Getting started homeschooling in Maryland

CurriculumQuiz checked the linked government or statute page on 2026-10-17. The six notes are notice, subjects, days or hours, assessment, teacher qualifications, and records. A curriculum website can help you choose books. It is not the statute. When this page and a blog disagree, the linked official page wins. If that page is silent, the answer here stays unknown.

Rules change. A summary can be wrong, incomplete, or out of date. Confirm the linked page, and contact that agency or a qualified attorney about your own facts. Save a copy of the page or the form it names, with the date you read it.

1. Open the official source

The recorded source for Maryland is Maryland COMAR 13A.10.01.01. Maryland COMAR 13A.10.01.01. Read it yourself before you buy a curriculum or file a form.

2. Notice or registration

A parent or guardian initially signs a department form consenting to the regulation and submits it to the local superintendent at least 15 days before the program begins. Each year before school starts, the parent verifies continuation with the local superintendent or with a supervising nonpublic school under Regulation .05. A change in status during the year must also be reported.

If that note does not name a form, a deadline, or an office, the source we read did not give us one. Check official source before you mail or upload anything.

3. Subjects

The program shall include instruction in English, mathematics, science, social studies, art, music, health, and physical education, and shall provide regular, thorough instruction in the studies usually taught in the public schools to children of the same age.

A curriculum that lists those words is not, by itself, proof that a legal duty is met. Match your plan to the sentence above. Ask the agency when the sentence says the list was not stated.

4. Days and hours

The regulation says instruction takes place on a regular basis during the school year and is of sufficient duration to implement the program. It does not state a number of days or hours.

Do not borrow a day count from another state. If this note does not state a number, we do not invent one.

5. Assessment

The portfolio includes examples such as tests. A separate required standardized test was not stated in section .01 as we read it. The portfolio is reviewed by the local superintendent or a designee at the end of each semester, at a mutually agreeable time.

A test that comes with a curriculum is not the same thing as a test an agency requires. Use the sentence above.

6. Teacher qualifications

Not stated on official source

A college degree, a teaching certificate, and a high-school diploma are different things. Record only what this sentence names. If it names nothing, check official source.

7. Records

The parent maintains a portfolio that shows regular, thorough instruction in the named areas and includes materials such as instructional materials, reading materials, and examples of writings, worksheets, workbooks, creative materials, and tests. The parent agrees to let a school-system representative review the portfolio and discuss the program, under the conditions in section E.

Online schools in this directory often keep a grade file. Print curricula usually leave the file with the parent. That describes the product. It is not a ruling that either one satisfies Maryland. Keep what the sentence names.

Withdrawing from public school

The text recorded from the official source does not describe withdrawing from public school. This page does not add a withdrawal rule. Ask the school the child attends, and check official source.

If you are leaving a public school, ask that school what it needs in order to drop the student from its roll. A district can have a local form that the state page does not quote. This page will not supply one.

After the official page, then a curriculum

The quiz ranks programs from grade, style, time, budget, faith, accreditation, and pace. It does not read the Maryland statute, and the state does not change the match percentage. It adds a link back to the state page. The quiz runs in the browser. Quiz answers are never stored or sent. The site uses Google Analytics, which sets cookies, for anonymous usage stats. It does not ask for a child's name.

Style guides on this site list programs by tags and grade spans that are already in the directory. They are not legal checklists: Charlotte Mason, classical, secular, free, and kindergarten.

Come back to the official URL when the school year turns over. If the agency page changed, write to hello-curriculumquiz@agentmail.to and we will re-check the source before we change this summary. You can also embed the short fact box from the state page.