How to Start Homeschooling in New York City: Step by Step

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You've decided to homeschool in New York City, and the first thing you found was a regulation with sub-sections. That's normal. New York has one of the more paperwork-heavy homeschool laws in the country, and the city runs it through one central office, so there's a set process to follow.

The short answer: to start a New York City homeschool you send a letter of intent, write a plan for the year (the IHIP), file four short quarterly reports, and turn in one annual assessment by June 30. That's the whole cycle. It repeats every year. Nobody approves your curriculum, nobody visits your kitchen, and you can start any month of the year.

I spent about fifteen years in public schools, first as a special educator and later as a principal, before I opened a used curriculum store. Most of what's below comes from the New York State regulation and the city's own homeschool pages, checked in September 2026. Where a detail is the kind that changes, I say so.

Who has to file in New York City?

Any parent of a child of compulsory school age who isn't enrolled in a public or private school. In New York City that means age 6 through the end of the school year in which the child turns 17. A student with an active special education services plan can continue to 21.

Five-year-olds are the exception. The city's own page says a 5-year-old can be homeschooled, and the plan and reports are only required if you ask for special education services. So a kindergarten year at home needs no paperwork at all. Enjoy it. The filing starts the year your child is 6.

Two more things trip up new families. The homeschool year runs July 1 to June 30, not September to June, so a "year" of reports follows that calendar. And the paperwork is per child, every year. Three kids means three letters, three plans, twelve quarterly reports.

Moving to the city mid-year with a child already homeschooled somewhere else? Same rules. You file within 14 days of starting instruction here, and your prior state's paperwork doesn't transfer.

Step 1: Send the letter of intent

A letter of intent is a one-page notice telling the district you're homeschooling this child this year. In NYC it goes to letterofintent@schools.nyc.gov, and the city's homeschool page has a fillable form you can attach, which is easier than writing your own.

When is it due? By July 1 for the coming school year, or within 14 days of the day you start homeschooling if you pull a child out mid-year. The city has also posted a spring cutoff in past years (May 1 for the 2025–26 year), so if you're starting late in the spring, call the office first at (718) 935-2343 rather than assume.

What goes in the email, per the city's form: a copy of your ID, custody papers if they apply, your child's proof of age and proof of residency if they're new to NYC schools, and two short city forms (a demographic form and a housing questionnaire). Send it all as PDF or JPG attachments in one email. Only a parent or legal guardian can send it; a tutor or counselor sending it for you gets rejected.

Then wait. The regulation gives the district 10 business days to reply with a copy of the rules and the IHIP form. Set a reminder for two weeks out and go pick curriculum instead of refreshing your inbox.

Dates are from 8 NYCRR 100.10 and the NYC Public Schools homeschool pages as of September 2026. The office doesn't accept fax.

Step 2: Write the IHIP, your plan for the year

An IHIP, or Individualized Home Instruction Plan, is a form listing what you'll teach in each required subject, what materials you'll use, who's teaching, and the four dates you'll send quarterly reports. It isn't a lesson plan. Nobody grades it for rigor. The office checks that every required subject has something written next to it.

The city's form gives you a line per subject for "syllabi, curriculum materials, textbooks or plan of instruction." A publisher and title is enough. "Math: Saxon 5/4, lessons 1–120" works. "Science: library books on weather, the human body, and simple machines, plus weekly nature walks" also works. If you're using a full boxed program, you can write the same publisher on most lines and be done in twenty minutes.

The office then has 10 business days (or until August 31) to say whether the plan complies. A deficiency gets you 15 days to fix it, with a right to appeal if you disagree. In my experience the deficiency is a blank line. Fill the line.

Does the plan lock you in? No. It's a plan. If you switch math programs in January, you note it in the next quarterly report. I've watched families agonize over state paperwork as if it were a contract. It's closer to a table of contents.

What subjects does New York require?

This is the part of the regulation you'll actually use, because it's the checklist your IHIP has to cover. The list changes by grade band.

Grades 1–6

Arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, English language, geography, United States history, science, health education, music, visual arts, physical education, and bilingual education or English as a second language where needed. Thirteen lines, but most of them collapse. A good language arts program covers reading, spelling, writing, and English at once. Music can be piano lessons or a folk-song playlist you sing at breakfast.

Grades 7–8

English, history and geography, science, and math (two units each across the two years), plus physical education, health, art and music (a half unit each), practical arts, and library skills. "Library skills" makes people laugh, then they realize a monthly trip to the branch to learn the catalog counts.

Grades 9–12

Over four years: four units of English, four of social studies (including American history, participation in government, and economics), two of math, two of science, one of art and/or music, plus health, physical education, and electives. A unit is roughly a year-long course. This is the state's floor for a high school program, not a ceiling, and most college-bound plans go past it.

