New York is one of the most regulated states: letter of intent, an annual instruction plan (IHIP), quarterly reports, and a yearly assessment. It's a lot of paperwork — but a knowable routine.
Homeschooling is legal in New York, and while it carries the heaviest paperwork load in the country alongside a couple of other states, tens of thousands of New York families manage it every year. The system has four moving parts: a letter of intent (LOI), an Individualized Home Instruction Plan (IHIP), four quarterly reports, and an annual assessment.
Here's the reframe that helps most: none of these documents require district approval of your educational choices. The IHIP is your plan, the quarterly reports summarize what you did, and you choose from defined assessment options. The district's role is largely receiving and acknowledging — once you learn the annual rhythm, it becomes routine.
Send a letter of intent to your district — by July 1 for the coming school year, or within 14 days of starting if you begin mid-year. The district then sends you the IHIP paperwork.
The Individualized Home Instruction Plan lists, for each child, the syllabus, curriculum materials, or plan of instruction for each required subject, plus who's teaching and the dates you'll submit quarterly reports. It describes your plan; the district reviews it for completeness, not for approving your educational philosophy.
Four times a year, on the dates you set in your IHIP, you send a short report: hours of instruction, a description of material covered in each subject, and a grade or written progress narrative. Most parents finish each one in under an hour.
Each year ends with an assessment. In the earlier grades you can often use a written narrative evaluation; in the upper grades a norm-referenced standardized test is required at intervals — annually in high school, and at least every other year in the middle grades. Scores above a modest threshold (or showing year-over-year growth) satisfy the requirement.
Plan for the equivalent of 180 days of instruction — commonly cited as about 900 hours annually in grades 1-6 and 990 in grades 7-12 — and keep attendance records available if the district asks.
Send your letter of intent to your district's homeschool office (in New York City, the central office handles it) and keep proof of mailing.
When the district responds, complete the IHIP — templates from New York homeschool organizations make this dramatically easier the first time.
Put your four quarterly report dates and the year-end assessment on your calendar immediately.
Keep a simple weekly log of hours and topics; it becomes your quarterly reports with almost no extra work.
Choose a curriculum that maps cleanly onto IHIP subject lines and generates progress data — Cullinan Academy tracks hours, lessons, and mastery per subject, which turns quarterly reports into a copy-paste job.
Whatever New York asks for — attendance, subject coverage, progress evidence, transcripts — Cullinan Academy tracks it automatically as your kids learn: verified mastery records, time-on-task, printable transcripts with GPA, and state report templates. No spreadsheet required.
They can find it incomplete and ask for revisions, but the IHIP is not an approval gate on your curriculum choices. Respond to deficiency notices promptly and completely, and the process moves on.
Front-loaded: the first LOI and IHIP might take a few evenings. After that, expect roughly an hour per quarterly report and a day for the annual assessment. Templates cut this further.
Nationally normed standardized tests from the state's accepted list, administered per the regulations. In eligible grades, a written narrative evaluation by a qualified person can substitute in some years.
Districts don't issue diplomas to homeschoolers, but parents can. Colleges accept homeschool transcripts, and there are established pathways to demonstrate high school equivalency for financial aid purposes — plan this before senior year.
Same regulations, but New York City processes everything through a central homeschool office rather than your local school, and response times can be slower. Keep copies of everything you send.
This page is general information, not legal advice. Homeschool law changes, and districts sometimes apply it differently. Verify current requirements with your state's department of education or a local homeschool association before filing anything. Content last reviewed 2026-07.