Rhode Island Homeschool Convention: ENRICHri, RIGHT, and What to Expect

Rhode Island is a small state, and its homeschool community reflects that. Unlike Texas or Florida, where homeschool conferences draw thousands of families over a multi-day event, Rhode Island's conventions are intimate — often held over a single day, with a few hundred attendees, curriculum vendors, and local speakers. What they lack in scale they make up for in relevance. Speakers know Rhode Island's specific school committee process, the RIGL §16-19 requirements, and the practical texture of homeschooling in a small, dense state.

There are two main events, corresponding to Rhode Island's two primary homeschool organizations.

ENRICHri Convention

ENRICHri — the Eclectic Non-Religious Inclusive Cooperative of Home Educators of Rhode Island — holds an annual convention typically in late spring, often at a community venue in the Providence metro area. The event draws secular, non-religious, and eclectic homeschool families. It's the largest secular homeschool gathering in the state.

What to expect:

• Workshops on Rhode Island-specific topics — school committee approval process, end-of-year portfolio preparation, evaluation options under RIGL §16-19-3, and navigating challenging districts
• Curriculum vendor exhibits — a mix of secular curriculum publishers and RI-based educational resources. Smaller than national conventions, but more relevant to the RI context
• Networking — this is where you meet other homeschool families in your geographic area, find potential co-op partners, and make connections that lead to pods and shared classes
• Speaker sessions — typically covering approaches to home education, subject-specific strategies, and supporting kids with learning differences

The secular, inclusive emphasis at ENRICHri means the atmosphere is diverse in terms of educational philosophy. You'll find unschoolers, Charlotte Mason families, classical homeschoolers, and eclectic families all in the same space.

Registration and dates: ENRICHri typically announces their annual convention in late winter/early spring. Check their website (enrichri.org) for current year dates. Admission is typically $15-$25 for members, slightly more for non-members.

RIGHT Convention

RIGHT — the Rhode Island Guild of Home Teachers — holds a separate annual convention typically in spring, oriented toward Christian and faith-aligned homeschool families. RIGHT's convention has been running longer than ENRICHri's and reflects the organization's traditional homeschool roots.

What to expect:

• Faith-oriented curriculum vendors — a heavier representation of Christian curriculum publishers (Abeka, BJU Press, Sonlight, etc.) alongside secular options
• Workshops with a values-aligned focus — approaches to classical education, faith integration in curriculum, character formation alongside academic instruction
• RI-specific legal and compliance sessions — RIGHT also covers the school committee approval process, which affects all homeschool families regardless of religious orientation
• Community building — like ENRICHri, RIGHT's convention is a primary venue for meeting other homeschool families and building the personal connections that lead to co-ops and pods

Registration and dates: RIGHT typically announces their convention in late winter. Check their website for current year information.

What Microschool Families Should Prioritize at Both Events

If you're building a microschool or learning pod rather than solo homeschooling, both conventions are worth attending at least once — even if the general atmosphere doesn't perfectly match your orientation. Here's why:

Networking for pod recruitment. The families you meet at these conventions are your potential pod partners. A parent at ENRICHri who has been homeschooling for two years and is looking for more structure is a natural pod co-founder. The convention is the recruitment ground.

Finding evaluators. Rhode Island requires annual evaluations of homeschooled students. School committee evaluators who meet RI standards are a finite resource. Other convention attendees — especially veteran homeschool parents — know who the reliable evaluators are in each district.

Understanding your school committee's culture. Experienced RI homeschool families at the convention will know which school committees are cooperative and which are demanding. If you're in Providence, Pawtucket, or another high-scrutiny district, talking to families who've already navigated approval in your district is more valuable than anything you'll read online.

RI-specific vendor and resource discovery. Both conventions attract vendors who specifically serve the RI market — tutors, evaluators, co-op class providers, and insurance brokers who work with homeschool families.

Other Gathering Points for RI Homeschool Families

Between conventions, RI homeschool families connect through:

Ocean State Cooperative — runs ongoing shared classes and occasionally hosts informational events. More operationally focused than the conventions.

Facebook groups — Rhode Island-specific homeschool groups on Facebook are active and often the fastest way to get a question answered about a specific school committee's current process.

ENRICHri and RIGHT email lists — both organizations maintain email lists that announce co-op opportunities, used curriculum sales, field trip coordination, and local events throughout the year.

Library co-ops — the Providence Public Library and several branch libraries across the state host homeschool-specific programs at various times of year. Not a convention, but a regular gathering point for families in those areas.

If you're in the planning stage for a microschool or pod and haven't yet attended a convention, the spring event season — March through May — is when RI's homeschool community is most active. That's when most pods are recruiting for the following fall, when convention networking is freshest, and when the evaluation season is approaching for currently enrolled families.

The Rhode Island Micro-School & Pod Kit at homeschoolstartguide.com/us/rhode-island/microschool covers the school committee approval process, pod legal structure, RI-specific documentation requirements, and budget templates — everything you'd want to have in hand before or after attending a RI homeschool convention.

See more United States homeschool guides →