Homeschooling in Maryland: the law and how to start

Yes. Maryland's compulsory attendance law allows a child to receive regular, thorough instruction outside public school, and the State Board of Education's regulation (COMAR 13A.10.01) sets the rules for home instruction. You choose how your program is supervised:

• Local school system supervision. You keep a portfolio, and your local school system reviews it during the year. This is the most common route.
• Supervision by a church-operated school. You homeschool under the supervision of a school or institution run by a bona fide church organization. This route is exempt from most of the regulation, but you must still teach the required subjects and meet the record-keeping requirement, and the supervising school sets its own reporting rules.

Whichever route you choose, you notify your local superintendent on the state's notification form.

• Choose your supervision route (local school system or a church-operated school).
• Complete the Home Instruction Notification form published by the Maryland State Department of Education and sign it.
• Submit it to your local superintendent at least 15 days before you begin home instruction. Many county school systems have a home instruction office that handles these forms.
• If your child is enrolled in public school, keep them attending until your home instruction start date, and let the school know your child is withdrawing for home instruction.
• Each year, verify with the local superintendent before the school year that you are continuing, and tell the superintendent if your child's home instruction status changes during the year.

Your program must give regular, thorough instruction during the school year in the studies usually taught in public schools to children of the same age. The regulation names the subjects: English, mathematics, science, social studies, art, music, health and physical education.

Instruction must happen on a regular basis during the school year and be long enough to cover these subjects. Maryland does not set a specific number of days or hours for home instruction, and you choose your own curriculum.

Maryland does not require standardized tests for homeschoolers. Instead, under local school system supervision you keep a portfolio of relevant materials, such as:

• instructional materials and reading materials;
• examples of your child's writing, worksheets, workbooks, creative work and tests.

The local superintendent or a designee reviews the portfolio at the end of each semester at a mutually agreeable time, and there can be no more than three reviews in a school year. The purpose is to confirm your child is receiving regular, thorough instruction in the required subjects.

Since 2019 amendments to the regulation, portfolio reviews no longer include observation of instruction.

In a 2025 review of its regulations, the State Board received more than 2,500 comments on home instruction, and MSDE reported that it did not propose any changes to the homeschool rules.

Parents keep their own records and prepare a transcript and diploma for college and job applications; your portfolio records are a useful starting point.

Students who want a state credential can take the GED. The Maryland Department of Labor publishes a 'proof of home instruction' form used in that process.

Maryland does not have a statewide law giving homeschoolers the right to join public school sports or take public school classes; it is up to each county school system. Bills titled 'Homeschool Students in Maryland – Right to Play' were introduced in 2025 (HB 1185) and 2026 (HB 1043), but the legislature's records show no final passage.

If your child has or may have a disability, contact your local school system's special education office to ask what evaluations and services are available to home instruction students.

Maryland does not have an education savings account or other program that pays for homeschooling. Its BOOST Scholarship program helps eligible lower-income families pay tuition at participating nonpublic schools only, so it cannot be used for home instruction.