OUT-OF-STATE FAMILIES

Louisiana Homeschool Requirements: Two Ways to Homeschool, and Only One of Them Comes With a Diploma

Louisiana lets you homeschool two different ways, and nearly every guide presents them as a paperwork preference. They are not. Four separate things turn on which box you check: whether your child's diploma is recognized by the state, whether they can get TOPS, whether they can try out for the team, and whether the state's new scholarship money is available to you at all. Here is the whole fork, from the statutes and the Department's own handbooks, plus a real ACT rule that just changed in your favor.

There is no Louisiana homeschool statute. There is a compulsory attendance law, R.S. 17:221, a definition of a school, R.S. 17:236, and a home study approval section, R.S. 17:236.1. Home education lives inside those three, in two different forms, and the Louisiana Department of Education publishes a separate handbook for each. This guide reads all of it and then tells you the part the handbooks do not put side by side: what each route costs your child four years from now.

The short version

The fork, and why it is the whole guide

The Department's own comparison document, "Louisiana Home School Options," opens by saying the LDOE "offers two types of Home Schooling programs" and that families "may enroll in a BESE Approved Home Study Program (HSP) or a Nonpublic School Not Seeking State Approval (NPNSB)." Most published guides stop about there, note that one has more paperwork, and move on.

Here is what actually turns on it, every item sourced below:

If you are choosing this month, choose on that list, not on the length of the application.

Route one: the BESE-Approved Home Study Program

You apply to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education through the Department's online system. The statute sets the timing:

"A parent or legal guardian shall apply to the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for approval of a home study program. An initial application must be made within fifteen days after commencement of the program. A renewal application must be made by the first of October of the school year, or within twelve months of approval of the initial application, whichever is later."

The initial application takes a certified copy of the child's birth certificate, your contact and district information, the type of school previously attended, an immunization statement for children who are eleven, and an assurance that you have read and will comply with R.S. 17:236.1. That is it. The Department's guidelines say approval letters arrive in one to two weeks online, two to three weeks by mail, and warn that "during peak periods from July through October, it may take up to a month."

You do not have to wait for approval to withdraw. The guidelines say families "may do so prior to receiving Louisiana Department of Education approval" and that "a school cannot refuse to let a parent withdraw their child from public school."

The renewal, and the three ways to satisfy it

This is the part that makes Louisiana a state with real annual accountability, and it is also less onerous than it sounds because you pick the form. The statute requires "satisfactory evidence that the program has in fact offered a sustained curriculum of quality at least equal to that offered by public schools at the same grade level," and then gives three alternative ways to show it. The Department's guidelines describe the packet option in plain, forgiving language:

"A. A complete, but simple, outline of the subjects taught during the previous year; B. A complete, but simple, list of books and materials that were used; C. A statement from a 3rd party (e.g. relative, friend) observing the student's progress; D. Copies of a small sampling of the student's work from the previous year. Please send only 1-2 pages per core subject area taught (i.e. Math, English, Social Studies, Science); E. A report card and/or copies of standardized tests."

Note who may write the third-party statement: a relative or a friend. That is the Department's own example, not ours.

The two alternatives, from R.S. 17:236.1(D), are a standardized test result showing the child "scored at or above his grade level or the child has progressed at a rate equal to one grade level for each year in home study program," or a statement from a certified teacher who has examined the program. You only have to satisfy one of the three. A family that keeps ordinary records all year never has to test.

The 180 days, said honestly

The Department's home study guidelines tell families that a child "not participating in a BESE Approved Home Study program for at least 180 days in the school year" could put the parents in violation of the compulsory attendance law, and the comparison document lists "Programs must maintain 180 instructional days" as a home study requirement.

The statute is less simple than that. R.S. 17:236(A) does contain a 180 day minimum session in its definition of a school, but Subsection (B) says that "effective for the 2005-2006 school year, the provisions of Subsection A of this Section relative to the required operation of a minimum school session of not less than one hundred eighty days shall not be applicable," while authorizing BESE to adopt rules on minimum session.

