Homeschooling Regulations by State: Louisiana

by Christina Yeager

Each and every state in the country has different laws pertaining to homeschooling. In Louisiana, the regulations require some necessary paperwork and patience. The state asks that families interested in providing a home-based education for their children following and maintain their regulations to homeschool properly.
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Each state is the U.S. has a very specific set of regulations for homeschooling. If you are thinking about teaching your child at home, you'll need to know the ins and outs of what needs to be done beforehand and during. In this series, Homeschooling Regulations by State, we'll explore information to help with the decision, what to do to get started and what to do correctly to continue.

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Compulsory school age
Children from the ages of 7 years old to 18 years old are considered students of the State of Louisiana and must attend school or be in compliance with homeschool law.

Homeschooling choices
To opt for homeschooling in Louisiana, there are two key decisions to finalize before moving on to the legality of starting. The decision consists of choosing a non-public school or the desire to work as an approved Home Study Program.

Approved home study program
The Home Study Program option comes with several benefits. These are the primary guidelines for homeschooling families:

• Completion and submission of a home study application to the Louisiana Department of Education. This can be done online and even via mail. A copy of your child’s birth certificate should be included.
• Once the approval letter has been received, it is suggested that a copy of this letter be sent to the current school of the student if enrolled publicly.
• It is important for families to renew their application every 12 months. Annual renewal must be turned in by October 1st of any given school year or exactly one year from the original filing date, whichever applies. Include documents like curriculum lists, copies of the student’s work and standardized testing scores that show progress.
• Understand that proper school year instruction is 180 days.
• Required curricula are equivalent to public schools at the same grade levels.
• Proof of immunization for meningococcal disease should be provided when your child is 11 years old to the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education unless you have a waiver for religious, medical, or personal reasons.
• Annually report attendance records.
• You must not accept any state or federal funding.

Registered non-public school
If your child has been attending local school prior to deciding to homeschool via a non-public option, it is required to send the school attended a written notification to inform of the decision to learn elsewhere.

This notice should include:

• The child’s full legal name.
• Date of birth, gender and race.
• You may additionally include a transcript, but it’s not required.

Homeschool record keeping in Louisiana
As soon as you decide to start homeschooling in Louisiana, it will be extremely beneficial for you to retain a detailed set of records of student progress. Annual school portfolio is also an option to keep appropriate records. Immaculate record keeping will aid you in all your future shifts and movements. For instance, if you decide to cease homeschool activities and send your child to a mainstream public school or you want to opt for a military school, comprehensive record keeping will always help you in more than one way.

Louisiana homeschool tax deduction
Despite a certain level of complications linked with the Louisiana homeschool requirements, there is one exclusive benefit of homeschooling that no other state explicitly offers. This is the capability to subtract the expenses of homeschooling from your combined taxable income. As per the regulation, Louisiana residents who engage in home-based education are entitled to make a deduction of 50% out of the qualified education expenses per year. This is roughly up to $5,000 per student.

Louisiana homeschool graduation requirements
In a homeschooling setup, homeschoolers don’t need any specific graduation requirements in Louisiana. It’s completely at the will and discretion of the parents to decide which courses they think are appropriate. They can decide about the credits assigned to all the courses chosen.

Returning to public school
The duration of homeschooling varies from one family to another. Some of the kids are homeschooled for only one year and returned to local area schools while some families decide to homeschool for an indefinite period. In both cases, it’s wise to be organized and plan according to the probable state of affairs in public school. Every school will support different protocols. Various schools may review assessment records or require testing, and others might have a different set of requirements.
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Are you a homeschooler (new or veteran) seeking to share insight? Read our guidelines and then reach out introducing yourself to obtain blogging credentials! And if you're a homeschool parent, be sure to follow the Homeschooling Heroes page on Facebook for tons of resources and insight, and join the Unschool Homeschool group to expand your horizons as to what homeschooling is/can be. And finally, if you're looking for activities to join, we have a group with New Orleans-based activities, which will be expanding to an area near you - so join our group! And be excited about that, because we offer tons of exceptional educational and extracurricular activities for homeschoolers and parents, and can't wait to include you.

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