Utah asks for one thing: a single notice to your school district when you start. The old notarized affidavit and the yearly exemption certificate are gone, and the law spells out what a district may not ask of you.
Verified against primary sources November 2026. Laws change; sources are linked at the bottom of this page.
What Utah requires, in short
When you withdraw your child from school to homeschool, or decide not to enroll a child age 6 or older, give a one-time notification to the local school board of your district of residence. A letter of intent works. The district must record it and acknowledge it within 30 days. That is the only filing. You choose the materials, schedule, and method, and you evaluate the work yourself. The district may not require records, credentials, testing, or a home inspection. If you already filed an affidavit or other notice on or before May 7, 2025, you do not file again.
NoticeOne-time notification to the local school board, when you withdraw or choose not to enroll
District replyAcknowledgment within 30 days
RecordsNone required; the district may not require them
TestingNone; the district may not require it
Teacher qualificationsNone; the district may not require credentials
Compulsory ages6 up to 18
Your legal options in Utah
Home school
The standard Utah homeschool. A parent or legal guardian takes sole responsibility for choosing materials, setting the time, place, and method, and evaluating the instruction. Teaching alone or in a co-op with other homeschool families, and paying for outside classes, both still count.
One-time notification to the local school board of your district of residence
Nothing filed after that, and nothing renewed
Home school with dual enrollment
A homeschooled child may also enroll in a public school for some classes, and may take part in any academic activity open to the child's grade or age group, under the same rules as full-time students.
The home school notification above
Enrollment with the public school for the classes your child takes there
The public school's rules for those classes
Utah Fits All scholarship (optional add-on)
A state education savings account that a home-based student may apply for each year to pay for qualifying education expenses. It carries its own rules, which the homeschool law does not.
A new application every school year
A portfolio or assessment result by May 31 to stay eligible for the next year
A household gets the funds only if the program has room; when applications exceed the funds, students are chosen at random within the law's preference order
What the law actually requires
Give a one-time notification
When you withdraw an enrolled child from school to homeschool, or choose not to enroll a school-age child, provide a one-time initial notification to the local school board of your child's district of residence. The law says it may include a letter of intent. It sets no form and no list of contents, and it is not renewed each year.
Utah Code 53G-6-204(3)
Expect an acknowledgment within 30 days
The local school board must keep a record of your notification and acknowledge receipt to you within 30 days. Once it has your notification, the board and the school your child was enrolled in are no longer liable for your child's education or services.
Utah Code 53G-6-204(5)
Earlier notices still count
If you gave the local school board a notification on or before May 7, 2025, including through the old home school affidavit, the board may not require a new notification.
Utah Code 53G-6-204(4)
You run the instruction
The parent or legal guardian is solely responsible for selecting instructional materials and textbooks, for the time, place, and method of instruction, and for evaluating the home school instruction.
Utah Code 53G-6-204(2)(a)
Know what the district may not require
A local school board may not require you to keep records of instruction or attendance, require credentials for anyone teaching your child, inspect your home school, or require standardized or other testing. On request, it must tell you the knowledge and skills it recommends by grade level and subject, to help you plan for college and career readiness.
Utah Code 53G-6-204(2)(b) and (2)(c)
Dual enrollment and activities are open to you
You may also enroll your homeschooled child in a public school for dual enrollment, with the same rules full-time students follow. For extracurricular activities, a home school student usually plays at the school whose boundaries you live in or the school your child left. Academic eligibility is shown by an affidavit from the parent or other instructor to the principal, and the school may not add requirements it does not place on enrolled students.
Utah Code 53G-6-702; 53G-6-703
Your compliance calendar
When you start
Send your one-time notification to the local school board of your district of residence: when you withdraw your child to homeschool, or when you decide not to enroll a child who turns 6.
Within 30 days
The district must acknowledge receipt. Keep the acknowledgment.
During the year
Nothing is due. Utah sets no days, hours, subjects, tests, or reports for home schools.
By May 31 (scholarship families only)
Utah Fits All families turn in a portfolio or an assessment result to stay eligible for the next school year, unless the program manager approved a different assessment schedule.
Records to keep
Your notification and the district's acknowledgment. The law requires no records, but these show your child is lawfully exempt from attendance. Keep a dated copy of what you sent and the reply.
