Montana Coalition of Home Educators
Getting Started
So you are thinking about home schooling your children in Montana?
Every state has compulsory attendance laws. In Montana the compulsory attendance laws for instruction is 7-16. That means that every child in Montana must be enrolled in public school when they are at least 7 years old, and up to 16 years old - UNLESS they are exempted by attending a nonpublic or home school.
In Montana a home school is defined as "instruction by a parent of the parent's child, stepchild, or ward in the parent's residence". To satisfy Montana law there are five requirements to be met (20-5-109 MCA):
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Maintain records on pupil attendance and disease immunization and make the records available to the county superintendent of schools on request;
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Provide at least the minimum aggregate hours of pupil instruction in accordance with 20-1-301 and 20-1-302 ;
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Be housed in a building that complies with applicable local health and safety regulations;
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Provide an organized course of study that includes instruction in the subjects required of public schools as a basic instructional program pursuant to 20-7-111 ; and
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Notify the County Superintendent of Schools, of the county in which the home school is located, in each school fiscal year of the student's attendance at the school.
Responsibilities and rights of parent who provides home school in Montana (20-5-111 MCA)
HSLDA Guidance for Montana parents thinking of home schooling
Notifying the County Superintendent of Schools: THE ANNUAL NOTIFICATION BY HOME SCHOOLING PARENTS, NEEDS TO BE DELIVERED TO THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS - NOT THE LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT. (The ELECTED County Superintendent of Schools has an office in the county courthouse). The school district superintendent is a different office AND has NO responsibility with home schools OR the required annual notification requirement.
IMPORTANT: Until notifying the County Superintendent of Schools, the child(s) is not EXEMPT from the 'compulsory attendance' law in Montana - thus they could be deemed truant. One other thing to consider, in most Montana counties, if the student(s) are absent in their school district (not attending public school) for more than ten days, they are considered truant. So technically, ten days after their school district year starts, and the County Superintendent's office has not been notified, they are truant in their school district.
A Special Note about the Superintendent's Request for Student Names & Grade Level:
It is important to understand the purpose (and legislative intent) of notifying the County Superintendent of Schools - it is an annual requirement to achieve EXEMPTION from Montana's compulsory attendance law. The 1983 Legislature worked very hard to craft legislation that would create a law providing for families to choose an educational venue other than public schools. Even though the annual notification section does NOT specifically state that the notification (not registration) information provided include the student's name, exemption could not be 'connected' to a child without the name of the child. There are times when families have multiple children, and are NOT home educating them all (some may attend public or private school). Therefore, the intent of the legislature was to simply allow parents to notify the County Superintendent as to which of their children are being home educated and thus satisfy the law for exemption.
Regarding the issue of requesting student grade level, ALL schools (public, private and home) are required by federal law to be advised of their right to participate in some specific federal grant programs ('FP'). This request (and notification requirement) varies depending on student grade level (elementary v. high school). The County Superintendent's office often includes the FP question on a form to help sort out who has interest in participation (a YES or NO question). All they ask for is whether the family is interested in participating in their school district's federal programs, (a description is often provided). If they do, then the school district sends them information in the Spring. If they don't want to participate, they will not be contacted again.
Knowing the grade level of the student(s) helps the County Superintendent's office provide the correct form. This is a federal requirement that has been in existence for over 30 years (and in 50 states).
(CLICK HERE for a sample notification form to print out and use)
To view a complete listing of all the County Superintendents of Schools in Montana CLICK HERE
Attendance Records: Until about 10 years ago, attendance for the year was reported in days (180 days for year). The law was changed to remove required days, thus leaving only the required hours (720 or 1080 hrs / year) (see 20-1-301 MCA). (This was done by the legislature to provide flexibility to the public schools for 'snow' days, thus eliminating longer school years for making up 'lost' days) Attendance records need to be reported to the County Superintendent only IF REQUESTED. Some County Superintendents will provide a form to use as a courtesy. There is no mandate to use their form if you have your own. The hours of instruction are from July 1 to June 30 annually.
Here are some great sites that offer Attendance Record and Transcript Forms:
https://www.123homeschool4me.com/free-homeschool-forms-to-help-you-get_11/
https://hslda.org/post/free-high-school-transcript-templates
https://homeeducator.com/homeschool-transcript-template/
Disease Immunization Records: IF REQUESTED, Montana home educators are required to provide disease immunization records to the County Superintendent of Schools UNLESS the parent has a religious or medical objection (see Montana law: 20-5-405 MCA).
CLICK HERE for a form to submit to the County Superintendent
A complete list of Montana laws related to home education can be found under the 'Law' section.
Here is a great article from an experienced home educator for those considering home schooling in Montana:
"So You Think You Want to Home School This Year?"
For a complete general checklist of home schooling startup tips, visit:
"Getting Started in Home Schooling by Mary Pride"
Home education in Montana is slightly different depending on the age of your children:
Home educating your Elementary age child
Home educating your Middle Grade age child
Home educating your High School age child
Montana Content Standards & Model Curriculum Standards CLICK HERE
Participating in Public School Sports CLICK HERE
Special Needs Home School Students and Public Schools CLICK HERE (HSLDA) CLICK HERE
IMPORTANT (COVID RELATED) TESTING INFORMATION FOR GRADUATING SENIORS: CLICK HERE
Regarding Accreditation (and 'accredited programs):
Often, home educators seek out instructional programs that are ‘accredited’ in order to have a degree of assurance that their child (aka student) will have little problem with a possible re-entry into public school OR that the ultimate high school diploma will be equal (to public schools) in acceptance by higher educational institutions (aka colleges or universities or vocational schools).
The use of the important word ‘accredited’ can cause those who are analyzing a program(s) for their use, to assume that it is fully accredited in Montana, on equal footing with Montana’s public (or accredited private) schools. It is not. The Montana Board of Education, over the years, has fulfilled Montana law (20-7-101(1) MCA) by creating the requirements for accreditation that the Montana Office of Public Instruction (OPI) is charged with administering. No school, private or home, can achieve comparable accreditation outside of strict adherence to OPI’s standards. These standards include teacher certification, curriculum approval, etc..
In seeking out home education programs that advertise as being accredited in Montana, it is important to challenge the company to provide proof of their accreditation approval by Montana's OPI. There have been a number of cases over the years, where families were using 'accredited' home education programs, expecting NO difficulties in possible re-entry to public schools, and/or entry into universities, colleges or vocational schools - and they ended up with problems.
Legal Help: Consider joining Home School Legal Defense Association
What about getting into Montana colleges? CLICK HERE