We are not going to tell you the Department is wrong. BESE has rulemaking authority here and its policy may well supply the number. What we will tell you is to plan on 180 days, because that is what the agency that approves your renewal expects, and that if the exact figure ever matters to your situation, ask homestudy@la.gov in writing and keep the reply rather than relying on a guide, including this one.

Route two: the registered Nonpublic School Not Seeking State Approval

The second route runs through the definition of a school in R.S. 17:236(A), which allows a nonpublic school receiving no public funds whose instructional staff "meet such requirements as may be prescribed by the school or the church." You register your own school by submitting one annual attendance form to the Department, and you receive an Attendance Submission Confirmation letter by email immediately, valid for one year.

It is the lighter paperwork by a distance. The Department is also unusually blunt about what you are giving up. From its guidelines, revised July 13, 2026, students enrolled in a Nonpublic School Not Seeking State Approval:

"1. are not considered enrolled in a BESE-Approved Home Study Program or BESE-Approved Nonpublic School; 2. are not eligible for Tuition Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) scholarships; 3. are not required to take state testing... 4. do not receive a diploma carrying the same weight as a state issued diploma... 5. cannot participate in the LA GATOR Scholarship Program."

And the sentence a family should read twice before choosing this route:

"The Louisiana Department of Education does not approve, oversee, or maintain a student's educational records under this option. If proof of a student's education is requested by a college, employer, military branch, or other third party, the parent or administrator is responsible for providing that documentation."

One operational detail that catches people: under R.S. 17:221.3 a registered nonpublic school has ten days from a student's enrollment to give the student's former public school notice of enrollment. The Department also tells families they will "have 10 days to present a copy of the submission confirmation letter to the previous school to complete withdrawal."

Who this route is actually right for. A family whose child is young, who is confident they will not want TOPS, and who values not filing an annual evidence packet. And a family who understands that the paper trail is now entirely theirs to build, forever, because the state is not keeping one.

The diploma sentence, and it is the best line in Louisiana law

R.S. 17:236.1(G) is one sentence and it is the reason the approved route exists:

"Notwithstanding any rule, regulation, or other provision of law to the contrary, a high school diploma awarded by a home study program approved by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall be deemed by all public postsecondary educational institutions, all state departments, agencies, boards, and commissions, and all other state and local governmental entities to have all of the rights and privileges afforded to a high school diploma awarded by a state-approved nonpublic school."

Read the list of who it binds. Every public college. Every state department, agency, board and commission. Every state and local governmental entity. If a licensing board, a community college admissions office or a state agency tells a Louisiana home study graduate that a parent-signed diploma does not count, that sentence is the answer, and the Department supplies a diploma template in its guidelines so the document itself looks like what it is.

The registered nonpublic route has no equivalent sentence anywhere, which is precisely why the Department writes that its diploma "is not recognized by the state."

The money: LA GATOR is a third route, not a subsidy for the first two

Louisiana created a universal education savings account program in 2024, the Louisiana Giving All True Opportunity to Rise Scholarship Program, and a great many Louisiana homeschool families have assumed it is money for homeschooling. It is not, and the statute is explicit:

"C. A student shall not participate in this program concurrently with a home study program approved by the state board or a home study program registered with the department as a nonpublic school not seeking state approval, the Course Choice Program, or the School Choice Program for Certain Students with Exceptionalities."

You may homeschool, or you may take LA GATOR. Not both. And the reason it works that way is in the definition of a school: R.S. 17:236(A) was amended in 2024 to add that "solely for purposes of compulsory attendance, a child shall be considered in attendance at a day school if the child is participating in the LA GATOR Scholarship Program." LA GATOR is its own way of satisfying compulsory attendance, standing beside home study rather than funding it.

What it buys is broad. R.S. 17:4037.3(9) defines qualified education expenses to include tuition or fees "at a nonpublic school or for nonpublic online learning programs," curricula and textbooks, career and technical school costs, exam fees, educational therapies, and "tuition and fees at a postsecondary education institution providing instruction for a student participating in dual enrollment."

