Texas homeschooling requirements come from a single Texas Supreme Court decision, Leeper v. Arlington ISD, which treats a home-based program as an unaccredited private school. To satisfy the law, your homeschool must do three things: provide bona fide instruction, use materials in visual form, and cover five specific subjects (reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, and good citizenship).1Texas Education Agency. Home Schooling There is no registration, no state approval, and no annual reporting. If your child is currently enrolled in public school, you also need to formally withdraw them before you begin.
The Five Required Subjects
Your curriculum must include reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, and good citizenship.1Texas Education Agency. Home Schooling The first four are self-explanatory. Good citizenship is broader and less defined, but it generally encompasses civics, the structure of government, and U.S. history.
Nothing in the law dictates which textbooks, publishers, or programs you use. You can teach science, foreign languages, art, music, or anything else you want in addition, but those five subjects are the legal floor. A boxed curriculum, an online platform, library books, or materials you assemble yourself all work equally well, as long as the five subjects are actually being taught.
Bona Fide Instruction and Visual Form
The other two Leeper requirements are about how the teaching happens.
Bona fide instruction means your homeschool must be a genuine educational effort, not a label used to avoid compulsory attendance without actually teaching. If a district or court determines that no real instruction is taking place, the family can face truancy consequences. This is the requirement most likely to matter if a district ever asks questions, which is why keeping basic records of your teaching activity is a good idea even though the state does not require it.
Visual form means instruction must use materials the student can see. The Leeper court described “books, workbooks, other written materials, including that which appears on an electronic screen.” Purely oral teaching, with nothing in written or visual form, does not qualify. In practice, almost any modern curriculum clears this bar without effort.
Who Has to Comply
Texas Education Code § 25.085 requires school attendance for children who are at least six years old (or younger than six but previously enrolled in first grade) and who have not yet reached their 19th birthday.2State of Texas. Texas Education Code 25.085 – Compulsory School Attendance Section 25.086 exempts a child attending “a private or parochial school that includes in its course a study of good citizenship.”3Texas Public Law. Texas Education Code 25.086 – Exemptions Because Leeper classifies a qualifying homeschool as a private school, your child is covered by that exemption for as long as the three requirements above are met.
Children below compulsory attendance age can be homeschooled without any of this applying. Once a child hits the compulsory age, the requirements attach.
Withdrawing a Child from Public School
If your child is enrolled in a public school, you must formally withdraw them before you start homeschooling. This is where families most often get into trouble. A child who simply stops attending without a withdrawal on file will be marked absent, and the district can pursue truancy. Under § 25.093, a parent who contributes to a child’s nonattendance commits a misdemeanor punishable by fines from $100 for a first offense up to $500 for a fifth or subsequent offense, and each day of absence can count as a separate violation.4State of Texas. Texas Education Code 25.093 – Parent Contributing to Nonattendance
The withdrawal itself is straightforward. According to the Texas Education Agency, all you need is a signed and dated letter from the parent or guardian stating that the student is being homeschooled and the date homeschooling began.5Texas Education Agency. Home Schools That letter is sufficient documentation for the school to record the withdrawal.
The district may follow up in writing and ask for a “letter of assurance” confirming that your curriculum covers reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics, and good citizenship. You are not required to appear in person, present your curriculum for review, or comply with anything beyond that written assurance.5Texas Education Agency. Home Schools Some administrators ask for more than the law requires. A polite reference to the TEA’s own guidance letter on home schools usually resolves it.
Send your withdrawal by certified mail with return receipt requested so you have proof of the date the school received it. The withdrawal takes effect immediately upon receipt.
What Texas Does Not Require
The short list of requirements above is genuinely the whole list. The TEA does not regulate, index, monitor, approve, register, or accredit home education programs.1Texas Education Agency. Home Schooling There are no annual standardized tests, no portfolio reviews, no progress reports, no teacher certification requirements, and no need to renew your withdrawal letter each year.5Texas Education Agency. Home Schools No local school board has authority to approve, deny, or oversee your program.
Instruction time, days per year, grade-level benchmarks, and choice of curriculum are all up to you.
Records to Keep Even Though the State Does Not Ask
Because there is no state oversight, the burden of proving your homeschool existed falls entirely on you if the question ever comes up. Organized records are not legally required, but they matter in two situations.
First, if a district ever questions whether your instruction is bona fide, records of curriculum, work samples, and attendance are your evidence. Second, if your child later returns to public school or applies to college, they will need academic records that you are the only person able to produce. Families who keep nothing sometimes struggle to demonstrate what their student accomplished.
A basic file for each school year, containing the curriculum used, samples of the student’s work, and an attendance log, covers both concerns without much effort.
Sports, College, and Coming Back to Public School
Meeting the three requirements also determines what your student can do outside the home.
Texas homeschooled students can participate in University Interscholastic League athletics and other competitive activities at their local public school unless the school board has voted to opt out. Eligibility requires the student to demonstrate grade-level academic proficiency on a nationally recognized, norm-referenced test, scoring in the average range or higher, and to comply with the same age, fee, insurance, physical exam, and behavior policies as enrolled students. A student who was enrolled in a public school earlier in the same school year cannot participate as a homeschooler for the remainder of that year, so time your withdrawal accordingly if competitive sports matter.6University Interscholastic League. Homeschool Participation
For college, the parent serves as the administrator, decides when graduation requirements are met, and issues both the transcript and the diploma. Texas Education Code § 51.9241 bars state colleges and universities from discriminating against homeschool graduates and requires them to treat homeschool graduation as equivalent to public high school graduation. On the SAT, homeschooled students use high school code 970000.7College Board. If I’m Homeschooled, What Do I Enter for the High School Code? On the FAFSA, a Texas homeschool graduate can self-certify that they completed secondary education in a homeschool setting that qualifies as an exemption from compulsory attendance under state law.8FSA Partner Connect. Volume 1 – Student Eligibility, Chapter 1: School-Determined Requirements
If your child returns to public school, Texas Administrative Code § 74.26 requires the district to evaluate the student’s records and place them in appropriate classes promptly.9Texas Education Agency. Chapter 74 Curriculum Requirements, Subchapter C: Other Provisions The district has discretion over which homeschool coursework receives credit. Accredited curriculum providers generally transfer without testing; parent-designed curricula usually mean the school will rely more on placement assessments to set grade level. Another reason to keep detailed records from day one.
Homeschool students also remain covered by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act “Child Find” obligation, so you can request a special education evaluation through the local district and the district must complete it within 60 days of receiving your consent.10Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Sec. 300.111 Child Find A parentally placed private school student, including a homeschooler, does not have the same individual right to services that a public school student has; the district determines what services to offer through a consultation process, and the resulting plan is typically less comprehensive than a full Individualized Education Program.