Hawaiʻi · HAR Title 8 Chapter 12

Start homeschooling in Hawaiʻi

You do not need permission. You need to tell one principal, in writing, before you begin. This page writes that letter for you in about two minutes.

What the rule actually says. Hawaiʻi treats homeschooling as an exception to compulsory attendance, not as a school you have to register. Under §8-12-13 you give notice to the principal of the school your child would otherwise attend. There is no approval step, no waiting period, and no documents to attach. Homeschooling begins when you submit the notice.

Who is the child?

Child’s full name

Date of birth

Grade level

Home address

Telephone

Your name (parent)

Those six items are the entire legal content of the notice. Everything else on this page is there to make the letter easy to act on.

Where does it go?

My child is enrolled in a Hawaiʻi public school right now You will also complete DOE Form 4140 to withdraw. The letter below still goes with it. My child is in private school, out of state, or has never been enrolled The letter alone is sufficient. Send it to the principal of your assigned neighborhood school.

School of record

Not sure which school you are assigned to? Use the HIDOE school finder and enter your street address.

Principal’s name optional

Homeschooling begins

Notice of intent to homeschool · §8-12-13

What happens next

What you keep from here on

§8-12-15 asks you to keep a record of the planned curriculum. You do not send it in. You keep it, and you draw the annual progress report out of it.

The record must show	In practice
Start and end dates	The dates your program runs
Hours per week	Roughly how much instruction happens
Subject areas	Language arts, Math, Social studies, Science, Art, Music, Health, PE
Method of mastery	How you know the child learned it
Materials	Texts and resources in bibliographic format

Testing and the annual report

Under §8-12-18 you give the principal an annual progress report. That report is due in every grade.

In grades 3, 5, 8, and 10 only, the report includes a score from a nationally normed standardized test. In every other grade you may instead submit a written evaluation by a Hawaiʻi certified teacher, or your own written evaluation with a description of progress in each subject, representative samples of the child’s work, and representative tests and assignments.

§8-12-19 is worth reading once: a parent teaching their own child at home is deemed a qualified instructor. No credential is required of you.

What comes next

Your record starts on day one. The learning ledger is free, and it builds the annual report from what you log.