Montana asks for one notice a year to your county superintendent of schools, an attendance record you keep at home, and enough hours of instruction. There is no test, no evaluator, and no curriculum approval: the law makes the parent solely responsible for evaluating the home school.
Verified against primary sources November 2026. Laws change; sources are linked at the bottom of this page.
Each school fiscal year (July 1 to June 30), notify the county superintendent of schools in the county where your home school is located that your child attends your home school. Keep attendance records and show them to the county superintendent if asked. Provide at least 720 hours of instruction a year in grades 1 through 3 and 1,080 hours in grades 4 through 12, through an organized course of study that covers the subjects public schools must teach as their basic instructional program. Nothing else is filed, and there is no required test or evaluation.
A parent instructs the parent's own child, stepchild, or ward in the parent's residence. A home school that meets 20-5-109 exempts the child from enrolling in the assigned public school. This is what the rest of this page describes.
A parochial, church, religious, or private school also exempts a child from public school enrollment, under a separate list of duties. Since 2025 the law lists those duties apart from the home school duties.
Not a separate way to homeschool but an option alongside it. A child in a home school may enroll part time in a public school, and trustees must admit a qualifying child as a part-time enrollee at the parent's request.
Each school fiscal year, notify the county superintendent of schools of the county in which your home school is located of your child's attendance at the home school. The school fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30. The statute sets no calendar deadline inside that year, no state form, and no list of contents beyond the child's attendance. The notice is not an application, and the law gives no one the power to approve it. Your county office may supply its own form.
Maintain records on pupil attendance and make them available to the county superintendent on request. The statute does not say they are filed routinely, and it sets no format.
Provide at least the minimum aggregate hours of pupil instruction that apply to public schools: 720 hours a year for grades 1 through 3 and 1,080 hours a year for grades 4 through 12. If you teach kindergarten, the figures are 360 hours for half-time and 720 for full-time. For graduating seniors, 1,050 aggregate hours may be sufficient. The hours are counted over the school fiscal year, July 1 to June 30.
Your home school must provide an organized course of study that includes instruction in the subjects required of public schools as the basic instructional program. The Board of Public Education defines that program, and it is set out in the state standards of accreditation. Within that, the parent alone chooses the educational philosophy, the instructional materials, curriculum and textbooks, and the time, place and method of instruction.
The law makes the parent solely responsible for the evaluation of home school instruction. Montana sets no test, portfolio review, or progress report for home schools, and nothing about your child's progress is filed.
For this exemption, a home school is instruction by a parent of the parent's child, stepchild, or ward in the parent's residence. Without a qualifying home school or another listed exemption, a child of compulsory age must be enrolled in the school the district trustees assign within the first week of the school term.
| July 1 | A new school fiscal year begins. File this year's notice with your county superintendent of schools; the statute requires it once each fiscal year and sets no particular day. |
| Starting partway through the year | A child of compulsory age must be enrolled in the assigned public school unless the child attends a home school that meets the law, so send the notice when your home school starts. |
| Throughout the year | Keep the attendance record and count hours toward 720 (grades 1 to 3) or 1,080 (grades 4 to 12). |
| If the county superintendent asks | Make your attendance records available. |
| June 30 | The school fiscal year ends, and the minimum hours are counted for the year. |
The county superintendent of schools for the county where your home school is located, not your school district and not the Office of Public Instruction. The law requires the notice once in each school fiscal year, which runs July 1 to June 30.
The statute says only that you notify the county superintendent of your child's attendance at your home school. It sets no form and no list of contents. Many county offices hand out their own forms, which may ask for more, but the law itself names nothing more.
The same minimum aggregate hours public schools use: 720 hours a year for grades 1 through 3 and 1,080 hours a year for grades 4 through 12. For a graduating senior, 1,050 hours may be enough. The law sets the yearly total, not a number of days or a length of school day.
No. The law makes the parent solely responsible for the evaluation of home school instruction. No test, portfolio review, or progress report is filed with anyone.
Yes. Trustees must admit a home school child who meets the age and residence rules as a part-time enrollee when the parent asks. A district or athletic association may not bar a qualifying home school student from extracurricular activities at a school in the resident district solely because the student is not enrolled there, though it may set citizenship and Montana residency limits. Academic eligibility is attested in writing by the educator who instructs the student and verified by the principal, and that verification may not include any student assessment.
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Make a free parent accountReference information reviewed August 2026 against primary sources (statutes, NCAA and Common App published requirements). This is general information, not legal advice; requirements change, so verify anything load-bearing for your family against your state's current law.