In 2023 Vermont stopped asking home educating families to send in their course of study, and stopped asking them to send in the yearly assessment. It did not stop requiring either one.
That is the whole of this page, and it is worth being blunt about why it needs saying. “You no longer submit a minimum course of study” is one word away from “there is no minimum course of study.” A family that takes that step skips 175 days of planning and a yearly assessment, believing the legislature let them off.
It did the opposite of letting them off. It took away the receipt.
What actually changed in 2023
H.461 was signed on 14 June 2023 and took effect on 1 July. Vermont moved from a submission model to an attestation model. Before, you sent things in and the Agency of Education held them. Now you affirm on the form that you are doing them, and the Agency holds the affirmation.
What a Vermont family owes did not shrink by a single day or a single subject. What changed is who sees it, and the answer is now nobody but you.
The effect of H.461, in force since 1 July 2023
The consequence runs the other way from how it reads. In an attestation model, what you keep is what you would have to produce. When the state held a copy of your course of study, your own filing was a convenience. Now it is the only copy there is. Your records matter more than they did before 2023, not less.
What you are attesting to
- At least 175 days of instruction in the minimum course of study, per year
That is the attestation on the enrollment form, in those terms. It is a real number and it is yours to plan and to keep track of. - A minimum course of study, developed by you
Defined by reference at 16 V.S.A. 906, and the subjects differ for a child under 13 and a child of 13 or older. Read the section rather than a summary of it, because you are planning a year around the answer. - An annual assessment, chosen from the options the law allows
Still required every year. You keep the result. Nothing is sent to the Agency and nobody grades it, which is not the same as nobody needing it to exist.
This page is not going to print the subject list. It is defined by cross-reference and it splits at age 13, and a family plans a year around that list, so read 16 V.S.A. 906 itself and keep what you read.
The paperwork, which is genuinely light
An enrollment notice goes to the Secretary on the Agency of Education’s form, at least 10 business days before instruction starts. Then, within 10 business days of a complete notice, the Secretary sends back a written acknowledgment of receipt, and the statute says that acknowledgment “shall constitute sufficient enrollment verification”.
That acknowledgment is your document. Keep it where you keep the important ones.
It is the thing the statute names as verification, and in a state that no longer holds your course of study or your assessments, it is the one piece of paper with somebody else’s name on it. If it has not arrived within a fortnight of a complete notice, ask.
Each following year you notify the Secretary that you intend to continue, again on the Agency’s form and again at least 10 business days before your intended start date. Put that in the calendar in the summer rather than the week before.
The other page in this series that will mislead you
South Dakota’s guide, written for a state that repealed a pile of requirements in 2021, warns families not to do work that no longer exists. Vermont is the mirror of that, and a reader who has absorbed “the law got lighter, ignore the old guides” will get this state wrong. Vermont’s 2023 change de-reported requirements without repealing them. Both are stale-guidance traps. They run in opposite directions.
| State | What the recent change did | The mistake it invites |
|---|---|---|
| South Dakota (2021) | Repealed testing, renewal and a filing | Doing work nobody asks for any more |
| Vermont (2023) | Stopped collecting the course of study and the assessment | Skipping work that is still required |
Leaving a Vermont school this term?
Fifteen minutes on the phone covers the ten business day lead time, what the attestation actually commits you to, and how to keep a year of records without it taking over your week. No records needed to have the conversation, and deciding against it costs nothing.
Doing it in order
Count back ten business days from your intended start
The enrollment notice is owed before instruction begins, not after. Business days, not days, so a fortnight is the safe way to think about it.
Read 16 V.S.A. 906 and sketch the year
You are attesting to 175 days in the minimum course of study. Do the sketch before you sign the attestation rather than after.
Send the enrollment notice on the Agency’s form
Then watch for the written acknowledgment of receipt. That is your enrollment verification and you want it in hand.
Send the withdrawal letter to the school
Name the last day of attendance and ask for the transcript, immunization records, and course descriptions for any course in progress. Get a reply confirming the enrollment is closed.
Start the year’s file on day one, and the calendar note for next summer
The file is now the only copy of your course of study and your assessment. The calendar note is the continuation notice, ten business days ahead of next year’s start.
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 enrolled in a home study program under 16 V.S.A. 166b, and the enrollment notice has been sent to the Secretary.
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 Vermont school. This page has given the compulsory ages, named the enrollment notice and its ten business day lead time, quoted what the acknowledgment counts as, stated the 175 day attestation, and been plain that the course of study and the annual assessment are still required and simply are not collected. What it will not do is tell you which route to take, or suggest that enrolling here removes the enrollment notice, the course of study or the assessment. Those are 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 Agency 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 home study statute is at the Vermont General Assembly’s own text of 16 V.S.A. 166b, compulsory attendance is at 16 V.S.A. 1121, and the Agency of Education keeps its home study page and forms 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.