Every grade

Patriotism and citizenship, alcohol and drug and tobacco misuse, highway and bicycle safety, and fire and arson prevention. These are the four lines everyone forgets. A library book and a conversation each covers them; write them on the plan.

You don't need a separate purchase for every line, and you don't need the newest edition of anything. In my store, the fastest-moving used books are exactly the core textbooks these subject lists ask for, which tells me most families cover the list with a math program, a language arts program, and a shelf of library books. If you want to see what a full year looks like on a budget, the free and low-cost curriculum guide walks through it subject by subject.

How many hours, and what records do you keep?

The regulation asks for the "substantial equivalent" of 180 days of instruction: 900 hours a year in grades 1–6 and 990 hours in grades 7–12. Nobody clocks you. You keep an attendance record, the office can ask to see it, and each quarterly report states the hours you provided that quarter.

Here's how the numbers work out. Spread 900 hours over 180 days and you get five hours a day. Spread them over a July-to-June year with a real summer and it's closer to four. And the state's own guidance says the time should be "generally comparable" to public school, where a day includes recess and lunch and lining up in the hall. Count learning the way a school does. A read-aloud at bedtime is instruction. So is the science museum on a Tuesday.

What I'd actually keep, having filed a lot of paperwork for other people's kids as a principal:

• A one-page attendance calendar. Tick the days. The city posts a blank one, and any planner has a page that works.
• A running list, by subject, of what you covered. Chapter numbers, book titles, field trips. This becomes the quarterly report with almost no rewriting.
• A folder of samples. A few pages of writing, a math test, a photo of the volcano. You'll want them for a narrative assessment, and you'll want them in ten years anyway.

A paper planner does all three (I compared the common ones in the planner reviews). I keep the A+ Homeschool Planner on the shelf for exactly this; if you'd rather keep it on a screen, Homeschool Planet tracks attendance and grades and prints reports. Either way, log as you go. Reconstructing a quarter from memory in November is how people miss the 80 percent line.

Quarterly reports and the annual assessment

The quarterly report

Four times a year, on the dates you wrote in your IHIP, you email a short report. Each one lists the hours of instruction, the material covered in each subject, and either a grade or a written note on progress. If you covered less than 80 percent of what you planned for the quarter, you add a sentence explaining why. That's it. One page is typical. Nobody is grading your child; they're confirming instruction happened.

Write it the week it's due, not the night. If you kept the running list above, it's a copy-and-paste job.

The annual assessment

The annual assessment is the one piece of the year that looks like school. It goes in with the fourth quarterly report, by June 30, and it takes one of two forms:

• A standardized test from the state's approved list (Iowa, California Achievement Test, Stanford, and a few others, or a state test). The child passes with a composite score above the 33rd percentile, or with one year of growth over last year's test. With the superintendent's consent, you can give the test yourself.
• A written narrative, prepared by a certified teacher, a peer review panel of other homeschool parents, or another person the superintendent approves, after looking at a portfolio of your child's work and talking with the child.

Which one you can use depends on grade. Grades 1–3: the narrative, every year. Grades 4–8: the narrative every other year, a test the other years. Grades 9–12: a test every year.

What if the score comes in low? The program goes on probation for up to two years with a remediation plan you write, and the superintendent can ask for a home visit with three days' notice. It's not an automatic end to homeschooling. If your child tests badly on paper, plan the narrative years on purpose and practice the format before the others. In my experience kids lose points on the bubble sheet itself, not the content. We stock Spectrum Test Prep when it comes through used for exactly that.

Homeschooling a child with an IEP in New York City

This is the section I care most about, because it's the one families are most often told wrong. In New York, a homeschooled child with a disability can still receive special education services from the district. Since a 2008 change to the law, the Committee on Special Education writes an IESP, an Individualized Education Services Program, which has the same content as an IEP but is built around the fact that you're teaching at home. Speech, OT, resource room support, counseling: the district decides where services happen, and that can include your home.

The catch is the calendar. You have to request services in writing by June 1 for the following school year, and for 2026–27 the city said plainly that the June 1, 2026 deadline "will be strictly enforced." Miss it and you wait a year, with two exceptions: a child newly identified after June 1 gets 30 days from identification, and a family that moves into a new district gets 30 days from the move.

The request goes to your district's Committee on Special Education by email, with the subject line the city specifies ("Notice of Intent 2026–27 SY" this year), from the parent's own address. You also need a compliant IHIP on file; the two systems talk to each other.

