Louisiana’s home study law does something no other state in this series does: it changes tense on you. The first year, the statute accepts a promise about the future. Every year after that, it wants proof about the past. Reading the two sentences side by side is the fastest way to understand the whole system.
Both sentences live in the same section. The initial application to the state board
shall be approved if the parent certifies that the home study program will offer a sustained curriculum of quality at least equal to that offered by public schools at the same grade level
La. R.S. 17:236.1
Certifies. Will offer. A signature on a promise, and year one is granted. Then the renewal, due by October 1 or within twelve months of the initial approval, whichever is later:
satisfactory evidence that the program has in fact offered a sustained curriculum of quality at least equal to that offered by public schools
La. R.S. 17:236.1
Has in fact offered. The state’s own guidelines name what counts as satisfactory evidence: standardized test scores at or above grade level, or a curriculum packet with subject outlines, book lists, samples of the student’s work and statements from people who watched the year happen, or a statement from a Louisiana-certified teacher. The promise gets a family in. The receipts keep it in.
The other door never asks either question
Louisiana runs two lawful routes, and only one of them grades the year.
Beside the approved home study program stands the registered nonpublic school not seeking state approval: no application, no evidence, no October deadline. An annual online registration with the education department, listing the school’s name, address, parish and student count, filed within 30 days of beginning the school session. Families choose between the two for their own reasons, and both fully satisfy the attendance law. What neither route does is close the public school’s roll: that is the withdrawal letter’s job, and it comes first either way.
The statute is short and worth reading whole at R.S. 17:236.1, and the state board’s own home study program guidelines spell out the evidence lists in the department’s words.
What leaving actually requires
- A withdrawal letter the school can acknowledge
Delivered so receipt can be shown, naming the last day of attendance. A student who simply stops appearing is an enrolled child collecting absences, whichever lawful route the family has chosen. - A choice between the two routes, made before the paperwork
The approved home study program promises now and proves annually; the registered nonpublic school files a short registration and proves nothing. Read both before a district letter chooses for you. - For the home study route: a year worth keeping
The renewal’s curriculum packet is assembled from things a running program produces anyway: outlines, book lists, work samples. A family that keeps them as it goes never has a worried September. - For the nonpublic school route: the 30-day registration
Name, address, parish, student count, filed online within 30 days of starting the session, and again each year. That is the entire ongoing duty. - Records requested on the way out
Transcript, immunization records, and course descriptions for anything half finished, requested in the withdrawal letter while the file is still open.
Where Louisiana sits in the series
Five states, and Louisiana is the first that ever asks a second question.
| State | Is anything filed? | Does the state ever check back? |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado | Notice, to a district the family picks | Evaluations at five named grades |
| Indiana | Nothing required; one form offered, voluntary | Only if a named official asks for the roll book |
| Iowa | The family chooses: an optional report, or nothing | Only upon a written request |
| Kansas | The school’s name and address, once | Never |
| Louisiana | A certification, or a 30-day registration | The approved route: yes, every renewal, with evidence. The registered route: no |
Every earlier state in the series trusts the family by default and stops there. Louisiana’s approved route extends the same year-one trust, then asks the family to show its work annually. A guide that calls Louisiana simply “an easy state” or simply “a strict state” has missed that it is deliberately both, one per door.
Choosing a door before October?
Fifteen minutes on the phone covers the withdrawal letter, how the two Louisiana routes differ in practice, and how a structured program’s records, teacher grading and test options map onto the renewal evidence if the approved route is the one you want. No records required to have the conversation, and deciding against it costs nothing.
Doing it in order
Read both routes before anything is sent
One statute section and one registration page. Knowing which door the household is choosing turns every later deadline from a surprise into a calendar entry.
Pick the last day and the first day
The last day at the public school and the first day of home instruction, ideally adjacent, so the student is never marked absent and never off every roll at once.
Send the withdrawal letter so receipt can be shown
Email the principal and the registrar together; the reply is your proof. Name the effective date plainly.
File the chosen route’s paperwork
The home study application with its certification, or the nonpublic school registration within 30 days of starting. Either one is a single sitting.
On the approved route, collect the year as it happens
A folder that receives outlines, book lists and work samples monthly makes the October renewal an errand instead of an excavation. Test scores or a certified teacher’s statement can stand in for the packet entirely.
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]. Beginning [start date], [he/she/they] will receive home-based education under Louisiana law, through [an approved home study program under R.S. 17:236.1 / enrollment in a registered nonpublic school].
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 Louisiana one. Whether any particular arrangement offers a curriculum at least equal to the public schools’ is the judgment the statute assigns to the certification and the renewal evidence, and this page has not made it for anyone. What the page has done is quote both operative sentences with their tenses intact, list the state’s own evidence categories, mark the October 1 and 30-day deadlines, and link the statute and the board’s guidelines so you are reading the sources rather than a summary of them.
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 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.