Alden House. Parent Center

Homeschooling in Rhode Island

What the law requires, what you file and when, and what to keep — with the statute behind each rule.

approval and review 9 sources Verified 12 October 2026

What Rhode Island requires

Notify
School committee of your city/town of residence (usually sent to the district superintendent); approval is required, not just notice — Before beginning home instruction each school year (no statutory date; check your district's homeschool policy) (annual)
Testing or evaluation
Not required.
Subjects set by the state
Yes — 10 required subjects, listed below
Teaching time
180 days — in detail
Compulsory school age
6 to 18 — in detail
Records
Attendance register, kept in the same form as public school registers, available to the school committee (HSLDA advises providing it at the end of the school year).

Confidence in this record: medium. The facts below come from the sources listed, but at least one could not be confirmed against a primary source.

Taking your child out of school in Rhode Island

First move: Submit your request for home-instruction approval to the school committee/superintendent and formally withdraw the child from the school in writing (certified mail recommended).

Because the law requires approval, check your district's policy on whether the child must keep attending until approval is granted. A family aggrieved by a refusal can appeal to the R.I.

Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (RIDE).

The legal routes

2 routes exist in Rhode Island. They carry different duties, and families often do not know the alternatives to the obvious one.

At-home instruction approved by the local school committee
Homeschooling is lawful when the school committee of the town where the child lives approves the home instruction. Approval must be based on instruction time substantially equal to public school, required subjects taught in English 'thoroughly and efficiently', and an attendance register.
Approved private day school
Attendance at a private day school approved by the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education also satisfies compulsory attendance.

The notice, and who receives it

Goes to
School committee of your city/town of residence (usually sent to the district superintendent); approval is required, not just notice
Deadline
Before beginning home instruction each school year (no statutory date; check your district's homeschool policy)
Renews
annual
Form
Request for approval of home instruction / notice of intent (no state form; many districts have their own form and policy)

No official state form was found online for this route; the body above supplies it, or a letter serves.

Subjects Rhode Island requires

  • reading
  • writing
  • geography
  • arithmetic
  • U.S. history
  • Rhode Island history
  • principles of American government
  • English (instruction must be in English)
  • health
  • physical education

See which courses here cover these subjects →

Compulsory school age

6 (by September 1 of the school year) to 18; a younger child enrolled in kindergarten is also covered.

Teaching time

Substantially equal to public schools (generally treated as 180 days).

Who may teach

Rhode Island sets no qualification for the parent teaching at home: no teaching certificate, no college degree, and no requirement that you hold a high school diploma.

Testing and evaluation

No statewide testing requirement in statute. Local school committee homeschool policies may ask for additional information, such as an annual assessment or evidence of progress, as part of approval; check your district's policy.

Records to keep

Attendance register, kept in the same form as public school registers, available to the school committee (HSLDA advises providing it at the end of the school year). Recommended: list of materials, work samples, any test results and all correspondence.

High school, diplomas and transcripts

Parent issues the diploma/transcript; no state homeschool graduation requirements found.

Public school classes, sports and activities

No statewide part-time enrollment law found. Homeschoolers may play Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) sports under RIIL Rule 3 if the local school approves, the student is on the school's rolls, and the homeschool reports quarterly grades to the school.

Funding: education savings accounts, vouchers and tax credits

None known for homeschoolers (no ESA or homeschool tax credit found).

What changed recently

No enacted homeschool changes found for 2023-2026. 2026 H.B.

8531, which would have let school committees deny homeschooling as 'not in the best interest of the child' and keep children enrolled while a request is pending, was held for further study and died when the session ended in June 2026. Sec. 16-19-1 was last amended in 2022 (truancy procedures; homeschool exemption unchanged).

What we could not confirm

Could not reach a RIDE homeschool page or form. Health and physical education are listed as required by HSLDA but are not in Sec.

16-19-2 itself (likely from separate statutes requiring them in all schools; not verified). Whether districts may require annual testing/assessment as a condition of approval rests on local policies and Commissioner decisions not reviewed here. RIIL Rule 3 details come from a 2020 HSLDA page and may be outdated. 'High' regulation level reflects the approval requirement; there is no statewide testing mandate. Web search budget ran out during RI research, limiting cross-checks.

  • Statutory basis for health and physical education as required subjects (HSLDA lists them; 16-19-2 does not)

Listed because a legal summary that hides its gaps is harder to trust than one that names them. How these pages are checked.

Statutes and sources

Statute and regulation

  • R.I. Gen. Laws Sec. 16-19-1
  • R.I. Gen. Laws Sec. 16-19-2

Statute text

Secondary sources