What it costs you, besides the homeschool route itself, is an agreement. Under R.S. 17:4037.7(A)(1)(b) the parent agrees in writing "to provide an education for the participating student in at least the subjects of English language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science," and that written agreement "satisfies the compulsory school attendance requirements of R.S. 17:221." Louisiana home study law names no required subjects at all. Taking the money adds a commitment the home study statute does not contain, which is cheap for most families and is still a term of the deal.

Eligibility is phased. In the third phase every student is initially eligible, with priority to students with exceptionalities and families at or below 250% of the federal poverty guidelines. Unused funds roll over year to year, and an account closes if you enroll the child full time in a public school, withdraw, graduate, or leave it inactive for two consecutive years.

TOPS, and the surcharge that just ended

The Taylor Opportunity Program for Students pays Louisiana tuition, and Louisiana home study graduates have always had a specific route into it under R.S. 17:5029(B). For years that route carried a penalty: a home study student needed an ACT composite two points higher than a traditional graduate for TOPS-Tech or Opportunity, and one point higher for Performance or Honors.

That penalty no longer applies. Read the current statute closely and both surcharge clauses are capped in time. Subsection (B)(3)(b)(ii) applies "for the 2008-2009 award year through the 2024-2025 award year," and (B)(3)(b)(iii) does the same. There is no clause covering the 2025-2026 award year or any year after it. The section was amended by Acts 2025, No. 347 and Acts 2025, No. 359.

The base scores in R.S. 17:5024(B) are 17 for TOPS-Tech, the state average but never less than 20 for Opportunity, 23 for Performance, 27 for Honors and 31 for Excellence. And the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance's own home study Q&A, revised April 23, 2026, now lists exactly those figures for home study students:

"In addition, you must have an ACT score of at least 17 for TOPS Tech, 20 for Opportunity, 23 for Performance, 27 for Honors, or 31 for Excellence, or an SAT score of at least 990 for TOPS Tech, 1100 for Opportunity, 1160 for Performance, 1300 for Honors, or 1400 for Excellence."

Same numbers as everybody else. Two independent confirmations that the surcharge is gone.

And now the part we have to flag, because it is in the same document. Four questions later, that same Q&A still says of a home study student taking courses with a local high school: "you will be considered a home-study completer, and as such, you must meet the higher ACT requirement." Question 1 says one thing and Question 6 says the opposite, in one PDF, revised the same day.

We are not calling LOSFA wrong, and we would not want a family to argue with a state agency using a blog post. We are telling you that the statute's surcharge clauses stop at the 2024-2025 award year, that LOSFA's own headline answer now prints the standard scores, and that if anyone tells your child they need a higher score, email TOPS.Homestudy@la.gov, ask which subsection of R.S. 17:5029 applies to their award year, and keep the reply. The direction of this error runs against the family: a student told they need a 25 for Performance when they need a 23 may not sit the test again, or may write the award off entirely.

The tenth grade deadline, which costs more than the ACT ever will

This is the single most expensive thing on this page and it is easy to miss. R.S. 17:5029(B)(1)(b)(i) says a student who has previously attended a Louisiana public or BESE-approved nonpublic high school "shall have begun his studies in the approved home study program no later than the conclusion of the tenth grade year." LOSFA's Q&A states it as needing both eleventh and twelfth grade completed in a BESE-approved home study program.

Pull a child out of a Louisiana high school partway through eleventh grade and TOPS is gone. There is a limited exception: LOSFA's Q-4 says you may request one with documentation "indicating that the reason you did not complete both 11th and 12th grade in a home study program was beyond your control." Do not plan on it.

The same ten-year-old-grade deadline reappears for LA GATOR students in R.S. 17:5029(F), which lets a participating student qualify for TOPS if they "became a participant in the LA GATOR Scholarship Program no later than the conclusion of his tenth grade year." If your child is in ninth or tenth grade right now, whichever route you choose, choose it this year.

