Maine homeschool requirements
What Maine requires to homeschool — instruction time, testing, and the exact legal citation, in plain English. Then the part most guides skip: how the garden, the animals and the work you do around the place fit into the same record.
Last verified June 2026 · A starting point, not legal advice — Maine sets the rules and they change.
The rule, in plain English
Maine: 175 days of instruction; annual notice plus an annual assessment (a test or a certified-teacher/qualified review) due Sept 1. Ten subject areas are required.
What that works out to
- →175 days is about 35 school weeks — roughly 4.9 days a week across a 36-week year, or about 3.4 days a week if you school year-round instead of stopping for summer.
Our arithmetic on the figures above, to make planning easier — shown against a conventional 36-week school year and against a full 52-week year for families who school year-round. Maine sets the requirement; these numbers are not part of it.
Laws change — always confirm the current rules for Maine yourself before relying on them. See Maine's official requirements on HSLDA →
This is a plain-English summary for your convenience, not legal advice. Cultivate helps you store, organize, and produce your homeschool records — it isn't the authority on what your state requires. Homeschool laws change; always confirm current rules with your state or a homeschool legal resource (e.g., HSLDA) before relying on them.
How to start homeschooling in Maine
The general path most families follow. Maine's specific requirements are in the summary above — confirm the exact steps and deadlines with your state before relying on them.
- 1
Check what Maine asks for before you begin
Maine: 175 days of instruction; annual notice plus an annual assessment (a test or a certified-teacher/qualified review) due Sept 1. Ten subject areas are required. Confirm the exact form, deadline, and current wording with Maine or HSLDA before you rely on any of it.
- 2
Teach on a schedule that satisfies 175 days / year
Maine counts 175 days, not hours, which makes the record simpler than an hours state — but it also makes gaps obvious. What you need is an attendance calendar you can show: which days were school days, across the whole year. Families who track this in their heads tend to discover in spring that they're not sure whether they're at 155 or 175, and there's no way to reconstruct it honestly after the fact.
- 3
Complete Maine's required testing or assessment
Yes — standardized testing/assessment required Confirm the accepted tests, the grades they apply to, and the timing with Maine, and keep the results with your records.
In Maine, the unit that matters is the day
Maine counts 175 days, not hours, which makes the record simpler than an hours state — but it also makes gaps obvious. What you need is an attendance calendar you can show: which days were school days, across the whole year. Families who track this in their heads tend to discover in spring that they're not sure whether they're at 155 or 175, and there's no way to reconstruct it honestly after the fact.
What to keep in Maine
- ✓Attendance — the days that count toward Maine's requirement
- ✓Samples of your child's work — writing, math, projects, and photographs of things they built or grew. This is what an Maine evaluation is easiest to face with.
- ✓The curriculum and materials you used, and which of Maine's 8 required subjects each one covered
- ✓Your Maine test or evaluation results — required, so keep them filed
- ✓Grades and a transcript — especially for high school, and especially if you ever move somewhere stricter than Maine
This is exactly what Cultivate keeps for you. Describe the day in plain English and it keeps the day count Maine expects, without you counting anything. The chicken tally, the fence repair and the reading lesson go in the same box and come out sorted.
A homestead day, against Maine's 8 required subjects
Maine names 8 required subjects, and a working homestead touches most of them before lunch. This is how families commonly categorise the practical work they are already doing — whether any particular activity counts is Maine's call, not ours, but the record of it is the part you control.
Maine requires an assessment, which means at some point someone outside your family looks at what you did. Practical work documents well — a built thing, a harvest tally, a repaired machine — and it reads better in a portfolio than a stack of worksheets.
How practical work is categorised is a judgement your family and Mainemake — Cultivate records what you did, it doesn't decide what counts. Confirm anything you intend to rely on with Maine or HSLDA.
Maine homeschool requirements — FAQ
What does Maine require to homeschool?
Maine: 175 days of instruction; annual notice plus an annual assessment (a test or a certified-teacher/qualified review) due Sept 1. Ten subject areas are required.
How many days do you have to homeschool in Maine?
175 days / year. Maine: 175 days of instruction; annual notice plus an annual assessment (a test or a certified-teacher/qualified review) due Sept 1. Ten subject areas are required.
What does Maine's requirement work out to per week?
175 days is about 35 school weeks — roughly 4.9 days a week across a 36-week year, or about 3.4 days a week if you school year-round instead of stopping for summer. These are our calculations from the figures above, offered to make planning easier — Maine sets the requirement, not the arithmetic.
Does Maine require standardized testing for homeschoolers?
Yes — standardized testing/assessment required. Confirm the accepted tests, the grades they apply to, and the timing with Maine or HSLDA, and keep the results with your records.
What records should I keep to homeschool in Maine?
Maine counts 175 days, not hours, which makes the record simpler than an hours state — but it also makes gaps obvious. What you need is an attendance calendar you can show: which days were school days, across the whole year. Families who track this in their heads tend to discover in spring that they're not sure whether they're at 155 or 175, and there's no way to reconstruct it honestly after the fact.
What is the legal citation for homeschooling in Maine?
Maine's homeschool law: 20-A M.R.S. 5001-A. Always confirm the current rules with Maine or a homeschool legal resource such as HSLDA.
Stop tracking this on paper
Cultivate keeps your records — and produces the documents.
Maine sets the rules. Cultivate does the part that has to happen every day: you describe the day in plain English and it keeps the attendance record Maine expects, so the day count is never a guess. The garden, the animals, the workshop and the school day all go in the same place, and come out as print-ready reports and transcripts whenever you need them.
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