Nebraska Exempt School Rule 13: Form A, Form B, and Filing for Pods

Nebraska doesn't call it homeschooling. The legal term is "exempt school," and that distinction matters more than it seems when you're starting a learning pod or microschool alongside another family and both of you need to be compliant by July 15.

Nebraska Revised Statute §79-1601 allows families to educate their children in a private school that elects not to meet state accreditation requirements — what the Nebraska Department of Education calls a "Rule 13" exempt school, after the administrative regulation that governs it. Everything flows from that election: the forms you file, the oversight you don't face, and the way cooperative groups structure their compliance.

What Rule 13 Actually Requires

The core requirements are straightforward:

• Instructional hours: 1,032 hours annually for grades K–8; 1,080 hours for grades 9–12. Lunch and commuting time don't count.
• Annual filing: Form A and Form B submitted to the NDE by July 15 each year.
• One-time documentation: A certified copy of each child's birth certificate, submitted at initial enrollment.
• No curriculum approval: The NDE does not review or approve your curriculum choices.
• No testing mandate: LB 1027, signed in April 2024, eliminated the standardized testing requirement that had been on the books since 2006. No annual assessment is required.
• No home visits: The inspection program that existed before LB 1027 is gone. The state does not send representatives to your home or learning space.

That's the full scope of ongoing state oversight for a Rule 13 exempt school. It is deliberately minimal.

Form A: The Election

Form A is the Statement of Election and Assurances. By signing it, the parent or legal guardian formally elects to operate the family's school as a private school under §79-1601, agreeing that the school is not subject to NDE accreditation.

Before LB 1027, both parents were required to sign Form A if both had legal custody. That requirement was eliminated. A single parent or guardian signature now suffices.

Form A also asks for:

• The name and address of the exempt school (you name it — many families use their last name, e.g., "Smith Academy")
• The school's start and end dates for the academic year
• The names and grade levels of enrolled students
• A statement that the school will meet the instructional hour requirements

Form B: The Parent Representative

Form B designates an Authorized Parent Representative — the adult who serves as the primary contact between the exempt school and the Nebraska Department of Education. In a solo family setup, this is simply you. In a cooperative or pod, this is where the structure becomes important.

The Parent Representative is responsible for:

• Submitting Form A and Form B to the NDE on behalf of the exempt school
• Maintaining contact information with the NDE
• Handling any correspondence from the NDE

One person holds this role per filing. For a single-family exempt school, the designated parent is the obvious choice. For multi-family cooperatives, you need to decide who takes this on.

Cooperative Filing: How Pods and Microschools Handle Rule 13

A Nebraska learning pod or microschool operating under Rule 13 typically uses a hub-and-spoke model: each family files its own individual exempt school, and one of those families' adults serves as the shared Parent Representative for all of them.

Here's how it works in practice:

1. Each family files independently. Every family in the pod files their own Form A. Each is legally their own separate exempt school.
2. One Parent Representative covers the group. On Form B, multiple families can designate the same person as their Parent Representative, or each can designate themselves. In cooperative filings, it's common for the hub family — typically the one hosting the educational space — to serve as the shared rep.
3. The NDE is notified for each child. Once the NDE receives the filing for each family, it notifies the relevant school district that those children are enrolled in a private exempt school. This terminates the district's authority to enforce attendance.
4. Hours are tracked per family. Each family maintains its own instructional hour log. There is no aggregate school-wide log submitted to the state.

The hub-and-spoke model is the most common structure because it preserves each family's legal independence while allowing the group to share educational resources, space, and a facilitator. It avoids the more complex compliance requirements of Nebraska's Rule 14 (approved nonpublic school) path, which requires certified teachers and formal curriculum reporting.

The July 15 Deadline

July 15 is the priority deadline for filing with the NDE each year. Filing before this date means the NDE can process your exemption before the public school year begins in late August, ensuring school districts don't start attendance tracking for your children.

If you miss July 15, file as soon as possible. The rule requires "prompt" filing — there is no grace period stated in the regulation, but timely filing after July 15 is understood to mean within days of when the obligation arose (for new families, that's when you establish Nebraska residence or decide to withdraw).

Do not let weeks pass. A child who is not enrolled in either a public school or an active exempt school is legally truant. The consequences flow quickly: the district notices the absence, contacts the family, and — if there's no filing — can refer the case to the county attorney.

If you're launching a pod mid-year, file immediately. The NDE processes mid-year filings routinely. Families pull out of public school in November and file Rule 13 in November all the time.

What Changed in 2024

LB 1027 made meaningful changes that current exempt school families need to know:

• Testing eliminated. The NDE can no longer require standardized testing for Rule 13 students.
• Curriculum reporting eliminated. Families are not required to submit curriculum plans or annual instructional summaries.
• Single-parent signature. Form A no longer requires dual signatures when both parents have legal custody.
• Visitation program ended. The NDE's authority to conduct home visits for Rule 13 schools was repealed.

These changes went into effect in April 2024. Any information written before that date — including some materials still circulating from statewide homeschool organizations — may describe requirements that no longer exist.

Starting a Microschool? Start Here

If you're standing up a learning pod or microschool in Nebraska, Rule 13 is almost certainly your filing path — not Rule 14 (approved nonpublic school), which requires certified teachers and formal reporting for every family involved. Rule 13 gives you maximum flexibility with minimum state interaction.

The Nebraska Micro-School & Pod Kit includes a complete Rule 13 filing guide for cooperative groups, hour-tracking templates calibrated for shared educational settings, and a Parent Representative setup checklist that covers the hub-and-spoke structure from initial filing through annual renewal.

Getting the filing right from day one saves the headaches that come from correcting a botched setup mid-year.

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