Guides · July 31, 2026•9 min read

How to Homeschool in Florida: What You File, Keep and Prove

Florida asks a homeschooling family for three things: one notice at the start, a portfolio you keep as you go, and one evaluation a year. No required subjects, no minimum days, no teaching qualification. The part that catches people is not any of those three. It is a scholarship worth around $8,000 that looks like home education with money attached and is legally something else entirely.

Florida has several ways to satisfy compulsory attendance

Florida law treats home education as one of a set of private options alongside public school, private and parochial school, instruction by a certified private tutor, and, since 2023, the Personalized Education Program. Compulsory school age here runs from 6 to 16.

Four of those are routes a homeschooling family might actually take: a home education program under Florida Statutes § 1002.41, a private tutoring program taught by someone holding a valid Florida teaching certificate, enrollment under a private or umbrella school that files its own annual survey with the state, or the PEP scholarship.

Most families use the first one, and most of this guide is about it. It is the route that gives you full autonomy and genuine home education legal status, and it is the one the rest of Florida’s benefits, including Bright Futures, are written around.

Home education, in three obligations

The whole of § 1002.41 comes down to a notice, a portfolio and an evaluation. Get those three right and nothing else is asked of you.

The Notice of Intent

A written notice to the school superintendent in your county of residence, filed within 30 days of establishing your program. It has to carry the full legal names, addresses and birthdates of the children, and your signature.

There is no mandatory statewide form. Districts publish their own and many are genuinely helpful, but a district cannot add requirements beyond what the statute asks for. This is a one time filing, not an annual one. When you stop homeschooling, you file a written notice of termination within 30 days.

Nothing gets approved and nothing is issued back to you. Filing is the act. Ask the district to confirm receipt, and keep that confirmation where you can find it.

The portfolio

Two parts, and the statute is unusually specific about both. First, a contemporaneous log of educational activities that names the titles of reading materials used. Second, samples of writings, worksheets, workbooks or creative materials produced by the child.

The word doing the work there is contemporaneous. A log written as the year happens is what the law describes. One assembled the week before an evaluation is not, and an experienced evaluator can tell the difference immediately.

You keep the portfolio for two years. You do not submit it. It is made available for inspection on 15 days written notice, which in practice almost never comes, and 15 days is ample warning when it does.

The annual evaluation

One a year, and you choose the method from five options set out in § 1002.41(1)(c).

• A certified teacher reviews the portfolio. A Florida certified teacher goes through it and talks with your child. This is what most families use.
• A nationally normed achievement test. Any of them, administered by a certified teacher.
• The state assessment. The one the district uses, given by a certified teacher at an approved location.
• An evaluation by a licensed psychologist. Useful where a child’s needs make a standard measure meaningless.
• Anything else you and the superintendent agree on. A genuine option, rarely used, and worth remembering exists.

You file a copy of the result with the superintendent each year. Note that only two of the five are tests. Florida does not require your child to sit a standardized exam, and the portfolio review path is a conversation rather than an examination.

If an evaluation does not show progress, the superintendent notifies you in writing and you have a probationary year to provide remedial instruction, with a re-evaluation at the end of it. Continuing is contingent on demonstrating progress commensurate with the child’s ability, which is a deliberately individual standard. It is worth knowing this exists, and worth knowing it is measured in a year rather than a term.

What Florida does not require

No subject list, at all. The statute defines home education as sequentially progressive instruction directed by the parent and stops there. No minimum days or hours either: § 1002.41(3) expressly excludes a home education program from the school day requirements that bind public schools.

And no qualification. The statute says in terms that a parent is not required to hold a valid Florida teaching certificate, and there is no diploma or GED requirement behind it.

The PEP scholarship is not home education

This is the most important paragraph in this guide. House Bill 1 created the Personalized Education Program in 2023, an education savings account worth around $8,000 a year on average, varying by county and grade, paid in four quarterly deposits. It is real money and for many families it is the right call.

But § 1002.01(2) makes PEP a distinct legal category. A PEP student is not a § 1002.41 home education student. You do not file a Notice of Intent with your district, because registering with an approved scholarship funding organization is your registration.

What PEP adds on top is the part families discover late: an annual state approved national norm referenced test with results submitted to the scholarship organization, a Student Learning Plan, and a sworn compliance statement. None of those exist under § 1002.41.

This is not an argument against taking the money. Around $8,000 buys a great deal of curriculum, tutoring and outside classes. It is an argument for deciding with the trade visible rather than finding it in an email in October. Program caps and application windows both move year to year, so confirm the current cycle with the scholarship organizations directly. Our guide to homeschool funding sets Florida against what other states offer.

If your child has a disability, look at FES-UA

The Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities is a separate account under § 1002.394, and it is the largest program of its kind in the country. Awards average around $10,000, and children with a high matrix score can qualify for substantially more. Eligibility runs from ages 3 to 22 and requires either an IEP or a diagnosis from a Florida licensed physician or psychologist.