One more thing LOSFA's Q&A is worth reading for: home study students are identified by high school code 969999 on the ACT and 970000 on the SAT, and the name on the test registration must match the Department's records exactly. LOSFA spells out the failure mode: "if LDOE records your name as John Q. Smith, your ACT and your FAFSA should use the name John Q. Smith, not John Smith, not John Quincy Smith."

What the public schools owe your family

Sports, and a statute with real teeth

Louisiana passed Act 715 of 2024, now R.S. 17:176.2, and it is stronger than most:

"A. A public school shall not disqualify a student from participating in extracurricular activities or interscholastic athletics solely because the student is enrolled in an approved home study program, so long as the student lives in the attendance zone of the public school."

Your child tries out "in the same manner, time, and place" as the school's own students, and once on the team must maintain the same grade point average and discipline standards everyone else does. That is a fair trade and it is the whole trade.

Subsection B is the part that makes it work, because in most states the state athletic association, not the school, is what closes this door:

"B. Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no public school may be a member of, or participate in any competition sponsored by, any interscholastic extracurricular athletic association or organization that denies eligibility to a student solely on the basis of the student's enrollment in an approved home study program."

The Legislature did not ask the association to change its rules. It made membership in a non-complying association unlawful for the schools. The Department reproduces Act 715 in its own home study guidelines, which is a useful thing to have in hand at a coach's office.

Note the four words that run through it: "approved home study program." On the face of the statute this right belongs to route one. If sports matter in your house, that is a reason to choose the approved route, and it is the sort of consequence a paperwork comparison will never surface.

Dual credit, and the door that is closed

Louisiana's funded path to college credit in high school is the TOPS-Tech Early Start Award, which pays $150 for each three credit hour course, up to two courses per semester in eleventh and twelfth grade. It is real money and it is not available to you. The award is established "for eligible eleventh and twelfth grade students attending Louisiana public high schools," and the first eligibility condition is to "be in the eleventh or twelfth grade in a Louisiana public school."

Louisiana's home study guidelines say nothing about dual enrollment at all, which is a genuine gap in the state's guidance rather than a hidden permission.

So the honest answer, in both directions. The state-funded seat is closed. The college itself is not: a Louisiana community college or university can admit a home study student under its own admissions policy, and you pay. And a LA GATOR account may be spent on "tuition and fees at a postsecondary education institution providing instruction for a student participating in dual enrollment," which is one of the few places the two paths meaningfully differ in dollars, and one more reason to make the route decision before ninth grade rather than during eleventh.

Going back to public school

Louisiana handles re-entry differently from most states, and you should know the shape of it before you start. R.S. 17:236.2 directs BESE to adopt procedures for admitting or readmitting a child who participated in an approved home study program, and it makes evaluation a precondition rather than an option:

"D. Each child seeking admission or readmission to the public schools of this state pursuant to the provisions of this Section shall, as a prerequisite for such admission or readmission, fulfill all screening and evaluation requirements established by the state board."

The screening includes "the administration of examinations to determine the grade level at which such child should be admitted or readmitted." This is not a reason to avoid homeschooling. It is a reason to know where your child actually stands, in each subject, at any point you might want to walk back through that door. A family who can say "she reads at grade six and she is midway through pre-algebra," and show the work, walks into that screening differently than a family who cannot.

Compulsory attendance, and the ages

Under R.S. 17:221(A)(1)(b), beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, the parent of a child who "is age five, by September thirtieth of the calendar year in which the school year begins, through eighteen shall send the child to a public or nonpublic school, as defined by R.S. 17:236," unless the parent deferred kindergarten enrollment under R.S. 17:151.3(D) or the child graduates first.

Two things worth carrying. Five is the trigger age, not six, and it is measured on September 30. And the deferral is a real, named option in the statute, which is worth knowing if you have a young five year old and no interest in starting yet.

