North Dakota Homeschool Testing Requirements: Grades, Scores, and Proctors

North Dakota has some of the most specific standardized testing rules in the country for homeschoolers. The requirements hinge on a single factor — whether your supervising parent holds a teaching certificate — and they follow a strict grade schedule with real consequences if scores fall below threshold. Most families hit their first test in 4th grade without ever having read the statute carefully, and that is exactly when surprises happen.

This guide covers which grades require testing, who can administer the test, which tests are accepted, the 50th percentile rule, and exactly what the law triggers when scores come in low. If you are just starting or approaching a test year, read all the way through before you pick a test or find a proctor.

Who Is Required to Test — and Who Is Exempt

Testing is tied to the parent's credentials. Under North Dakota law, if the supervising parent does not hold a state teaching certificate, standardized testing is mandatory. There is one additional exemption: parents who hold a bachelor's degree and have a documented philosophical objection to standardized testing may also be exempt from the testing requirement.

If neither of those apply — no certificate, no qualifying objection — testing is required at specific grade levels.

Which Grades Require a Standardized Test

For non-certified parents without an approved exemption, North Dakota requires standardized testing in grades 4, 6, 8, and 10.

A note on grade 10: this reflects the updated requirement under the ND A+ system, effective for the 2024-2025 school year. Some older sources and guides still list grade 11. The current law is grade 10. If you are relying on printed or cached information, verify against the current statute.

The test years are not optional. Missing a required test year without an exemption puts you out of compliance with the home education law.

Who Can Administer the Test: The Proctor Requirement

This is the detail that trips up the most families. The test must be administered by a state-certified teacher. You cannot simply purchase a test and have your child sit for it at home with you supervising, unless you yourself hold a teaching certificate.

In practice, this means you need to find a qualified proctor before your child's test year arrives. Your options typically include:

• A teacher currently employed in a public or private school who holds a valid ND teaching license
• A retired teacher who still holds an active or renewable ND certification
• Testing services affiliated with the North Dakota Home School Association (NDHSA), which coordinates statewide testing access and can connect families with certified proctors

For families in the Bismarck-Mandan area or Fargo metro, finding a proctor is usually manageable through NDHSA networks. For rural and frontier families — particularly those in western ND near the Montana border, the Badlands region, or sparsely populated counties between Dickinson and Minot — finding a qualified proctor often requires advance planning and sometimes travel. Do not leave this to the last month of the school year.

One practical advantage: testing in your own home or a familiar environment with a hired proctor tends to reduce test anxiety compared to a formal school setting. Families who arrange this often report better performance simply from the lower-stress environment.

Test Options Accepted in North Dakota

There are two paths for satisfying the testing requirement.

Option 1: ND A+ Summative Assessment

The ND A+ is the state assessment administered through the local public school district. It is provided at no cost to the family. To access it, you coordinate directly with your resident school district. Some districts are straightforward to work with; others require more follow-through. This is the same test public school students take, adapted for homeschool administration.

Option 2: Nationally Normed Tests

Families may use a nationally normed standardized test instead, at their own expense. Accepted examples include:

• Iowa Assessments (formerly Iowa Tests of Basic Skills / Iowa Tests of Educational Development)
• Stanford 10 (Stanford Achievement Test Series)

Both are widely used in the homeschool community nationally. The Iowa Assessments are particularly common in ND because they are normed against a large national sample, making it straightforward to calculate the percentile score the law requires.

If you go the nationally normed route, you will need to purchase the test through an approved provider and arrange for your certified proctor to administer it. Costs vary by provider and test level, but budget accordingly as this is the family's expense, not the district's.

The 50th Percentile Rule

Regardless of which test you use, North Dakota requires your child to score at or above the 50th percentile on the basic composite score. This is the key threshold the law cares about.

The 50th percentile means your child performed at or better than half of the national norming sample — it is not a passing grade in the traditional sense, but it is a meaningful bar. A child who is academically on track in core subjects will typically clear this threshold without intensive test preparation. The concern is when a child has genuine academic gaps, learning differences that have not been addressed, or has never sat for a timed standardized test before.

If you are approaching a test year and uncertain how your child will perform, consider working through a practice version of the Iowa Assessments or a similar test to get a baseline. This is not about gaming the test — it is about reducing surprises.

What Happens If Scores Fall Below the 50th Percentile

North Dakota law creates a tiered response based on how far below threshold a child scores.

Below the 50th percentile (but at or above 30th)

The child is automatically placed on "monitored status" for the following year. This means a licensed teacher must supervise the child's instruction for the next school year. This does not mean the child leaves the homeschool — it means you must document that a licensed teacher is involved in overseeing the educational program.

Below the 30th percentile

A multidisciplinary assessment is triggered to determine whether a learning disability is present. If no disability is identified, the parent is required to develop a formal remediation plan with the advice of a licensed teacher and file that plan with the local school district superintendent.

The remediation plan is not a one-time filing — it remains binding until the child scores at or above the 30th percentile on a subsequent test, or demonstrates a full year of measurable academic progress. This is the most significant consequence the law creates, and it involves the superintendent's office directly.

Filing Test Results with the Superintendent

Once testing is complete, results must be filed with the local school district superintendent. This is not optional and not self-reported informally — the results go to the district, which is why choosing a reputable test with a clear percentile score report matters.

Keep copies of all test result documentation. If you ever face a compliance question or a dispute with the district, having a clean paper trail of every required test year is your first line of defense.

Practical Planning for Rural Families

North Dakota is one of the least densely populated states in the country, with large swaths of the state classified as frontier counties. If you live more than an hour from a regional center, the proctor requirement deserves early attention every test year.

NDHSA is the primary statewide resource for connecting homeschool families with certified testing services. Reaching out to NDHSA well before the spring testing window — ideally in the fall of the test year — gives you the most options and avoids the rush that comes as spring approaches.

Getting the Full Legal Picture Before You Test

The testing requirements are one piece of a larger compliance framework for North Dakota homeschoolers. The notification requirements, record-keeping obligations, and the consequences of non-compliance interact with the testing rules in ways that matter — especially if test results lead to monitored status or a remediation plan.

If you want the complete statute-by-statute breakdown of how ND home education law works — from initial withdrawal through testing, record-keeping, and what to do when the district pushes back — the North Dakota Legal Withdrawal Blueprint covers all of it in one place. It is written for North Dakota specifically, not as a generic homeschool guide, and it is updated for the 2024-2025 ND A+ changes.

Summary: North Dakota Homeschool Testing at a Glance

North Dakota's testing rules are more structured than most states, but they are manageable when you plan ahead. The critical steps are identifying your proctor early, choosing your test option before the school year ends, and knowing the score thresholds before results arrive — not after.

If you are in a test year right now and still sorting out the details, the North Dakota Legal Withdrawal Blueprint is the fastest way to get the full legal framework in one readable document.

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