civics or history component), with no test or portfolio at all.
- Umbrella school or district oversight. In some places you don't file with the state directly, you enroll under an umbrella school or a district homeschool program that handles the paperwork, and their specific requirements can be stricter or looser than the state minimum.
The point isn't to memorize categories, it's this: your state has one specific set of rules, and everything else you read online is somebody else's rules.
The 20-minute version of finding out
1. Search your state's department of education site directly for "homeschool requirements," not a general search engine result, the .gov page is the actual source, blog posts summarizing it are sometimes years out of date.
2. Note exactly three things: what you file, when you file it, and what (if anything) proves the year happened, test, portfolio, or nothing.
3. Check whether your district or an umbrella program adds anything beyond the state minimum, this is the step families skip and then get an unpleasant surprise about in year two.
4. Put the actual deadline on your calendar now, not "sometime in fall." A specific date beats "before it's due."
What's optional, even if it feels required
A weekly folder of worksheets isn't required in most states, even where a portfolio is. What most portfolio reviews actually want is evidence of instruction across your required subjects, samples of work, not a comprehensive daily record. Standardized curriculum from a specific publisher is almost never mandated either, states generally require subjects covered, not a specific program used to cover them.
Building the actual year plan once you know the rules
Once you know what's required, the planning question becomes much simpler: what do you want to cover, in what order, given the time you actually have. That's a curriculum-mapping problem, not a compliance problem, and it's worth keeping the two separate so the legal minimum doesn't accidentally become your whole plan. Our [homeschool curriculum plan generator](/homeschool-plan) builds a year plan around your state's required subjects, your family's actual schedule, and the approach you're using (classical, Montessori-influenced, unit study, whatever fits), so the compliance piece is handled and the rest of the plan can focus on what you actually want your kid to learn this year.
