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⚖️ Virginia Homeschool Laws & Requirements

What Virginia law asks of homeschool families — notice or registration, school days and subjects, testing, records and diplomas — summarized from our Virginia guide with links to the official sources.

Home instruction step by step (§ 22.1-254.1)

Home instruction is the route most Virginia homeschool families use. The statute calls it "an acceptable alternative form of education under the policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia" once its requirements are met.

Each year, by August 15, send your division superintendent a notice of intent to provide home instruction. Include a description of the curriculum — the law limits this to a list of subjects you'll teach in the coming year — and evidence that you meet one of the four options: you hold a high school diploma; you're a teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board of Education; you provide a program of study or curriculum (which may be a correspondence course, distance learning program or anything else); or you provide evidence that you can provide an adequate education. Most families use the diploma option and attach a copy of the diploma.

If you begin home instruction after the school year has started, or move into a new school division, notify the superintendent as soon as practicable and complete the requirements within 30 days.

By August 1 after each year of home instruction, send evidence of progress: either (i) a composite score in or above the 4th stanine on any nationally normed standardized achievement test, or an equivalent score on the ACT, SAT or PSAT, or (ii) an evaluation or assessment the superintendent determines shows adequate educational growth and progress — for example, a letter from a person licensed to teach in any state, or with a master's degree or higher in an academic discipline, who knows the child's progress, or a report card or transcript from an institution of higher education, college distance learning program or home-education correspondence school. This doesn't apply to a child under 6 on September 30 of the school year.

If you don't provide evidence of progress, the program may be placed on probation for one year: you file evidence of your ability to provide an adequate education and a remediation plan. If the superintendent doesn't accept them, or evidence of progress isn't provided by August 1 after the probationary year, home instruction must stop. Any decision of the superintendent can be appealed within 30 days to an independent hearing officer.

Privacy: no division superintendent or school board may share the information you provide outside the school division without your written consent; the superintendent reports only the number of home-instructed students to the state (§ 22.1-254.1(G)).

Read the full section in our Virginia guide

The religious exemption and the tutor option

Religious exemption: under § 22.1-254(B)(1), a school board shall excuse from attendance any pupil who, together with his parents, by reason of bona fide religious training or belief is conscientiously opposed to attendance at school. The law says "bona fide religious training or belief" does not include essentially political, sociological or philosophical views or a merely personal moral code. Families request it from the local school board; the statute sets no annual notice or testing requirement for it. § 22.1-254.1(D) keeps this route open alongside home instruction.

Tutor option: § 22.1-254(A) also lets a child be "taught by a tutor or teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board and approved by the division superintendent."

Some programs and rules name only one route. Driver's ed at home is open to both home instruction and religious exemption families (§ 22.1-205); AP, PSAT and PreACT access, part-time enrollment funding, and the high school equivalency rule at 16 name home instruction under § 22.1-254.1; and the special education regulation covers home instruction and home-tutored students. Check which route a program covers before you choose.

Read the full section in our Virginia guide

Testing, AP, PSAT and the evaluation option

A standardized test is one of two ways to show progress by August 1: a composite score in or above the 4th stanine on any nationally normed standardized achievement test, or an equivalent ACT, SAT or PSAT score. The other is an evaluation: a letter from a licensed teacher (any state) or a person with a master's degree or higher in an academic discipline who knows your child's progress, or a report card or transcript from a college, college distance learning program or home-education correspondence school. The superintendent decides whether an evaluation shows adequate growth.

AP, PSAT/NMSQT and PreACT: § 22.1-254.1(F) requires school boards to make these exams available to home-instructed students, set a written registration deadline for them, and tell families about the deadline and any financial help for low-income students. Ask your division for its deadline early in the school year.

High school equivalency: a person 16 or older who was taught at home under § 22.1-254.1 and has completed home instruction may take the state's high school equivalency test (§ 22.1-254.2).

Read the full section in our Virginia guide

Official sources

Summarized from our Virginia guide (as of November 2026) and articles. Rules change — confirm on the official pages before you act.

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