A transcript and course list (high school). Not required by Utah. Utah law names no homeschool diploma, so your transcript is the record a college or employer will ask for.
Work samples or test results (optional). Useful if your child joins a public school sport or activity, since a review panel may ask for test scores or a portfolio of work if someone challenges your child's academic eligibility.
Utah Fits All portfolio (scholarship families only). A portfolio describing the year's educational opportunities and achievements, or an assessment result, is a condition of renewing the scholarship.
No affidavit and no notary: both were removed, in 2024 and 2025.
No yearly filing or yearly exemption certificate.
No attendance records or records of instruction; the district may not require them.
No teaching license, degree, or other credential; the district may not require one.
No standardized or other testing; the district may not require it.
No home visits; the district may not inspect your home school.
No criminal background statement: the 2025 law removed it.
No required subjects, days, or hours.
Questions Utah families ask
Do I still need a notarized affidavit to homeschool in Utah?
No. A 2024 law removed the notary requirement, and a 2025 law (H.B. 209, effective May 7, 2025) replaced the affidavit with a one-time initial notification to your local school board, which may be a letter of intent. The district then has 30 days to acknowledge it.
Do I have to notify the district every year?
No. The law calls it a one-time initial notification. The old rule that the district issue an exemption certificate every year by August 1 was repealed in 2025. If you gave notice on or before May 7, 2025, including through an affidavit, the district may not ask you for a new one.
Can my school district require testing or records?
No. A local school board may not require you to keep records of instruction or attendance, require credentials for whoever teaches, inspect your home school, or require standardized or other testing. Testing a school offers is voluntary.
Is a Utah Fits All scholarship the same as homeschooling?
No. Utah Fits All is a separate, optional scholarship account. A home-based scholarship student can receive up to $4,000 a year at ages 5 to 11 or $6,000 at ages 12 to 18. To renew, the family must turn in a portfolio or an assessment result by May 31. None of that applies to a homeschool that does not take the scholarship.
Common myths about Utah homeschool law, corrected
You must file a signed, notarized home school affidavit.
The notary requirement ended in 2024, and the affidavit itself was replaced on May 7, 2025, by a one-time initial notification, which may be a letter of intent.
Your district sends a new exemption certificate every August, and you need it to stay legal.
The yearly certificate rule was repealed in 2025. The district now records your one-time notification and acknowledges it within 30 days.
Families who filed the old affidavit have to send the new notification.
The law says a local school board may not require the new notification from a parent who already gave notice on or before May 7, 2025, including through an affidavit.
The district can ask for your curriculum, attendance log, or test scores.
The district may not require records of instruction or attendance, teacher credentials, inspections, or testing. The parent alone chooses materials and evaluates the instruction.
Joining a co-op or paying for classes makes your homeschool something else.
The law says the home school exemption applies whether you teach alone or together with other homeschool families, and whether or not you pay for educational services.
Utah Fits All rules apply to every Utah homeschool.
Only to families who take the scholarship. Its yearly application and portfolio or assessment requirement come from the scholarship law, not the homeschool law.
Recent and pending changes
2024 (S.B. 56): removed the notary requirement from the home school affidavit.
2025 (H.B. 209, effective May 7, 2025): replaced the affidavit with a one-time initial notification that may be a letter of intent, removed the parent's statement about child abuse history, repealed the yearly exemption certificate, required districts to acknowledge a notification within 30 days, and said earlier notices still count.
2025 (H.B. 455): set Utah Fits All amounts by student type: up to $8,000 for a private school student, and for a home-based scholarship student $4,000 at ages 5 to 11 and $6,000 at ages 12 to 18.
2026 (H.B. 467): further changes to the Utah Fits All program, including the program definitions and administration sections. The home-based amounts are unchanged.
In April 2025 a state district court ruled the Utah Fits All program unconstitutional. The state appealed to the Utah Supreme Court, and the Attorney General's page reports no decision yet. Check before relying on the scholarship.
Free tools for Utah families
Transcript builder: Utah law names no homeschool diploma or transcript and makes the parent solely responsible for evaluating instruction, so the transcript you keep is the record colleges and employers will see.
GPA calculator: weighted and unweighted, computed the way colleges do it.
A free parent account comes with a Home class. Add your children as students and see every project they make and every lesson they finish. See what they can make, by age.
Reference 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.