Mississippi

Homeschool statute: Parents must file annual notice of intent to homeschool with the local school district and provide 180 days of instruction. There are no teacher qualification, subject, bookkeeping, or assessment requirements.

Homeschool Statute

Mississippi law states that a child may be educated in a “legitimate home instruction program.” A child may be homeschooled by a parent, guardian or custodian. For the full homeschool statute, see Mississippi Code Annotated § 37-13-91(3)(c).

Notification

A parent, guardian, or custodian must submit a certificate of enrollment prepared by the Office of Compulsory School Attendance Enforcement of the State Department of Education to school attendance officer where the child resides by September 15th of each year, or a later date during the school year if the child was enrolled in a public school during that school year. This certificate will ask parents to provide: (a) the name, address, telephone number, and date of birth of the child; (b) the name, address, and telephone number of the parent, guardian, or custodian of the child; (c) a simple description of the type of education the child is receiving; and (d) the signature of the parent, guardian, or custodian of the child.

Qualifications

None.

Days Or Hours

180 days, “except that the ‘nonpublic’ school term shall be the number of days that each school shall require for promotion from grade to grade.” Home instruction programs are counted as nonpublic schools. See Miss. Code Ann. §§ 37-13-91(2)(e) and 37-13-91(2)(i).

Subjects

None.

Bookkeeping

None.

Assessment

None.

Intervention

(1) If a parent fails to submit the required certificate of enrollment, the school attendance officer will give the parent 10 days to submit certificate of enrollment. (2) Failure to educate is included in the state’s definition of neglect and may be reported to Mississippi’s Child Protective Services.

Other

n/a