NH Homeschool Withdrawal Letter: What to Write and What to Leave Out

Most parents write too much. They explain their reasons, describe their curriculum approach, mention a start date weeks in the future, and sometimes apologize. None of that belongs in a New Hampshire homeschool withdrawal letter — and including it can actually create problems.

Here's what you need to know about both documents involved in withdrawing your child from school in New Hampshire: the withdrawal letter to the school, and the notification letter to a participating agency.

Two Letters, Two Different Purposes

The confusion usually starts here. Parents search for a "New Hampshire homeschool withdrawal letter" and assume there's one document that handles everything. There are actually two:

Withdrawal letter — goes to the school, tells them your child is leaving and that you're homeschooling under RSA 193-A.

Notification letter — goes to a participating agency (your local superintendent, the NH DOE Commissioner, or a participating private school), and is your formal legal notice under RSA 193-A.

Both need to exist. Both need to go out within the same narrow window. But they serve different purposes and go to different recipients.

The Withdrawal Letter to the School

This letter goes to your child's current school — not the district office, not the superintendent, not the school board. Directly to the school.

Keep it brief. It needs two things:

1. The date your child's enrollment ends (their last day)
2. A statement that you will be homeschooling under RSA 193-A

Nothing else is required. You do not owe the school your curriculum outline, your educational philosophy, your reasons for leaving, or any indication of what you plan to teach. A school that asks for any of this in exchange for processing the withdrawal is overstepping.

Send this via Certified Mail — Return Receipt Requested. Keep your green return receipt card. If the school later claims they never received notice, you have dated proof.

One note on timing: the date you name as the withdrawal date should align with when your home education program begins, because the 5-business-day clock for your notification letter starts from that commencement date. Don't write a withdrawal date of March 20 and then tell the agency your program starts April 1.

The Notification Letter to a Participating Agency

This is the letter that carries legal weight under RSA 193-A. It's your formal notification to the state that a home education program has commenced.

New Hampshire law (RSA 193-A and Ed 315) specifies exactly what this letter must contain:

• Full names of the children being home-educated
• Dates of birth of the children
• Address of the children
• Full names of the parents/guardians
• Address of the parents/guardians
• The date the home education program commences

That is the complete statutory list. Everything else is optional at best, counterproductive at worst.

Do not include:

• Grade levels
• Curriculum materials you plan to use
• Your qualifications or education background
• Why you're withdrawing from public school
• A proposed schedule or hours of instruction
• A list of subjects

Over-compliance turns a notification — which is a unilateral statement — into something that looks like an application. It invites scrutiny that the law doesn't authorize.

Choosing Your Participating Agency

You have three options for who receives the notification:

Local superintendent. The superintendent of your school district. This is the default for most families and is free. The main drawback: your local district now has documentation of your homeschool.

NH DOE Commissioner. You send the notification directly to the Commissioner of Education in Concord. This is also free and keeps the local district out of the process. Some families prefer this for that reason.

A participating private school. Certain private schools in New Hampshire offer to act as a participating agency for a fee. This option provides the most privacy — your local district never receives direct notification. If privacy is a priority, this is worth researching.

This notification is a one-time filing per child. You do not re-file annually. Once the agency acknowledges receipt (which they're required to do within 14 days), your notification is on file indefinitely unless circumstances change.

What a School Can and Cannot Do

Schools cannot condition a withdrawal on a meeting, curriculum review, or any form of approval. RSA 193-A:11 and Ed 315 prohibit local districts from enforcing policies more restrictive than state statute. The language implying district approval was explicitly removed from NH law in 2022.

If your school sends you a form and tells you that you must fill it out to complete the withdrawal, read it carefully. If it asks for curriculum plans, a list of subjects, or "reasons for homeschooling," you don't have to provide any of that. The NH DOE Technical Advisory on Home Education is the document to reference if you need to push back.

What the school legitimately needs: confirmation that your child is withdrawing and a date. That's all.

The Timing Problem Most Families Miss

RSA 193-A requires notification within 5 business days of the date your home education program commences. This is not 5 days after you mail the letter — it's 5 days from the start of the program.

If your child's last day at school is a Friday and you start homeschooling the following Monday, your notification must reach the participating agency by that Friday (5 business days later). Certified Mail with standard delivery should get there in time, but cutting it close is a risk.

Draft both letters — the withdrawal letter and the notification letter — before your child's last day. Send them simultaneously if possible. Don't mail the withdrawal letter and then wait to see what the school says before sending the notification.

If you're navigating a mid-year situation with attendance already becoming an issue, the timeline is even more urgent. The New Hampshire Legal Withdrawal Blueprint includes exact letter language for both documents, plus guidance on how to handle a school that's already flagged absences.

After You Send Both Letters

Once you've mailed both letters:

• Keep copies of both letters in a dedicated folder
• Keep your Certified Mail receipts and the green return receipt cards when they arrive back
• Wait for written acknowledgment from the participating agency (required within 14 days)
• File the acknowledgment letter when it arrives

That acknowledgment letter is important. It's your confirmation that the notification was received and processed. Without it, you can't prove your program is registered if questions arise later.

The letters themselves are not complicated documents. A withdrawal letter can be four sentences. A notification letter can be eight lines. The challenge is knowing what to include, what to leave out, and where to send each one — because the consequences of getting it wrong (truancy flags, unexcused absences, a school claiming it never received proper notice) are real.

If you want letter templates drafted to New Hampshire's exact statutory requirements, along with guidance on each step of the process, the New Hampshire Legal Withdrawal Blueprint walks through both documents in detail.

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