In every other state we have written about, the paperwork of leaving goes away from you. Hawaii is the one place where it comes back, signed, into your own hands.
You give a notice of intent to the principal of the school your child would otherwise attend. The principal and the complex area superintendent acknowledge it, sign and date it, and return it to you. A copy stays on file at the school and at the district office, and the reason the rule works that way is stated plainly: the document exists to protect your family from unfounded accusations of educational neglect or truancy.
That is a genuinely good piece of administrative design, and it is also the most misread document in this series, because two signatures on a returned form look exactly like an approval. The department says otherwise, in its own words, and it is worth reading twice.
The principal and the complex area superintendent are acknowledging receipt and not granting permission.
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, on the notice of intent
Why that distinction is the whole page
Because Hawaii asks more of a home educating family after the notice than several states in this series ask at any point. If you read the signatures as a yes, you will reasonably conclude the matter is settled, and it is not settled. Nothing about that acknowledgment waives what follows.
- A curriculum record for each child
Kept by you, covering what your child is actually taught. It is not sent in with the notice and it is not optional. - An annual progress report to the principal
Every year, for each child. Four routes are open to you and one of them is your own writing, which is covered below. - Standardized test results at the end of grades 3, 5, 8 and 10
Those four grades, from a criterion referenced or norm referenced test. Not every year, and not at your discretion either.
None of that is unreasonable, and plenty of families find it lighter in practice than it reads on a page. The failure mode is not the work. It is a parent who filed correctly in September, got a signed sheet back, put it in a drawer feeling finished, and heard the word “report” for the first time the following spring.
What the notice itself has to contain
You may use the department’s Form 4140, or you may write a plain letter. The letter route needs your child’s name, address and telephone number, their birthdate and grade level, and your signature. That is the whole list.
It goes to the principal of the school the child would otherwise attend, before home schooling begins, and again if the child later transfers to another school. Give it in a way that lets you show you gave it.
Do not leave without the signed copy.
The returned, acknowledged sheet is the one document in this whole process that exists specifically to be produced later, and it is the school’s job to hand it back. If a fortnight passes and nothing has come back to you, ask the office for it by name. Then keep it somewhere you would keep a birth certificate, not in an email folder.
The annual report, and the option most families do not know about
The yearly progress report can be satisfied four ways. A score at grade level on a nationally normed standardized achievement test. One grade level of progress on such a test over the previous calendar year. A written evaluation by a state certified teacher. Or, fourth, a written evaluation by you, the parent, describing your child’s progress in each subject.
That fourth route is worth knowing about before you go looking for a tester in March. It does not make the requirement disappear and it is not a lesser option; it is one of the four the rule names.
Where Hawaii sits in the series
Tennessee is the instructive contrast, because a reader arriving from that page will have the wrong instinct here. Tennessee asks a lot at the door and very little afterwards. Hawaii asks a moderate amount at the door and keeps asking.
| State | What happens to your filing | What continues afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| Tennessee | Filed and not looked at | Very little |
| Washington | Filed with the district, nothing returns | Annual testing or assessment, kept by you |
| West Virginia | Filed once, never mentioned again | An annual assessment, on stated conditions |
| Wisconsin | Filed online, you print your own receipt | Nothing submitted, ever |
| Hawaii | Signed by two officials and given back to you | A record, a yearly report, and tests at four grades |
Leaving a Hawaii school this term?
Fifteen minutes on the phone covers what goes in the notice, which of the four annual report routes suits your household, and which records to ask the school for before you go. No records needed to have the conversation, and deciding against it costs nothing.
Doing it in order
Write the notice before the last day of attendance
Form 4140 or your own letter with the six items. It is owed before home schooling begins, so it goes in first and the leaving follows.
Give it to the principal in a way you can evidence
Hand delivered with a dated copy for yourself, or by email so the sent message stands as proof. Ask when the acknowledged copy will come back.
Chase the signed copy if it does not arrive
Two signatures, dated. This is the document the whole rule was built around; do not let it go missing in an office.
Request the records in the same breath
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.
Put next year’s report in the calendar now
And check which grade your child will be in. If it is 3, 5, 8 or 10, a standardized test result is owed as well, and testers book up.
The notice, ready to adapt
This is the letter route rather than Form 4140. Either is accepted. It goes to the principal of the school your child attends now.
Dear Principal [name],
This letter is my notice of intent to home school my child, [student full name], of [address], telephone [your telephone], born [DOB], currently in grade [grade] at [school]. Home schooling will begin on [start date], and [he/she/they] will be withdrawn from [school] effective [last day of attendance].
Please acknowledge this notice and return an acknowledged copy to me at [address / email]. Please also send a complete transcript, immunization records, and course descriptions for any course in progress.
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 Hawaii school. This page has given the compulsory ages, said who the notice goes to and what it must contain, explained that it comes back signed and what those signatures do and do not mean, and listed the three things that continue afterwards. What it will not do is tell you which route to take, or suggest that enrolling here removes the notice, the record, the annual report or the tests at grades 3, 5, 8 and 10. Those are owed to the department 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 principal 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 compulsory attendance statute is at the Hawaii State Legislature’s own text of 302A-1132, the rule is the Board of Education’s Chapter 8-12, Compulsory Attendance Exceptions, and the department keeps its homeschool page and Form 4140 online. 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.