Understand what withdrawing does first. Florida calls special education Exceptional Student Education, and IEP meetings are called staffings. Districts are not required to provide a free appropriate public education to home educated or parentally placed private school children, so the IEP does not travel with you when you leave.

What home education students do keep is access to testing and evaluation through district diagnostic and resource centers under § 1002.41(9). If an evaluation is already in progress when you are deciding, it is usually worth letting it finish.

Bright Futures, and the requirement families miss

Florida is unusually generous to homeschool graduates. A diploma you issue as a parent operating a home education program is recognized for Bright Futures. No accredited diploma, no GED, and no umbrella school enrollment is needed, and home educated students are eligible for Florida College System and state university admission.

Here is the catch, and it is a planning catch rather than a paperwork one. For Florida Academic Scholars and Florida Medallion Scholars, the student must be registered as home education with the county district for at least grades 11 and 12. Spend those two years under a private school umbrella, or on PEP, and that box is not ticked.

The rest of the award asks for 100 volunteer or paid work hours, a qualifying SAT, ACT or CLT score, your certification that the curriculum was completed, and the financial aid application filed by the deadline that follows graduation. Which means the transcript wants starting in ninth grade, not twelfth.

Sports, dual enrollment and part time classes

The Tim Tebow law

Section 1006.15, the Craig Dickinson Act, gives home education students access to interscholastic extracurricular activities at their assigned school. You register with the district, the student maintains the equivalent of a 2.0 GPA, and intent has to be registered before the season starts. The eligibility rules were revised in the 2025 session and continue to attract bills, so check the current position with the district and the state athletic association before you count on a specific detail.

Dual enrollment, and it is free

This is the most valuable thing on the list and the most under used. Under § 1007.271 a home education student takes college courses at no tuition cost, providing proof of home education enrollment and signing a home education articulation agreement with the institution. Part time study runs to 11 credit hours a term, with a 3.0 unweighted GPA for college credit or 2.0 for career dual enrollment. You cover instructional materials and transport unless the agreement says otherwise.

Part time at the local school

A district option rather than a right. Districts may enroll home education students part time under their student progression plan and receive funding for doing it, and practice varies widely from county to county. Ask yours directly.

Leaving public school

File the Notice of Intent with the superintendent and withdraw your child. Strictly the order does not matter as long as the notice lands within 30 days, but filing immediately is the version that never generates a truancy question.

State guidance is clear that a district cannot require an exit conference, a curriculum plan, or immunization records in order for you to start a home education program. If yours asks for one, you can decline politely, in writing, and keep the copy.

The mistake that causes almost all the trouble

Two big ones and a quiet one. The big ones are taking PEP without realizing it changes what you legally are, and letting the 30 day notice window slide while a child is already at home.

The quiet one is treating the portfolio as something you build in evaluation week. The statute asks for a contemporaneous log, and a year reconstructed from memory in May is both worse evidence and considerably more work than the same year captured a line at a time.

That is the habit worth building, and it is genuinely a habit rather than a system. A digital homeschool planner records what you covered, the titles you read and photographs of the work itself in seconds as the day happens, so the portfolio exists by May instead of being invented in May, and the transcript assembles from the same entries later. Free for 30 days, then $9 a month or $79 a year. Start free. If you would rather run it on paper, our guide to homeschool record keeping covers what to keep and for how long. New to all of this? Start with how to start homeschooling.

Statutes, award amounts, program caps and deadlines all change, and the scholarship programs in particular move every year. Confirm the current detail with the Florida Department of Education, your county district, the scholarship funding organizations, or a homeschool legal organization before you act on it. This guide describes the shape of Florida law as of July 2026, not the paperwork of any particular year.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to register to homeschool in Florida? Yes. One written Notice of Intent to your county superintendent within 30 days of starting, carrying your children’s full legal names, addresses and birthdates, and your signature. It is a one time filing, not an annual one.

Does Florida require testing for homeschoolers? Not necessarily. One evaluation a year is required, but you pick from five methods and only two of them are tests. Most families use a certified teacher’s portfolio review instead. Taking the PEP scholarship is what makes annual testing mandatory.

What subjects are required in Florida? None are named in law. The statute asks for sequentially progressive instruction directed by the parent and sets no subject list, no minimum days and no minimum hours.

How long do I have to keep the homeschool portfolio? Two years. You keep it rather than submit it, and a district may ask to inspect it on 15 days written notice. Only the annual evaluation gets filed.

Can homeschoolers play public school sports in Florida? Yes. The Craig Dickinson Act, better known as the Tim Tebow law, gives home education students access to extracurricular activities at their assigned school, subject to registering with the district, declaring intent before the season and maintaining the equivalent of a 2.0 GPA.