Delaware Homeschool Curriculum

One of the first questions parents ask when they decide to homeschool in Delaware is what curriculum they are required to use. The honest answer is: none in particular. Delaware does not mandate a specific curriculum, does not require you to submit lesson plans or course descriptions for approval, and does not require your child to take any standardized test. You can use a boxed curriculum, an online program, a completely eclectic approach built from individual resources, or a structured classical program — and the state has no mechanism to inspect or review any of it.

That freedom is real. But understanding what Delaware actually does require — and the one area where curriculum choices affect your legal standing — prevents problems later.

What Delaware Law Says About Curriculum

Under 14 Del. Code §2703A, Delaware homeschools operate as nonpublic schools. Nonpublic school status is important because it means your homeschool is treated similarly to a private school, not as an extension of the public school system. Private schools in Delaware have curriculum autonomy, and so do you.

There is no list of approved curricula from the Delaware Department of Education that homeschool families must choose from. There is no requirement that your materials be accredited, secular, or aligned to Common Core or any other state standard. The state does not collect or review your lesson plans.

The one practical constraint is that your homeschool must operate for at least 180 days per year. Delaware does not tell you what to teach in those 180 days — only that you teach something consistently across that period.

Core Subjects: A Practical Framework

While Delaware law doesn't mandate specific subjects, most homeschool families build their curriculum around a standard core: language arts (reading, writing, and grammar), mathematics, science, social studies or history, and a foreign language in middle and high school. This reflects both what most families value educationally and what colleges and employers expect to see on transcripts.

There is no state testing to pass, so you are not teaching to a test. That means you can move at your child's pace, spend more time on subjects where they need development, and move through material faster where they excel.

Curriculum Approaches Common Among Delaware Families

Boxed all-in-one curricula. Programs like Abeka, Sonlight, My Father's World, and Timberdoor provide complete grade-level packages — teacher guides, student texts, and often schedules. These work well for families new to homeschooling who want structure without having to assemble materials from scratch. They tend to have a religious perspective; secular equivalents exist but are less common in the all-in-one format.

Online and hybrid programs. Programs like Connections Academy (a Delaware-specific public virtual school), K12, and Bridgeway Academy are available to Delaware families. Note that some of these are public virtual schools that do impose their own curriculum and testing requirements — they are not the same as independent homeschooling. If you want the full curriculum autonomy of Delaware's nonpublic school framework, you want a private online program rather than a public virtual school.

Eclectic approach. Many experienced homeschool families pick the best resource for each subject individually — a math curriculum from one publisher, a literature-based reading program from another, a science kit, and library books for history. This takes more planning but produces a highly customized education. Resources like Cathy Duffy's curriculum reviews are commonly used guides for this approach.

Classical education. Classical Conversations and other classical programs use a structured, memorization-heavy approach through the grammar, logic, and rhetoric stages. Several Delaware co-ops are organized around classical education, including some associated with the Delaware Home Educators Association (DHEA).

Charlotte Mason. This philosophy emphasizes living books, nature study, narration, and short focused lessons. It is popular among families who want a literature-rich approach without the rigid structure of a boxed curriculum.

Unschooling. Because Delaware has no curriculum requirements, unschooling — allowing children to direct their own learning through interest and exploration — is entirely legal here. Families pursuing this approach typically keep records documenting what their child learned and engaged with, even without a structured curriculum plan.

Subjects for High School: Transcript Considerations

Delaware parents issue their own high school diplomas and transcripts. There is no state template you must follow. However, if your child plans to apply to college, their transcript needs to reflect coursework that colleges recognize. Most colleges look for four years of English, three to four years of mathematics including pre-calculus or above, two to three years of laboratory science, three to four years of social studies, and two years of a foreign language.

This is not a Delaware legal requirement — it is a practical reality of the college admissions process. Structuring your high school curriculum around these expectations gives your child the most options after graduation.

For college-bound students, it is also worth noting that several Delaware scholarships are available to homeschoolers. The SEED Scholarship Program and the Inspire Scholarship are Delaware-specific merit awards; both are available to nonpublic school graduates. Planning your curriculum with an eye toward these scholarship requirements — including GPA documentation and course rigor — pays off in the long run.

Using Delaware's EdAccess Registration as Your Baseline

When you register your homeschool on the EdAccess portal, you are establishing it as a nonpublic school in the state's records. EdAccess does not ask you what curriculum you intend to use or require you to submit a curriculum plan. The registration establishes your legal status; it does not constrain your instructional choices.

This is meaningfully different from states that require curriculum approval as part of the initial registration or notification. In Delaware, you register the school — not the courses.

Co-ops and Supplemental Resources

Delaware has an active homeschool community organized partly through the Delaware Home Educators Association (DHEA) and partly through regional co-ops. Co-ops typically handle subjects that are harder to teach solo — lab sciences, foreign language conversation practice, physical education, group projects, and electives. Participation in a co-op does not change your legal standing as a nonpublic school; it simply means your child attends some classes in a group setting.

The Tri-State Homeschool Network connects families in Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, providing access to events, curriculum swaps, and group activities across state lines.

What Curriculum Choice Cannot Fix

The one area where curriculum choices have no bearing on your legal standing is the initial registration step. No matter how excellent your curriculum is, if you have not completed the dual notification — EdAccess registration plus district withdrawal — your homeschool is not operating legally in Delaware's framework. A truancy notice can arrive regardless of whether you are using a top-rated curriculum or a completely informal approach, because truancy notices are triggered by the district's attendance records, not by curriculum quality.

Getting the withdrawal and registration right is the foundation everything else builds on. The Delaware Legal Withdrawal Blueprint covers the complete process for establishing your homeschool legally in Delaware — the EdAccess filing, the district withdrawal letter, the documentation to keep, and how to handle any pushback from the district. Once that foundation is in place, the curriculum choices described above are entirely yours to make.

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