Michigan does something no other state in this series does. It gives you two separate legal routes out of public school attendance, says a child may be exempt under either of them, and attaches different obligations to each. Most families never learn there was a choice.
The statute is unusually plain about it.
Exemption from the requirement to attend public school may exist under either the nonpublic school provision or the home education program provision, or both.
Michigan Compiled Laws 380.1561
That matters because the two doors are not equivalent in what they ask of you afterward. Walk through the nonpublic school door when the home education door was the one you wanted, and you have taken on reporting nobody required of you.
The two doors, and what each asks
Under the home education program, a child is exempt when “being educated at home by parent or legal guardian in an organized educational program” covering nine named subject areas. On this route the Michigan Department of Education is explicit: the home school family does not report as a nonpublic school to the Department. Compulsory attendance is interpreted and enforced by your local and intermediate school districts, so they are who might ever ask.
Under the nonpublic school provision, a child is exempt when “attending regularly and is being taught in a state approved nonpublic school, which teaches subjects comparable to those taught in public schools to children of corresponding age and grade.” That is a school with its own reporting obligations, and it is a different thing from a family teaching at home.
| Home education program | Nonpublic school | |
|---|---|---|
| Who teaches | Parent or legal guardian | The school |
| What is required | An organized program across nine named subjects | Subjects comparable to the public schools |
| Report to the Department | No, per the Department itself | Yes, as a school |
| Who may ask questions | Local and intermediate districts | Local and intermediate districts |
The nine subjects, as a checklist
The home education route names them in the statute itself, which makes this the rare requirement a parent can simply work down and tick off.
Nothing in that list sets hours, and nothing in it requires a particular curriculum or textbook. The word the statute uses is organized, which is a description of your program, not a licence for anyone to approve it.
The letter, ready to send
Michigan does not require you to file a notice of intent with the Department under the home education route. Sending a short, dated letter to the school you are leaving is still worth doing, because it fixes the withdrawal date and starts the records request in the same breath.
Withdrawal and records request · copy and fill in
[Date]
[Principal name]
[School name]
[School address]
Dear [Principal name],
This letter is to advise you that my child, [student full name], date of birth [DOB], currently in grade [grade], is withdrawing from [school name] effective [date] and will be educated at home in an organized educational program.
Please provide a complete copy of my child’s school records, including the transcript, immunization record, attendance record, and any current individualized education program or 504 plan, and please confirm in writing the date the withdrawal takes effect.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Address]
[Phone and email]
Notice what the letter does not include. It does not attach a curriculum, propose a schedule, or invite review, because the home education route asks for none of those and offering them starts a conversation the statute does not provide for.
The records to ask for, and why each one matters
- The transcript
The only document proving what has already been earned. Ask for an official copy while your child is still on the roll, which is a different conversation from asking afterward. - The immunization record
Needed by whatever comes next, and tedious to rebuild from a paediatric office years later. - The attendance record
Seldom requested and occasionally decisive, because it documents what was actually happening in the year you are leaving. - The IEP or 504 plan, if there is one
The plan belongs to the district that wrote it and does not travel with your child. The copy does, and it is what any future evaluation starts from. - Course descriptions for credits in progress
If a course is half finished, the description is what a receiving school reads when deciding on partial credit. - Written confirmation of the withdrawal date
It settles which district was responsible for which part of the year, and it costs one sentence to ask for.
Not sure which of these applies to your student?
Fifteen minutes with the transcript in front of somebody settles it. Whichever door suits you, nothing about it commits you to enrolling.
What happens to the credits already earned
This is the question families ask before any other. MCL 380.1561 governs attendance and exemption. It does not compel a receiving school to accept credit earned elsewhere, so the answer rests on the record you can produce and on the school receiving it.
Which is exactly why the transcript and the course descriptions sit near the top of the checklist. A documented credit travels. A credit that exists only as a memory of a good semester does not.
Before you withdraw
Decide which door you are walking through.
Home education program, or enrollment in a state approved nonpublic school. They are different exemptions with different obligations, and the statute allows either.
Request the records in the same week.
You are a current family today. That changes the moment the student comes off the roll.
Write the nine subjects down somewhere.
They are the whole of what the home education route asks for in substance. Keeping your own note of how each is covered costs nothing and answers the only question a district could reasonably raise.
Do not volunteer a curriculum for approval.
Nothing in the home education provision calls for one, and offering it invites a review the statute does not authorise.
Comparing Michigan with somewhere else, or moving? The differences between states are not cosmetic. Kentucky puts the duty to notify the board on the school rather than the parent. Arizona sends an affidavit to the county and wants a second notice if you stop. New Jersey requires no notice at all. New York requires an individualised plan, quarterly reports and an annual assessment, and issues no diploma for home instruction. Our state withdrawal guides take them one at a time.
And if what you are really weighing is what happens to your student’s credits and how long remains to a diploma, that is a short conversation with a counselor and the transcript in front of you. Book a time or call (888) 242-4262.
Sources: Michigan Compiled Laws 380.1561, and the Michigan Department of Education’s Nonpublic and Home Schools guidance. This page describes Michigan’s published requirements and is not legal advice.