Seven weeks ago New Hampshire repealed most of its home education law. Portfolios, annual evaluations and recordkeeping are gone. One requirement survived, and of all the families in the state it applies to yours: the one leaving a public school.
HB 1268, the Home Education Freedom Act, was signed by Governor Kelly Ayotte on July 10, 2026 and enacted as Chapter 297. The sentence that matters to you is the exception inside it:
A declaration of home education shall not be required, except to obtain access to public school programs pursuant to RSA 193:1-c or upon withdrawal from a public school
2026 N.H. Laws ch. 297 (HB 1268)
Two exceptions, and withdrawal is one of them. The Department of Education says the same thing in its own words: notification is required only when a student is being withdrawn from public school, or when a family wants access to public school courses, activities or co-curricular programs.
So a parent who reads “New Hampshire does not require notification any more” is reading something that is true about nearly every family in the state and not true about theirs.
What the state stopped asking for
Repealed outright, not relaxed.
Portfolios, recordkeeping and annual evaluations are no longer required. RSA 193-A:6, the section that carried them, was repealed, along with RSA 193-A:10 and the home education advisory council it created. The act also establishes a parental right to home education and a right to maintain privacy in information related to the administration of the program. Keeping records is now something a family does because records are useful to a family, not because a statute says so. A transcript still matters when a student applies somewhere, and nothing about that changed.
The declaration itself
The act defines it as an optional written statement that the student is home educated and meets the New Hampshire compulsory attendance requirements, signed by a parent, identifying the student by name, date of birth and current address. That is the whole document.
The word optional in that definition is the part that trips people, and it is worth being precise about. The declaration is optional as a general matter, which is the change. It is not optional in your situation, because withdrawal is one of the two named exceptions. Same piece of paper, and whether you owe it depends entirely on which of those two sentences you are standing in.
One thing this page will not tell you, on purpose.
Almost every New Hampshire homeschool guide online still repeats a five business day deadline. That was the rule under the old RSA 193-A:5, and HB 1268 replaced that framework. The sources available here do not settle what timing, if any, now applies to the withdrawal declaration, so this page does not state one. A deadline invented from an out-of-date guide is worse than no deadline at all. Ask the superintendent’s office what they need and when, do it the same week you withdraw, and read RSA 193-A:5 and the chapter text yourself.
What leaving actually requires
- A withdrawal letter to the school, in writing
Delivered so receipt can be shown, naming the last day of attendance. The school keeps your child on its roll until somebody tells it otherwise, and an unexplained empty seat is what starts a truancy call. - The declaration of home education
The one requirement that survived, and it is short: the student is home educated and meets New Hampshire’s compulsory attendance requirements, signed by you, with the child’s name, date of birth and current address. - Confirmation of what the district wants and when
Because the timing is genuinely unsettled after HB 1268 and the office you are filing with will know how it is handling the change. One phone call settles it. - No portfolio, no annual evaluation, no year-end filing
Those were repealed. If a form or a letter asks you for them, it predates July 2026 and is worth asking about rather than filling in. - Records kept because they are useful to you
The statute no longer asks, and a student still needs a transcript eventually. A structured program produces coursework records and progress reports as a byproduct of running. - The transcript and immunization records
Ask for both in the withdrawal letter, along with course descriptions for anything half finished. Schools release them readily while the student is fresh in mind and slowly a year later.
Where New Hampshire sits in the series
Ten states. In nine of them, leaving a public school adds something to a family’s year. New Hampshire is the one where leaving is the only thing that adds anything at all.
| State | What the state asks for | Who has to notify |
|---|---|---|
| Indiana | A daily attendance record | Every home educating family |
| Iowa | An answer, only if asked in writing | Only if the superintendent asks |
| Kansas | A name for the school, once | Every family, once |
| Louisiana | Evidence the year was taught | Every family, yearly |
| Maryland | A portfolio, or an umbrella | Every family |
| Massachusetts | A plan, approved before you leave | Every family |
| Minnesota | A yearly norm-referenced test | Every family |
| Missouri | Hours and a log, held at home | Nobody, filing is optional |
| Nevada | A plan, filed with the notice | Every family, once |
| New Hampshire | A short signed declaration | Only families leaving a public school |
That last row is seven weeks old. It is worth checking the date on anything else you read about this state.
Leaving a New Hampshire public school this term?
Fifteen minutes on the phone covers the letter, the declaration, and what a structured program keeps on your behalf now that the state has stopped asking. No records required to have the conversation, and deciding against it costs nothing.
Doing it in order
Call the superintendent’s office first
Ask what they want for a withdrawal declaration and by when. The law changed in July and the office is the one place that can tell you how it is being handled locally.
Pick the last day and the first day
The last day at the public school and the first day of instruction at home, 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. Ask in the same letter for the transcript, immunization records, and course descriptions for anything in progress.
File the declaration
Name, date of birth, current address, your signature, and the statement that the student is home educated and meets compulsory attendance requirements. Keep a copy.
Keep records for your own reasons
No portfolio is owed to anyone now. A transcript is still what a college or an employer asks for, so the reason to keep good records survived the repeal even though the requirement did not.
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 be home educated under New Hampshire law, and the declaration of home education required on withdrawal is being provided to [district / superintendent’s office].
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 New Hampshire school. This page has quoted the exception that keeps the declaration alive for withdrawing families, named what HB 1268 repealed, given the declaration’s contents as the act defines them, and linked the chapter text and RSA 193-A:5 so you are reading the law rather than a summary of it. What it has deliberately not done is state a filing deadline, because the sources here do not establish one after July 2026 and the old five day figure is still repeated everywhere. It also cannot tell you how your particular district is handling a change this recent, which is exactly why step one is a phone call.
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.