Deptford Online Homeschool
Deptford is a school-choice district. It opens places to students from outside the township, and it announces how many are available once a year, by grade. Some years there is room. Some years, in some grades, there is not.
An online home school does not work that way. There is no slot count, no annual announcement and no list to be on. That is the whole difference, and it is worth understanding before you plan a year around a number that has not been published yet.
What “choice” actually means in Deptford
Deptford Township Schools takes part in New Jersey’s Interdistrict Public School Choice Program, which lets a student who lives somewhere else attend at no cost to the family. It is a genuinely good thing, and it is why plenty of families in Gloucester County look at Deptford at all.
The part that catches people is the mechanism. Available slots are announced annually, by grade. A place in fourth grade this year tells you very little about a place in fifth grade next year, and nothing at all about a sibling two years behind. Choice here is real, but it is renewed rather than held.
Choice at a district is a place that has to be available. Enrolment with us is a decision you make.
Deptford Township Schools, by the numbers
This is not a district families flee. It is a large, well-staffed system that other townships actively send students to, which is worth saying plainly before describing an alternative to it.
Figures as reported for Deptford Township Schools, 2020–21. District Factor Groups are New Jersey’s own socioeconomic banding.
Deptford runs a PreK centre and a separate kindergarten centre, four elementary schools for grades 1 to 5, one middle school and one high school of just over a thousand students. Twelve to one is a good ratio. The high school is large enough to carry a wide course list, which is exactly why the choice programme has takers.
Families here are usually not leaving over teaching. They leave because a place did not come up in the grade they needed, because a student is ahead in one subject and waiting in the room, or because the household’s year does not fit a September start.
Start any month, in any grade
What we do not ask
No slot count. No annual window. No lottery, no waiting list, and no catchment to live inside. A sibling two grades behind is not a separate application with a separate outcome.
What we do ask
The transcript. Placement follows what a student has actually completed rather than their birthday, which is why a student who is ahead in mathematics and level in English is scheduled that way.
The one-letter rule
If your student is in high school, New Jersey asks for one thing and only one thing: a transfer form recording the intent to provide instruction elsewhere than at school. Everything else you may have been told is required is not. The detail is further down, under what the state actually requires.
Courses by grade band
| Grade band | Where the courses live |
|---|---|
| Kindergarten | Kindergarten online, with mathematics and science |
| Grades 1–2 | 1st grade and 2nd grade, including 1st grade mathematics and 2nd grade science |
| Grades 3–5 | 3rd grade, 4th grade and 5th grade, with 4th grade mathematics and 5th grade science |
| Grade 6 up | 6th grade online, then the New Jersey online high school catalogue through to the diploma |
How to withdraw from Deptford Township Schools
-
Write to the school your child attends
Address the principal of that building and copy the district office at Deptford Township Schools, naming the last date of attendance. A conversation at the desk is not a record. An email is.
-
Ask for the transfer form if it is high school
This is the single point where the state asks for paperwork rather than courtesy, and it is easier to request than to chase.
-
Get the credit position in writing
A student leaving partway through a term should ask exactly what partial credit is recorded, because that decides what carries. Our credit transfer guidance covers what we accept.
-
Enrol first, withdraw second
There is no gap to explain if the next school is already in place.
Eagle Pro Tip
If you have ever applied through the choice programme, ask whether your student’s file sits with the resident district or with Deptford. Choice students can have records in two places, and finding that out now is a great deal easier than discovering it when a transcript is due.
What New Jersey actually requires
Home education sits under the compulsory attendance statute, N.J.S.A. 18A:38-25, which permits a child to receive “equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school.” There is no registration with the state, no mandated subject list, no required standardized testing and no attendance log to file.
The New Jersey Department of Education is explicit that “the law does not require or authorize the local board of education to review and approve the curriculum or program of a child educated elsewhere than at school.” Notice is required in two circumstances only: where a district has refused enrolment and the parent does not appeal, and where a student is withdrawn from high school. The rest is on the New Jersey Department of Education homeschooling FAQ.
What Deptford families ask
We are already in the choice programme. Does that change anything?
Only in one respect: your student’s records may sit with the resident district rather than with Deptford. Ask which, before you withdraw, and the transcript request goes to the right place first time.
Do we have to notify the district?
Below high school, New Jersey does not require it, though the Department encourages it. For a student withdrawn from high school, notice is required and a transfer form is completed. We would write either way, because it creates the record.
Can we start in February?
Yes. Enrolment is monthly and placement follows the transcript, so a student who moves mid-year is not made to repeat a term to line up with a calendar.
Is it accredited, and does the diploma count?
Yes. We are an accredited private school, the diploma is issued by us rather than by the family, and the transcript is ours to hold and send.
My child has an IEP. What happens to it?
An IEP is an agreement with the public district and does not travel with a student who leaves it. Tell us which supports your student genuinely uses before you withdraw so the plan is made in advance.
What does it cost?
Tuition is per grade level and published on the tuition page. The first conversation with a counselor carries no charge.
Online home school in New Jersey
The state hub covers what applies everywhere in New Jersey. City pages go into what is specific to the district a student is actually leaving, and those differ more than people expect.
Also useful: students and parents hub · elementary school online · kindergarten social studies · 1st grade English language arts · 2nd grade mathematics · 3rd grade science · 3rd grade social studies · 4th grade English language arts · 5th grade mathematics · 5th grade social studies · 4th grade science · 3rd grade music · request information · contact admissions
Start with the transcript, not the decision
You do not have to decide anything to make the first call. The useful first step is finding out what your student already holds and what a full path to graduation looks like from where they are now. It takes about twenty minutes, it carries no charge, and plenty of families have that conversation and then stay exactly where they are.