Penalties under Subsection (A)(2) run to a fine of not more than $250 or not more than thirty days, and enforcement is brought by visiting teachers or supervisors of child welfare and attendance with the superintendent's approval. This machinery is aimed at truancy. A family with an approval letter or an attendance confirmation letter in a drawer is not in its path.

How an AI teacher fits into a state like this one

Start with what we are not. Kitchen Table School is not a school in Louisiana. We are not a BESE-approved home study program, we are not a nonpublic school registered or otherwise, we are not a LA GATOR participating school or service provider, and enrolling with us neither creates nor satisfies either route. We do not file your application, we do not talk to the Department, and we do not issue a diploma, because in Louisiana that comes from you, and under R.S. 17:236.1(G) yours is worth more than ours would be.

We will also say the two things that cost us. Using us does not make your child a LA GATOR participant, and it cannot, because the statute forbids being in that program and a home study program at the same time. And under Act 715, the sports right belongs to students in an approved home study program, so if athletics matter, the route you choose matters more than the teacher you choose.

What we do is the part R.S. 17:236.1 leaves entirely to you: the teaching, and the evidence that it happened. Before anything else, the teacher sits down with your child for a free placement conversation that feels like a friendly chat rather than a test, and tells you where they actually are in each subject, not where the grade label says they should be. From there your child gets a patient teacher working one on one at their real level, kindergarten through twelfth grade. Louisiana families take the upload your own curriculum path: you choose the materials, and the teacher reads them and teaches from their actual pages.

And every session writes itself down. The date, the subject, the book and unit, how long it ran, what your child worked on, and what they got solid on. Now read that list against the renewal packet on this page. A complete but simple outline of the subjects taught. A complete but simple list of books and materials used. A small sampling of the student's work. Louisiana is one of the few states that asks a homeschooling family for evidence every single October, and a record that writes itself all year is the difference between a renewal you assemble in an evening and one you dread in September. The same record is what a re-entry screening under R.S. 17:236.2 is really asking about, and what a college admissions office will want behind the diploma you sign.

Louisiana gives you a diploma with statutory force and a right to try out for the team, and asks you once a year to show your work. Somebody still has to do the work. That is the job we are actually applying for.

This is general information for Louisiana families researching home education law, current as of publication on September 2, 2026, and it is not legal advice for your situation. Statutory quotations come from the Louisiana Revised Statutes as published by the Louisiana State Legislature: R.S. 17:221, 17:236, 17:236.1, 17:236.2, 17:176.2 (Act 715 of 2024), 17:4037.3, 17:4037.5, 17:4037.6, 17:4037.7, 17:5024, 17:5029 and 17:5081. Agency guidance is the Louisiana Department of Education's BESE-Approved Home Study Program page and its program guidelines, its Nonpublic Schools Not Seeking State Approval page and guidelines revised July 13, 2026, and its Louisiana Home School Options comparison. TOPS material comes from the Office of Student Financial Assistance's Home Study Students page and its TOPS Home Study Q&A revised April 23, 2026. Department questions go to homestudy@la.gov and TOPS questions to TOPS.Homestudy@la.gov. Statutes, agency handbooks and scholarship rules all change, and they do not change together. Confirm anything you are relying on with the Department, and consult an attorney about your own circumstances.

Curious how this works day to day? Here's the honest guide to teaching your own curriculum with us, written for every out-of-state family, Louisiana included. Since Louisiana is one of the few states that asks for evidence every October, homeschool record keeping is the natural next read, and in Louisiana it is closer to a requirement than a habit. If the reason you are here is a child who was struggling in a classroom, our guide to homeschooling with an IEP or a learning difference is worth reading first, because Louisiana's separate School Choice Program for Certain Students with Exceptionalities is one of the programs LA GATOR forbids you to hold at the same time. Or see the requirements for every other state.

See where your child stands first, free

Louisiana will ask you every October to show that your program is at least equal to the public school at the same grade level. Before you can show that, you have to know it. The free placement assessment tells you: it feels like a friendly chat, never a test, it takes about fifteen minutes, and it works the same in Louisiana as anywhere else. No card.

Start with the free assessment
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