Baltimore County Homeschool: How to Withdraw and Start Legally

Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) serves over 110,000 students, and every year a growing number of those families decide to leave the system and educate at home. Whether you are pulling your child out mid-year because of a bullying crisis, an IEP that has stopped working, or a straightforward desire for something better — the process in Baltimore County is governed by the same state-level Code of Maryland Regulations that makes Maryland one of the more demanding states to navigate.

This guide covers the specific steps for BCPS families: what forms you need, where to submit them, which supervision path to choose, and what happens if the district pushes back.

Maryland's Legal Framework Applies Uniformly Across Counties

Before getting into Baltimore County specifics, it helps to understand that Maryland homeschooling is a state-level legal structure, not a county-by-county policy. COMAR 13A.10.01 sets the rules that every local school system — including BCPS — must follow. The county's Home Instruction Office enforces those rules locally, but it cannot add requirements that exceed what the state authorizes.

That anti-overreach clause is significant. BCPS administrators cannot demand to see your college transcript, cannot require you to adopt Maryland's College and Career Ready Standards, and cannot withhold withdrawal processing because they want to "review" your curriculum first. Under Maryland Education Article §7-301, homeschooling is a notification process, not an approval process.

As of the 2024–2025 school year, Maryland had 42,151 homeschooled students — roughly 4.1% of the state's total K-12 enrollment. Baltimore County contributes a substantial share of that figure, with enrollment driven by families citing school safety, insufficient special education services, and a desire for individualized academic pacing.

The Withdrawal Sequence for BCPS Families

Step 1: Notify the Principal in Writing

Your first action is to inform your child's current school in writing that you are withdrawing for home instruction. This letter goes to the school's principal or registrar. Keep the language simple and factual: state your child's name, grade, and your intent to provide home instruction under COMAR 13A.10.01. Do not ask for permission — you are providing notice.

Send this letter via certified mail with return receipt requested. That green card is your protection if the district later claims they never received the notice or flags your child for truancy.

Return any school-issued property — Chromebooks, textbooks — when you deliver or mail the letter. Holding onto district property can complicate the unenrollment process.

Step 2: Submit the 15-Day Notice of Intent to the Superintendent's Office

COMAR requires that you file a Home Instruction Notification Form with the local superintendent at least 15 days before beginning home instruction. For BCPS families, this form is submitted to the Baltimore County Home Instruction Office.

BCPS has built a digital infrastructure around this: families can submit the 15-day notification through the Focus Parent Portal. If you prefer a paper trail, you can also submit by certified mail to the district's curriculum office.

On this form you must indicate which supervision option you are choosing:

• Option 1 — Your home instruction program is supervised directly by BCPS through bi-annual portfolio reviews.
• Option 2 — Your program is supervised by a registered nonpublic entity (commonly called an umbrella school), completely removing BCPS from the review process.

If you choose Option 2, you must identify the specific umbrella organization on the form. You cannot simply write "umbrella school" and leave it blank.

Step 3: Understand the 15-Day Window

The 15-day period between filing and legally beginning instruction is the most anxiety-producing part of the Maryland withdrawal process. If you pull your child out of BCPS the day you submit the form but the district enforces the 15-day waiting period strictly, your child will accumulate unexcused absences in the system. This can trigger automated truancy notifications.

Legal advocates, including HSLDA, argue the 15-day waiting period lacks statutory authority and conflicts with the parent's right under §7-301. In practice, many Baltimore County families send the principal withdrawal letter and the 15-day notice simultaneously, begin instruction immediately, and keep a dated daily log from day one. That log serves as evidence that instruction replaced public school attendance without a gap. If you receive a truancy notice, responding promptly with the certified mail receipts and your dated instruction log typically resolves it.

Option 1 vs. Option 2: The Decision That Shapes Your Year

Option 1: BCPS Portfolio Review

Under Option 1, a BCPS representative will review your portfolio up to three times per year (most counties use two reviews — end of first semester and end of second). The reviewer is looking for evidence of "regular, thorough instruction" across Maryland's eight mandated subject areas: English, mathematics, science, social studies, art, music, health, and physical education.

Your portfolio should include a brief summary of what you used for each subject and three to five dated work samples per subject distributed across the semester. For physical education, music, and art — where paper worksheets are less natural — activity logs, class attendance records, or photographs of projects work well.

BCPS reviewers cannot demand daily lesson plans, cannot require alignment to state standards, and cannot penalize you for using an unconventional curriculum. If a reviewer exceeds their authority, you are entitled to a 30-day correction period before any compliance action can be taken.

Option 2: Umbrella School Supervision

Under Option 2, you join a registered nonpublic or church-exempt umbrella organization. That organization assumes supervisory responsibility. BCPS is no longer involved in reviewing your work.

This path is favored by families who want privacy, families with faith-based curricula, and families who find the prospect of county portfolio reviews stressful. Umbrella organizations generally conduct their own enrollment conferences, review your lesson plan or curriculum choice, and handle the annual verification to BCPS that your child remains under active supervision.

Maryland has a range of umbrella options from highly structured academic programs to minimal-cost legal-cover organizations. Cost, oversight level, and religious orientation vary significantly — so comparing options before committing is important.

BCPS-Specific Resources and Contacts

BCPS has invested more than most Maryland counties in home instruction infrastructure. Their website includes a three-part video series on initiating home instruction and a dedicated Home Instruction coordinator who can clarify procedural questions. The Focus portal also hosts the annual continuation form, Form 7.1.25, which Baltimore County families must file each year to confirm their program is ongoing.

Note the word "confirm" — this is not a re-approval. As long as you are in compliance with COMAR, the annual renewal is a formality, not an opportunity for the district to re-evaluate whether you should be allowed to homeschool.

What Happens at the Portfolio Review

First-time BCPS portfolio reviewers are sometimes more probing than experienced families expect. They may ask follow-up questions about your English materials, request additional work samples if a subject looks thin, or ask how you are covering health and physical education.

The key principle: you are presenting evidence, not seeking approval. If the reviewer identifies a deficiency, you receive a written notice and 30 days to address it. Adverse decisions can be appealed to the BCPS Board of Education and then to the Maryland State Board of Education.

Most reviews go smoothly when families organize their portfolio by the eight required subjects, include samples from across the semester (not just the final two weeks), and are prepared to briefly describe what they used for each area.

Getting the Full Legal Picture

Baltimore County's public-facing materials — while more detailed than many counties — are produced by district employees whose employer is the district. They do a reasonable job explaining the mechanics of portfolio reviews under Option 1, but they do not provide legally vetted withdrawal letter templates, they do not objectively compare the advantages of Option 2 umbrella supervision, and they do not explain what to do if a principal or truancy officer questions your withdrawal during the 15-day window.

The Maryland Legal Withdrawal Blueprint was built to fill those gaps. It includes copy-paste withdrawal letter templates formatted for Maryland's legal requirements, a plain-language breakdown of COMAR 13A.10.01, a curated and categorized list of Option 2 umbrella schools (both secular and religious), and a step-by-step checklist for handling the 15-day notice period without triggering truancy. For Baltimore County families navigating withdrawal for the first time, it consolidates into one document everything that currently requires visits to a dozen different websites.

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