IHIP Homeschool: How to Write Your New York Individualized Home Instruction Plan

The Individualized Home Instruction Plan — the IHIP — is the single most important document you file as a New York homeschooler. It tells your school district what you plan to teach, which materials you will use, and when you will submit quarterly reports. Get it right, and the district processes your paperwork without a second look. Get it wrong, and you are dealing with rejection letters, revision deadlines, and unnecessary stress.

Here is exactly how to write a compliant IHIP that satisfies Commissioner's Regulation 100.10 without over-sharing or creating compliance traps for yourself.

What the IHIP Must Include

New York law spells out four required elements for every IHIP:

1. Your child's name, age, and grade level
2. A list of syllabi, curriculum materials, textbooks, or plan of instruction for each required subject at the child's grade band
3. The specific dates you will submit your four quarterly reports (evenly spaced throughout the year)
4. The names of individuals providing instruction

That is the complete legal requirement under Section 100.10. Districts cannot demand lesson plans, daily schedules, grading rubrics, or scope-and-sequence documents. If your district sends a form asking for more than these four elements, you are not required to fill in the extra fields.

The Biggest IHIP Mistake: Over-Specifying

The most common mistake parents make is listing rigid, page-level detail: "Complete Saxon Math pages 1 through 45 by November" or "Read chapters 3 through 7 of Story of the World by October 15."

This creates an unnecessary compliance trap. New York requires you to explain in each quarterly report whether at least 80% of planned coursework was completed. If you locked yourself into specific pages and your child moved at a different pace — which every child does — you are now writing explanations for every deviation.

The fix: Use inclusive, flexible language. Instead of page numbers, write something like: "Instruction will include, but is not limited to, the following topics: fractions, decimals, and geometry using Math-U-See Epsilon and supplemental resources." This satisfies the curriculum description requirement while giving you room to adapt throughout the year.

Required Subjects by Grade Band

New York mandates different subjects depending on the grade level. Your IHIP must list materials for every required subject at your child's grade band.

Grades 1–6 (900 hours per year): Arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing, English language, geography, U.S. history, science, health education, music, visual arts, physical education. New York State history must be covered at least once before the end of grade 8.

Grades 7–8 (990 hours per year): English (2 units), history and geography (2 units), science (2 units), mathematics (2 units), physical education, health education, art (0.5 unit), music (0.5 unit), practical arts, and library skills. U.S. and NYS constitutions must be taught by the end of grade 8.

Grades 9–12 (990 hours per year): English (4 units), social studies (4 units including U.S. history, government, and economics), mathematics (2 units), science (2 units), art or music (1 unit), health (0.5 unit), physical education (2 units), and electives (3 units). This totals 22 credits for high school equivalency.

One "unit" in New York equals 6,480 minutes (108 hours) of instruction per school year.

IHIP Deadlines and Timeline

The annual compliance timeline follows a predictable cycle:

• July 1: Submit your Letter of Intent (LOI) to your local superintendent, or within 14 days of starting mid-year
• Within 10 business days: The district must send you a copy of Section 100.10 and an IHIP form
• Within 4 weeks of receipt (or by August 15, whichever is later): Submit your completed IHIP
• Within 10 business days of receiving your IHIP: The district must approve or notify you of deficiencies

If the district finds your IHIP deficient, you have 15 days to submit a revised version. If you disagree with the rejection, you can appeal to the local Board of Education and ultimately to the Commissioner of Education.

NYC vs. Upstate: Different Processes, Same Law

In New York City, all homeschool paperwork goes to the centralized NYC DOE Office of Home Schooling. You submit your LOI and IHIP electronically, and the office processes paperwork for over 14,000 homeschooled students. The review is largely bureaucratic — submit clean templates with correct formatting, and you rarely hear back.

In suburban and upstate districts — Long Island, Westchester, Hudson Valley, Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse — you deal directly with the local superintendent or a regional BOCES coordinator. These smaller offices sometimes apply subjective interpretations, asking for daily lesson plans or specific textbook justifications that exceed their legal authority.

Regardless of where you live, the law is the same. Districts cannot require you to use a specific curriculum, cannot demand in-person meetings (you can decline), and cannot evaluate whether your curriculum matches the local public school's scope and sequence.

Writing an IHIP for Unschoolers and Non-Traditional Learners

New York does not dictate how subjects must be taught — only that they are covered. Unschooling, Charlotte Mason, project-based learning, and other non-traditional approaches are fully legal.

The key is administrative translation. On your IHIP, describe your approach in the language of the required subjects. A nature study curriculum maps to science. Building projects map to mathematics and practical arts. Read-alouds and journaling map to English language and writing. Library visits map to library skills.

Use broad descriptors: "Science instruction will include nature observation, experimentation, and scientific reasoning through hands-on projects and living books." This is completely truthful, fully compliant, and does not lock you into a textbook you might not use.

Get Your IHIP Right the First Time

Writing a compliant IHIP does not need to be stressful, but it does need to be precise. The New York Portfolio & Assessment Templates includes ready-to-use IHIP templates for every grade band (1–6, 7–8, and 9–12), along with quarterly report templates and the full documentation system that keeps your paperwork organized all year.

The goal is simple: give the district exactly what Section 100.10 requires, and nothing more.

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