Prince George's County Homeschool: How to Withdraw and Register

Prince George's County Public Schools (PGCPS) is the second-largest school district in Maryland, serving roughly 130,000 students across 208 schools. If you are a PGCPS family considering home instruction, the process follows Maryland's statewide framework — but PGCPS has its own administrative contacts, local procedures, and portfolio review setup that are worth understanding specifically.

Maryland recorded 42,151 homeschooled students statewide for 2024-2025. Prince George's County has seen steady homeschool growth in recent years, driven by the same mix of school safety concerns, special education frustrations, and pandemic-era shifts that accelerated homeschooling across the entire Baltimore-Washington metro region.

How Maryland Law Governs This, Not PGCPS

The starting point is understanding the jurisdiction. Homeschooling in Prince George's County is governed by the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR 13A.10.01), not by PGCPS internal policy. The county school system administers the compliance process, but the rules themselves come from the state. PGCPS cannot add requirements on top of what COMAR specifies, cannot demand curriculum approval before accepting your withdrawal, and cannot tell you that homeschooling requires their permission.

Under Maryland Education Article §7-301, a child is exempt from compulsory attendance if they are receiving regular, thorough instruction covering the subjects taught at their grade level. You notify the district. You do not petition them.

The Prince George's County Home Instruction Process

Step 1: Contact the PGCPS Home Instruction Office.

Prince George's County administers home instruction through its Department of Curriculum and Instruction or, depending on your child's enrollment status (IEP, English language learner, etc.), through the relevant specialized office. The county maintains a Home Instruction program coordinator who handles new registrations and portfolio reviews.

You should contact PGCPS to confirm the current mailing address for your Notice of Intent submission, as administrative contacts can change. The general PGCPS main line is (301) 952-6000, and the district website (pgcps.org) maintains current home instruction guidance.

Step 2: Choose Option 1 or Option 2 supervision.

This is the core decision under Maryland law:

• Option 1 — PGCPS reviews your child's educational portfolio up to three times per year. Reviews are conducted by a county home instruction coordinator at a mutually agreeable time and place. The county evaluates whether your program demonstrates regular, thorough instruction across all eight required subjects: English, mathematics, science, social studies, art, music, health, and physical education.

• Option 2 — You join a registered nonpublic entity (an umbrella school), which takes over the supervisory role. The umbrella reports your enrollment annually to PGCPS. You have no ongoing direct interaction with the county on your child's educational program.

Option 2 is preferred by families who want maximum privacy and who do not want to present their child's work to a public school official. Both options are fully legal and equally valid under Maryland law.

Step 3: File the 15-Day Notice of Intent.

COMAR requires the Home Instruction Notification form to be submitted to your local school superintendent at least 15 days before you begin home instruction. In Prince George's County, this means submitting to the PGCPS superintendent's office or the designated home instruction contact. Send by certified mail with a return receipt requested — that postmark is your legal proof of compliance if the district ever raises a truancy concern.

On the form, you indicate your supervision choice. If Option 2, you must name your umbrella organization, which means you need to have your umbrella enrollment confirmed before you submit the form.

Step 4: Formally withdraw your child from their current school.

File a separate withdrawal letter with your child's school principal or registrar. This letter states that you are withdrawing your child from PGCPS enrollment to begin home instruction under COMAR 13A.10.01. Send this also via certified mail. Request written confirmation that the withdrawal has been processed and that your child's attendance record will reflect the withdrawal date rather than unexcused absences.

Return all school property — Chromebooks, textbooks, library materials — and get a receipt.

The 15-Day Rule and Mid-Year Withdrawals

If you are pulling your child from PGCPS mid-year — due to bullying, a mental health crisis, IEP failure, or any urgent situation — you face the practical tension that Maryland's 15-day rule creates. Some PGCPS families have reported receiving automated truancy warnings during the period between filing their Notice of Intent and the 15-day mark, particularly if they began keeping their child home immediately.

The correct approach to mid-year withdrawals is to file everything simultaneously: the withdrawal letter to the school and the Notice of Intent to the superintendent on the same day, via certified mail. Begin instruction immediately and maintain meticulous daily logs from day one. Those logs — dated records showing what you taught each day — serve as your evidence that education replaced public school attendance from the moment of withdrawal. If you receive truancy correspondence, your certified mail receipts are the first line of defense.

PGCPS Portfolio Reviews Under Option 1

If you choose Option 1, a Prince George's County home instruction coordinator will schedule portfolio reviews with you. Reviews typically occur twice per year — end of each semester — though COMAR allows up to three per year.

A compliant PGCPS portfolio contains:

• A summary of curricula, programs, or materials used for each of the eight mandated subjects
• Three to five dated work samples per subject, spread across the review period to demonstrate continuity of instruction
• For art, music, and physical education — photos of projects, activity logs (martial arts class attendance, piano lesson records), or progress reports from online platforms

PGCPS reviewers are bound by the same state anti-overreach rule as every Maryland county: they cannot require you to follow the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards, cannot demand daily lesson plans, and cannot require standardized test results. Their mandate is to determine whether regular, thorough instruction is occurring. A well-organized portfolio demonstrating breadth across all eight subjects will satisfy that requirement.

If the reviewer issues a notice of deficiency, you have 30 days to provide evidence of correction. This is a normal administrative safety valve, not a crisis — but it does require an organized response.

Special Education Families in PGCPS

Prince George's County families withdrawing a student with an active IEP should understand that PGCPS's obligation to provide special education services ends at withdrawal. The district does not continue IEP services to homeschooled students. You may explore parentally-placed private school services, but these are discretionary.

If IEP non-compliance or the district's failure to provide required services was the primary driver of your withdrawal decision, document every meeting, every communication, and every instance of non-compliance before you leave. Maryland homeschool law allows you to exit cleanly — but if there is any future legal question about the timing or legitimacy of your withdrawal, that documentation is essential.

Co-ops, Support Groups, and Community in PG County

Prince George's County has an active homeschool community with co-ops and support groups serving families across the county. The National Harbor area, Bowie, Greenbelt, and Hyattsville all have clusters of homeschooling families. Local Facebook groups for PG County homeschoolers are the fastest way to find co-op opportunities, sports programs, and peer connections for your child.

PGCPS does allow homeschooled students to participate voluntarily in the county's standardized testing programs if you opt in on your Notice of Intent — useful for families who want objective academic benchmarks without mandatory testing pressure.

Getting the Process Right

The Prince George's County home instruction process is straightforward once you have the sequence correct: choose your supervision option, enroll with an umbrella if choosing Option 2, file the Notice of Intent to the superintendent, and formally withdraw from your child's school — all supported by certified mail documentation.

For a complete framework covering every form, every step, and every county-specific consideration — including letter templates for your PGCPS withdrawal, guidance on the Option 1 vs. Option 2 decision, and a curated directory of umbrella schools serving Prince George's County families — the Maryland Legal Withdrawal Blueprint has the full process laid out in sequence.

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