In my special-education years I sat through a lot of IEP meetings, and later ran them as a principal. The parents who got the most out of them came with a folder and a short list of what they wanted. Do the same here. Bring the current IEP, name the services you're asking for, and put the June 1 date on your fridge in January.

High school and the diploma question

New York doesn't issue a high school diploma to homeschooled students. The state is explicit that a diploma can only be awarded to a student enrolled in a registered secondary school. Your homeschool can print a diploma, and plenty of colleges accept a homeschool transcript on its own, but it isn't a state document.

What New York does have is a superintendent's letter, usually called a letter of substantial equivalence, stating that the home instruction program was substantially equivalent to a four-year high school program. The state's rules for college degree conferral list three ways a homeschooler qualifies: that document, a high school equivalency diploma, or 24 college credits spread across set subjects. In the city, ask the Central Office of Home Schooling about it the spring your student finishes, not the fall after.

Two honest cautions. HSLDA, a homeschool legal-advocacy organization, has documented superintendents who refuse the letter or add their own conditions; it isn't required by statute, so the experience varies. And the state's financial aid page for home-schooled students still points to an ability-to-benefit test or the GED for TAP eligibility. If your student wants a New York college with state aid, ask the admissions office and HESC early what they'll accept. Don't rely on a blog post for that answer, including this one.

One more high school note. Homeschooled students in New York aren't eligible for interscholastic sports; the state's athletics rules require enrollment in the school. A bill to change that (S2465, which would also open driver's education) was sitting in the Senate Education Committee as of January 2026. Club and rec leagues are where homeschool athletes play in the meantime.

What does homeschooling in NYC cost, and is there any money?

New York has no education savings account, voucher, or homeschool tax credit. If you've read about families in Arkansas or Arizona getting state funds for curriculum, that isn't available here as of September 2026. Plan on paying for materials yourself.

There are three things that do help.

529 plans now cover homeschool materials (federally)

A federal law passed in July 2025 expanded what a 529 education savings account can pay for at the K–12 level. As of January 1, 2026 the list includes curriculum and curricular materials, books and other instructional materials, online educational materials, tutoring and classes outside the home, standardized test fees, dual-enrollment fees, and certain educational therapies for students with disabilities, up to $20,000 a year. That's most of a homeschool budget.

The state wrinkle: New York's own 529 program says the state tax department treats K–12 tuition as a nonqualified withdrawal for New York tax purposes, and as of its 2026 update it "has not yet determined" how it will treat the new categories. So the federal tax break is real; the state treatment is unsettled. Check the NY 529 site and a tax preparer before you pull money out. I'm a bookseller, not an accountant.

The federal scholarship tax credit, maybe

In May 2026 Governor Hochul said she intends to opt New York into the new federal tax-credit scholarship program, which funds scholarship organizations that pay for tuition, tutoring and similar expenses. Whether New York homeschoolers will be able to use it isn't settled; the decision wasn't final and federal guidance was still being written when I checked. Worth watching. Not worth planning around.

Buy used, and use the city

Curriculum is the one cost you fully control. A used math textbook does the same job as a new one, and a full year of core subjects secondhand often costs less than a single new boxed kit. That's the business I'm in, so take it with the obvious grain of salt. At the counter, the families who spend least are the ones who bought the core used and filled the rest from the library. Start with the elementary, middle school, or high school shelves and buy the core first.

Then there's the city itself, which is the best free classroom in the country if you use it on purpose:

• A library card from the New York, Brooklyn, or Queens public library is free to any state resident. Ask your branch what's on during the day; the buildings are quiet while public school is in session.
• Culture Pass lets cardholders 13 and up reserve free admission at participating museums and gardens. One pass per institution per year, up to four active reservations, and each month's passes open at midnight on the first of the month before. Set an alarm.
• An IDNYC card comes with free one-year memberships or discounted tickets at participating institutions, including the American Museum of Natural History, the Bronx Zoo, the Met, and the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Age limits vary, and you can't have held a membership there in the last five years.
• NYCHEA, the New York City Home Educators Alliance, is a secular nonprofit with more than 800 member families across the five boroughs. It's the fastest way to find a park day and the parents who've filed this paperwork ten times.

Who NYC homeschooling fits, and who it doesn't

Who it fits: Families who like a checklist. (If you haven't picked an approach yet, that's a separate question; start with choosing a homeschool style.) Once you see the year as four documents, New York's system is predictable, and the city office is a known quantity with a phone number. It fits families with a child who needs services, because the IESP route is better than most states offer. And it fits anyone who wants to use the city as the curriculum; the museums alone could carry science and history for years.

Who it doesn't: Families who want no contact with the school system at all. New York isn't that state; you'll email the office at least six times a year, per child. Families who want state money for materials; there isn't any. And families with a high schooler set on varsity sports, unless the law changes. If any of those is a deal-breaker, know it now, before the letter of intent, not in March.

