In most states, teaching your child at home is an exception to the school attendance law. A hole you climb through. South Dakota used to say that too, and then it stopped.
Until 2021 the law here described home educating families as operating under an excuse from compulsory attendance. Senate Bill 177 changed the wording on 1 July 2021. Alternative instruction is now one of the ways a family complies with the compulsory attendance law, sitting alongside an accredited school and an approved private school rather than outside them.
That reads like a lawyer’s tidying. It is not, and the rest of this page is why.
Everything else follows from the change of word
Work through what stops making sense once you are complying rather than being let off.
- There is nobody in particular to ask
The Alternative Instruction Notification goes to the Department of Education OR to your local school district. You choose which. No state that thought of this as a favour would leave the choice to you. - It is filed once per child, not once a year
Annual renewal was removed by SB 177. There is no anniversary to remember and nothing expires on its own. - It goes in AFTER you begin, not before
Within 30 days of the instruction starting. That is the reverse of most of this series, where the paperwork gates the leaving. - There is no test to sit and no result to send
Standardized testing at grades 2, 4, 8 and 11 was eliminated, and so was the requirement to submit assessment results. Nobody is checking whether you earned the excuse, because it is not an excuse. - The birth certificate filing is gone too
Removed by the same bill. If a checklist tells you to send one, that checklist is describing a law that ended in 2021.
A child aged six through eighteen must be in an accredited school, an approved private school, or covered by an active Alternative Instruction Notification. Three ways to satisfy the same duty.
The shape of South Dakota law after SB 177, SDCL 13-27-1 and 13-27-3
The part where most guidance you will find is wrong
This matters more here than in any other state we have written about, because South Dakota’s law changed recently and a great deal of the advice online predates it or was copied from something that did.
If a guide tells you to do any of these, it is out of date.
Renew your notification every year. Sit a standardized test at the end of grade 2, 4, 8 or 11. Send the results to anybody. File a copy of your child’s birth certificate. All four requirements ended on 1 July 2021. The cost of following old advice is not only wasted effort; it is a family believing they have fallen behind on obligations that do not exist.
The one thing that is not once and for all
The notification is filed one time for each child unless a transition has occurred, and the transitions are named: the instruction beginning, a child coming out of a traditional classroom, and a move to a different school district.
That last one is the trap. A family who filed correctly in Sioux Falls, then moved across a district line two years later, has had a transition. The notification does not travel with the address. It is a five minute job to file again and an unpleasant conversation if you do not.
What South Dakota asks of the instruction itself
Very little, and it is worth stating plainly rather than hedging. The instruction must cover language arts and mathematics, and be designed to lead toward mastery of the English language. There is no approved curriculum, no minimum hours written into the notification, no qualification required of the parent and nothing submitted for review.
Where South Dakota sits in the series
| State | When the paperwork is due | What it is called |
|---|---|---|
| Rhode Island | Approved before you begin | An approval you ask a committee for |
| Wisconsin | Filed on or before the last day of attendance | A form nobody approves |
| Hawaii | Given before the instruction begins | A notice, acknowledged but not permitted |
| South Dakota | Within 30 days after you begin | A notification that you are complying |
Leaving a South Dakota school this term?
Fifteen minutes on the phone covers what the notification asks for, which office to send it to, and what changed in 2021 so you are not working from a guide that describes the old law. No records needed to have the conversation, and deciding against it costs nothing.
Doing it in order
Send the withdrawal letter to the school
Name the last day of attendance and get a reply confirming the enrollment is closed. Unlike most of this series, nothing has to be filed with anyone first.
Begin the instruction
Whenever you and your child are ready. The clock on the notification starts here, not at the letter.
File the Alternative Instruction Notification within 30 days
On the department’s form, to the Department of Education or to your local district. Keep a copy and the confirmation.
Request the records in the withdrawal letter
Transcript, immunization records, and course descriptions for anything half finished. Schools release these readily while a student is fresh in mind and slowly a year later.
Note the one condition that brings it back
If you later move to a different school district, file again. Nothing else expires, and this one is easy to forget precisely because nothing else does.
The withdrawal letter, ready to send
Short is correct. This goes to the school your child attends now, addressed to the principal and copied to the registrar.
Dear Principal [name],
This letter is formal notice that our child, [student full name], date of birth [DOB], currently in grade [grade], is withdrawn from [school] effective [last day of attendance]. [He/She/They] will be provided with alternative instruction under SDCL 13-27-3, and the Alternative Instruction Notification will be filed within thirty days of that instruction beginning.
Please update your enrollment records accordingly and confirm receipt of this letter by reply. Please also send a complete transcript, immunization records, and course descriptions for any course in progress to [address / email].
Thank you for your help.
[Your name]
[Address]
[Telephone]
What we can and cannot tell you
High School of America is an accredited private school based in Florida, not a South Dakota school. This page has given the compulsory ages, named the notification and where it goes, put the thirty day window on the right side of the start date, listed what the 2021 bill removed, and named the one transition that brings the filing back. What it will not do is tell you which route to take, or suggest that enrolling here removes the notification. That form is owed whatever school your child attends next, and the choice belongs to your household, least of all to a school that gains from your enrollment. Ask the department in writing and keep the reply.
If you want a person to talk it through with, that is what the counselor call is for, and it is not a sales appointment. Bring whatever records you have, or none.
The department keeps its home schooling page and the Alternative Instruction Notification form online, and the enrolled text of Senate Bill 177 is the change itself. The wider picture sits on the requirements state by state, and if you are early enough to still be deciding, the three-route comparison weighs this against staying exactly where you are.