New Hampshire Homeschool Portfolio Template: What to Include and Why

You've filed your Notice of Intent and picked a participating agency. Now comes the part that trips up almost every New Hampshire homeschool family: building an actual portfolio that will satisfy an evaluator without turning your entire year into a paperwork exercise.

The good news is that RSA 193-A is far less demanding than most parents assume. The state law specifies two required elements — a reading log and samples of writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials. That's the legal baseline. Everything else you add is optional, and adding too much can work against you by creating a false standard of what the state requires.

Here's what a complete, evaluator-ready NH homeschool portfolio actually looks like.

The Five Core Components

A well-organized portfolio accomplishes one thing: it shows a certified teacher that your child made reasonable academic progress commensurate with their age, ability, and any disability. It does not need to prove mastery, demonstrate grade-level performance, or account for every hour of your school year. New Hampshire explicitly eliminated the 40th percentile scoring requirement in 2022 — your child simply needs to show forward movement.

1. A Title Page and Table of Contents

Start with a single page identifying the child's name, the academic year covered, and the participating agency you filed your Notice of Intent with. Follow it with a simple table of contents listing each section. This tells the evaluator the portfolio is organized intentionally, not dumped into a box.

2. Your Notification Acknowledgment Letter

Keep a copy of the letter your participating agency sent acknowledging receipt of your Notice of Intent. This is your most important legal document. It proves you are in compliance with compulsory attendance law. If you ever face pushback from a district — or if your child re-enrolls in public school later — this letter is your proof. File it permanently and include a copy at the front of every annual portfolio.

3. A Reading Log

RSA 193-A specifically requires "a log which designates by title the reading materials used." This does not need to include annotations, comprehension summaries, or reading levels. A simple list of book titles and authors, organized chronologically or by subject, is fully compliant.

Example format:

You can maintain this as a Google Sheet or a printed log — the law makes no distinction between physical and digital records.

4. Work Samples Showing Progress Across the Eleven Required Subjects

This is the heart of the portfolio. RSA 193-A:4 requires instruction in eleven subject areas: science, mathematics, language, government, history, health, reading, writing, spelling, the history of the NH and US constitutions, and exposure to art and music.

The key word is exposure. You do not need daily worksheets for every subject. The Granite State Home Educators and New Hampshire Homeschooling Coalition both advise collecting one or two pages of work per subject area, taken at three different points in the year — roughly September, January, and May. This "beginning, middle, end" sample pattern explicitly demonstrates progress over time, which is exactly what an evaluator is looking for.

What counts as a work sample:

• Math: A chapter test, a completed workbook page, or a photo of a hands-on measurement activity
• Science: A lab report, a nature journal entry, photos of a science experiment with a brief written caption
• History/Government: A timeline the student created, a book report excerpt, field trip documentation (ticket stubs plus a written paragraph about what was learned)
• Writing/Spelling: A first draft next to a final draft, a creative writing piece, a grammar worksheet
• NH & US Constitutions: A short written summary of a Bill of Rights lesson, a photo from visiting the State House in Concord, notes from a town hall meeting
• Health: A PE log (three months of activity summaries), records of a sports team or martial arts class, a cooking project writeup
• Art & Music: Museum ticket stubs, photos of completed art projects, a list of composers studied, a concert program

If your child primarily learns through projects, field trips, or real-world experiences, narrative summaries written by the parent work fine. One paragraph per subject area explaining what was learned and how is acceptable evidence. Evaluators in New Hampshire are accustomed to portfolios that look nothing like a traditional classroom record.

5. A Parent Narrative Summary (Strongly Recommended)

While not legally required, a one-page narrative written by you — the parent — significantly eases the evaluator's work and typically leads to a smoother review. This summary describes your overarching approach for the year, any curriculum you used, any challenges the child encountered, and what you plan to cover next year. Think of it as a cover letter for your portfolio.

A typical narrative summary might be two to four paragraphs. You are not defending yourself — you are giving context that helps a teacher understand how the child's samples fit together.

Subject Summary Sheets: The Template That Makes Reviews Go Faster

Beyond basic work samples, experienced NH homeschool families often create a one-page subject summary sheet for each required subject area. The NHHA recommends these as the most efficient way to communicate progress to an evaluator.

A subject summary sheet for each subject should include:

• Subject name
• Curriculum or resources used (e.g., "Saxon Math 5/4," "Apologia Elementary Science," "library books and nature walks")
• Skills mastered or concepts covered (a brief bullet list — four to six items)
• Progress observed (a sentence or two)
• Work samples attached (a note indicating which attached materials correspond to this subject)

This format transforms a loose pile of samples into a navigable document. Evaluators who have done dozens of reviews in a single June — which is the peak month for NH portfolio reviews — genuinely appreciate portfolios that are labeled and cross-referenced.

What Does Not Belong in an NH Portfolio

This matters as much as knowing what to include. New Hampshire does not require:

• Daily attendance logs. The state's administrative rules explicitly exempt home education programs from matching the resident district calendar. Tracking attendance is unnecessary and creates a false record.
• Hourly instructional logs. There is no 180-day or 945-hour requirement for homeschoolers under RSA 193-A.
• Curriculum pre-approval. You do not need to submit a lesson plan or scope-and-sequence to your participating agency before the school year begins.
• Test scores submitted to the state. Annual evaluation results — whether a portfolio review letter or a standardized test score — stay with the family. They are never submitted to the state or the participating agency under traditional homeschooling.

Families who use generic Etsy planners often track all of these things out of habit, then arrive at their portfolio review with three binders of daily logs that actually obscure the required evidence. Less is more.

Organizing the Physical or Digital Portfolio

You can use a three-ring binder with tabbed dividers (one per subject) or a Google Drive folder with clearly labeled subfolders. Both approaches work. If you maintain a digital system, include the ability to print a subset of materials for the evaluator — some prefer to review physical documents, though others are comfortable with a shared folder link.

Label everything clearly. Each sample should be marked with the subject area, the approximate date it was produced, and a brief label if the context isn't obvious from the document itself. A sticky note on a math test that reads "Chapter 5 fractions test, November" is enough.

Portfolio Retention Requirements

Under RSA 193-A, you are required to preserve the portfolio for two years after the instruction period ends. This means a portfolio covering the 2025-2026 academic year must be kept until at least 2028. Plan your storage accordingly — a labeled banker's box per year works well for physical portfolios, and a shared Google Drive folder can be archived as a downloaded ZIP file.

If assembling this portfolio from scratch each year feels like more work than the teaching itself, ready-made fillable templates designed specifically for New Hampshire's RSA 193-A requirements can save several hours of formatting. The New Hampshire Portfolio & Assessment Templates includes a pre-formatted reading log, subject summary sheets, a parent narrative template, and a high school transcript template aligned with NH's 20-credit graduation framework — everything you need without the blank-page friction.

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