Does your child fall apart on tests? Then the grade 4–8 years take some planning, and high school means a test every June. Manageable, but not nothing. It depends on the kid.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to send a letter of intent to homeschool a 5-year-old in NYC?

No. The city's page says five-year-olds can be homeschooled, and the IHIP, quarterly reports, and annual assessment are only required if you request special education services. Compulsory attendance in NYC starts at age 6, so that's the year your first letter of intent is due.

Can I start homeschooling in New York City in the middle of the school year?

Yes. Send the letter of intent within 14 days of the day you start, then the IHIP within four weeks of receiving the form. Your quarterly reports and hours are prorated for the part of the year you homeschooled. If you're starting late in the spring, call the office first; the city has posted spring cutoffs in past years.

Does New York approve my homeschool curriculum?

No. The office reviews your IHIP to confirm every required subject has a plan and materials listed. It doesn't rate the curriculum, require a particular publisher, or require state standards alignment. You choose the books; the office checks that every subject is covered, and your quarterly reports show the hours.

Can a homeschooled child in NYC get speech therapy or other IEP services?

Yes, through an IESP written by the district's Committee on Special Education. Request it in writing by June 1 for the following school year; the city enforces that date strictly. Services are delivered where the district decides, which can include the home, and you need a compliant IHIP on file at the same time.

Is there any state funding for homeschooling in New York?

No. As of September 2026 New York has no education savings account, voucher, or homeschool tax credit. Federal 529 rules now cover many K–12 homeschool expenses, though New York's state tax treatment of those withdrawals is unsettled, and a possible federal scholarship credit is still being decided. Check with a tax preparer.

Do homeschoolers in New York get a high school diploma?

Not a state one. New York only awards diplomas to students enrolled in registered schools. Homeschool graduates use a parent-issued diploma and transcript, a superintendent's letter of substantial equivalence, the GED, or college credits, depending on what a specific college or aid program asks for. Ask each school directly.

The short version

Homeschooling in New York City is four documents a year: a letter of intent, an IHIP, four quarterly reports, and an annual assessment, all emailed to one office. The rules are specific but not hard, the city's free resources are the best anywhere, and the money you'll spend is mostly on books, which is the one cost you can shrink.

Browse used curriculum by grade →

Sources

• Cornell Legal Information Institute, “8 NYCRR § 100.10 – Home instruction” (letter of intent, IHIP, subjects, hours, quarterly reports, assessment, probation; checked September 2026)
• NYC Public Schools, “Letter of Intent Homeschool” (ages, 14-day and 28-day rules, suggested report dates, email addresses, phone; checked September 2026)
• NYC Public Schools, “Letter of Intent to Homeschool” form (required attachments, annual filing, parent-only submission; checked September 2026)
• NYC Public Schools, “IHIP Grades 1–6” form (office address, what the plan lists, no fax; checked September 2026)
• New York State Education Department, “Home Instruction: Questions and Answers” (district timelines, comparable instructional time, parent-administered tests, diploma rule, sports; checked September 2026)
• NYSED, “Requirements for the Provision of Special Education Services to Home-Instructed Students” (IESP, June 1 request, exceptions; checked September 2026)
• NYC Public Schools, “Parental Notice of Intent Guidance for the 2026–2027 School Year” (June 1, 2026 deadline, how to submit; checked September 2026)
• NYSED, “Guidelines on Revised Rules… Conferral of a College Degree and Home Instruction” (superintendent’s letter, HSE, 24-credit rule; checked September 2026)
• NYS Higher Education Services Corporation, financial aid professionals FAQ (home-schooled student TAP eligibility; checked September 2026)
• HSLDA, “How Homeschool Grads’ Futures Hinge on a Single Letter from NYS” (advocacy source; letter of substantial equivalence in practice; checked September 2026)
• New York State Senate, bill S2465 (homeschool sports and driver’s education; in committee as of January 7, 2026; checked September 2026)
• NY 529 College Savings Program, “2026 Federal Tax Updates” (expanded K–12 expenses, $20,000 limit, NY state tax treatment; checked September 2026)
• Chalkbeat New York, “Gov. Hochul plans to opt into federal tax-credit scholarship” (May 8, 2026) (status of New York’s opt-in; checked September 2026)
• Culture Pass, “Frequently Asked Questions” (eligibility, reservation limits, release schedule; checked September 2026)
• NYC IDNYC, “Museums and Cultural Institutions” (membership benefits and limits; checked September 2026)
• New York City Home Educators Alliance, “About Us” (membership and offerings; checked September 2026)