How to Homeschool in Kansas: Requirements, Registration, and Getting Started

Kansas is one of the most homeschool-friendly states in the country, and the process for getting started is far simpler than most families expect. There is no annual notification to the school district, no portfolio review, no state-approved curriculum list, and no requirement that parents hold teaching credentials. What Kansas does require is that you register as a Non-Accredited Private School, operate for a substantially equivalent number of hours as the public school system, and ensure instruction is provided by a "competent" teacher — a bar that has never been defined to require licensure.

Here is exactly how it works.

Who Must Attend School in Kansas

Kansas compulsory attendance law (K.S.A. 72-3120) requires that any child who has reached age seven and is under age 18 continuously attend school. If your child is six or younger, homeschooling is legally optional — the compulsory attendance clock has not started yet.

Once a child is seven, parents choosing to homeschool must ensure the child is enrolled in a compliant educational program. The Kansas compulsory school age framework does not distinguish between public school, accredited private school, and non-accredited private school. All three satisfy the law equally.

The Legal Structure: Non-Accredited Private School (NAPS)

In Kansas, every homeschool operates as a Non-Accredited Private School (NAPS). This is not a nickname or informal term — it is the official legal designation under Kansas statutes (K.S.A. 72-4346 and K.S.A. 72-53,101).

This designation gives homeschool families a critical institutional identity. Your household is a school. That framing matters for how you interact with public institutions, how you create transcripts, and — if you later invite other families to join — how you scale into a micro-school or learning pod.

KSDE Homeschool Registration: Step by Step

You register your homeschool (NAPS) directly with the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE). The process is completed online and takes about 15 minutes.

Step 1: Go to the NAPS Online Registration System

Visit the KSDE's Non-Accredited Private Schools registration page and select "New" to create a new registration. You are not registering your children — you are registering the school entity itself.

Step 2: Provide Basic School Information

You will need:

• Your school's name (you choose this — it can be your family name, something creative, or entirely plain)
• The physical address where instruction takes place
• The county of operation
• Contact information for the school's custodian of records (this is you)

Step 3: Submit

That is the entire KSDE registration. There is no annual renewal required unless your school changes its name, moves to a different address, or ceases to operate. The KSDE explicitly states that registration does not constitute state approval or endorsement. They are not evaluating your school's quality — they are maintaining an administrative directory so that if your child later transfers to another school, that school has a documented location from which to request records.

What you do NOT have to do: You do not file a notice of intent with your local school district. You do not notify the superintendent. You do not submit curriculum plans. You do not report attendance to the state. Kansas homeschool notification requirements, to the extent they exist, are satisfied entirely by this single KSDE registration — and it is one-time, not annual.

Withdrawing from Public School

If your child is currently enrolled in a Kansas public school, you must formally withdraw them before beginning your homeschool program. This means notifying the school in writing that your child is transferring to your newly registered NAPS.

Do not simply stop sending your child to school without this written withdrawal. Under Kansas law, if a student is absent from a public school without notice of transfer, the school is required to report the absence to the Department for Children and Families (DCF) or the local district attorney as potential truancy. A written withdrawal notice shuts down that process before it starts.

Your withdrawal letter should state the child's name, that they are being withdrawn effective a specific date, and that they will be enrolled in [your school name], a registered Non-Accredited Private School.

Instructional Requirements: What "Substantially Equivalent" Means

Your Kansas NAPS must operate for a period of time that is "substantially equivalent" to the public school system. KSDE notes that public schools are required to provide at least 186 days of instruction at no less than 6 hours per day, equaling 1,116 hours per year for grades 1 through 11. Kindergarten equivalency is 465 hours.

The key word is "substantially equivalent." Kansas does not mandate a rigid bell schedule. You can:

• Operate on a traditional five-day schedule
• Run a four-day instructional week
• Use a hybrid model with in-person instruction three days and project-based work at home two days
• Combine direct instruction, field trips, library research, co-op classes, and structured activities to reach your hour totals

Field trips, science fairs, co-op classes, and educational outings all count. Keep a rough log of your instructional hours and activities — not because the state requires you to submit it, but because you want documentation if your family ever faces an unexpected truancy inquiry or your child transfers to another school.

Instructor Requirements: Competent — Not Certified

Kansas requires that instruction in a NAPS be provided by a "competent instructor." The statute does not define competence. The Kansas Attorney General has affirmed that teachers in non-accredited private schools do not need state teaching licenses, college degrees, or any formal educational credentials.

You are, by definition, a competent instructor for your own children if you have chosen to take responsibility for their education. If you are running a micro-school and hiring a facilitator, you assess competence based on subject knowledge, experience, and pedagogical approach — not credentials.

This is one of the features that makes Kansas one of the most flexible homeschool environments in the country. It is also what makes the NAPS framework well-suited to micro-school operations: you can hire a retired engineer to teach high school physics, a professional musician to lead music, or a skilled tradesperson to run a vocational track, without any state licensing hurdle.

Curriculum: Entirely Your Choice

Kansas does not supply, recommend, or mandate any curriculum for NAPS students. You select whatever approach fits your child. Common frameworks Kansas families use include:

• Classical education: Great Books, logic, Latin, Socratic discussion
• Charlotte Mason: Living books, nature study, narration
• Structured secular programs: Sonlight, Beka, Bookshark, Masterbooks
• Digital self-paced platforms: Khan Academy, Miacademy, Zearn, IXL
• Eclectic approaches: mixing resources to match the child's learning style and pace

The KSDE does not review or approve your curriculum choices. This freedom also means the responsibility for selecting rigorous, appropriate materials rests entirely with you.

Record-Keeping Best Practices

Nothing is legally required to be submitted to the state, but maintaining good records serves your family in multiple ways:

• Transcripts: Your micro-school is responsible for issuing its own transcripts. Well-kept records make transcript preparation straightforward.
• College admissions: The Kansas Board of Regents guarantees admission to state universities (KU, K-State, WSU) for NAPS graduates who achieve a minimum ACT composite of 21.
• Transfers: If your child re-enrolls in a public school, their new school will request records from your NAPS.

Keep attendance logs, course descriptions, reading lists, and samples of completed work. Annual or semester-end grade records organized by subject are sufficient for most purposes.

Starting a Kansas Micro-School: The Same Framework, Scaled Up

If you want to share your homeschool experience with other families — forming a cooperative pod or a formal micro-school — the NAPS framework scales directly. One family registers the school, designates a single custodian of records, and enrolls students from multiple families under one institutional identity. Other families formally withdraw their children from their previous schools and enroll them in the new NAPS.

The Kansas Micro-School & Pod Kit walks through the full process of scaling a homeschool into a compliant multi-family micro-school: the NAPS registration steps, parent agreement templates, budget models, zoning considerations, and record-keeping systems that make running a sustainable program manageable.

The Bottom Line

Starting a homeschool in Kansas requires:

1. Registering your NAPS with KSDE (one-time, online, free)
2. Withdrawing your child from any current public school in writing
3. Providing instruction from a competent teacher for approximately 1,116 hours per year
4. Choosing your own curriculum and approach

That is the legal baseline. Everything else — curriculum choices, schedule design, group learning arrangements, co-op participation — is entirely up to you.

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