South Dakota homeschool requirements

How to start homeschooling in South Dakota

The general path most families follow. South Dakota's specific requirements are in the summary above — confirm the exact steps and deadlines with your state before relying on them.

1. 1

   Check what South Dakota asks for before you begin

   South Dakota: a 2021 law deregulated homeschooling to notification-only — no hours, no days, no testing. A one-time notification within 30 days. Confirm the exact form, deadline, and current wording with South Dakota or HSLDA before you rely on any of it.

2. 2

   Teach on whatever schedule suits your family

   South Dakota sets no instructional-time minimum, so the calendar is yours — year-round, four days a week, evenings, whatever fits. Choose your curriculum and go.

3. 3

   Decide whether to assess — South Dakota doesn't require it

   South Dakota requires no standardized test. Some families test anyway to check progress or to have something on file if they later move to a stricter state.

South Dakota doesn't set a minimum — which changes why you'd keep records

South Dakota sets no hour or day minimum, which settles the instruction-time question and leaves the rest to you. No test is required either, so nothing is generated on your behalf that you could point to later. Either way, records in South Dakota stop being about compliance and start being about what comes after — a transcript for college admission, a portfolio if you move to a stricter state, or simply knowing what your kid actually covered. Families who keep nothing rarely regret it until one of those arrives.

What to keep in South Dakota

• ✓A simple record of what was taught and when — no state minimum to hit, but it's the thing you'll wish you had
• ✓Samples of your child's work — writing, math, projects, and photographs of things they built or grew. South Dakota won't ask for them; the year you need them, nothing else will do.
• ✓The curriculum and materials you used, and which of South Dakota's 3 required subjects each one covered
• ✓Any assessment you choose to do (South Dakota doesn't require one)
• ✓Grades and a transcript — especially for high school, and especially if you ever move somewhere stricter than South Dakota

A homestead day, against South Dakota's 3 required subjects

South Dakota names 3 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 South Dakota's call, not ours, but the record of it is the part you control.

South Dakota sets no minimum, which sounds freeing until the year you need to prove something — a move to a stricter state, a return to school, a college application. Recording the work costs almost nothing while it is happening and is close to impossible to reconstruct afterwards.

How practical work is categorised is a judgement your family and South Dakotamake — Cultivate records what you did, it doesn't decide what counts. Confirm anything you intend to rely on with South Dakota or HSLDA.

South Dakota homeschool requirements — FAQ

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