How to Start Homeschooling in Wisconsin: A Step-by-Step Guide

Wisconsin is one of the most straightforward states in the country for starting a home-based program. There is no application process, no approval to wait for, and no government review of your curriculum. But there is one form with a hard deadline — and getting the sequence wrong creates legal exposure. Here is exactly how to start.

What Wisconsin Requires to Homeschool

Under Wisconsin statute §118.165, parents who operate a "home-based private educational program" must:

1. File a PI-1206 Homeschool Enrollment Report with the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) annually
2. Provide 875 hours of instruction per year across six required subjects
3. Use a sequentially progressive curriculum (instruction that builds on itself over time)

That is the complete list. Wisconsin does not require teacher certification, curriculum approval, standardized testing, or portfolio reviews. With over 31,000 students currently homeschooled in the state, the infrastructure supporting families is robust — but the legal requirements are genuinely minimal.

Step 1: Make Your Decision and Pick a Start Date

The most consequential early decision is your start date. Wisconsin's PI-1206 has two different filing rules depending on when you start:

• Start-of-year (September): File the PI-1206 by October 15
• Mid-year (after October 15): File the PI-1206 within 30 days of beginning your program

For practical purposes: if you are pulling your child from school mid-year, you want to file the PI-1206 on or before the day your child's last day of school attendance. Do not keep your child home first and file later. The gap between their last day at school and your PI-1206 submission date is a window of legal vulnerability — unexcused absences accumulate during that gap.

Step 2: File the PI-1206 Through the HOMER Portal

The PI-1206 is filed online through the HOMER system on the DPI website (sms.dpi.wi.gov). You will create an account if you do not already have one.

What the form asks for:

• Parent/guardian name and address
• Name, date of birth, and grade level for each child
• A statement that your program will cover the required subjects

What the form does not ask for: your curriculum, your teaching philosophy, your daily schedule, or any documentation of prior education.

Critical step: After completing all fields, you must click a separate "Submit Enrollment Data" button. Many parents complete the entire form and believe they have finished — but the data is not submitted until this final button is clicked. Check for a confirmation screen and save the confirmation number.

The DPI does not approve or deny your submission. They record it. Once the form is submitted with a valid confirmation, your program is legally recognized.

Step 3: Notify the School (Courtesy Notice)

Wisconsin law does not technically require you to notify your school district that you are withdrawing your child. The PI-1206 filed with the DPI is your only legal obligation.

However, sending a courtesy notice to the school on the day of your child's last attendance is highly advisable. Without it, the school may begin marking absences as unexcused and initiate a truancy follow-up — because from their records, a compulsory-age child simply stopped showing up.

A courtesy notice is a brief written communication — email or letter — stating that your child is being withdrawn effective today to enroll in a home-based private educational program under Wis. Stat. 118.15(4). You do not need to explain your reasons, describe your curriculum, or ask for permission. The WHPA (Wisconsin Homeschooling Parents Association) publishes free sample courtesy notice templates on their website.

Send the courtesy notice on the same day as your PI-1206 submission, or as close to it as possible.

Step 4: Request Your Child's School Records

At the time of withdrawal, request a complete copy of your child's school records. This includes:

• Academic transcripts
• Attendance records
• Any special education or IEP documentation if applicable
• Health and immunization records (you may need these for future enrollment or activities)
• Any behavioral or disciplinary records

You are legally entitled to these records. Requesting them at the time of withdrawal is easier than following up weeks later. Keep the originals.

Step 5: Choose Your Curriculum Approach

After the legal paperwork is complete, curriculum selection is your first operational decision. Wisconsin makes no requirement about which curriculum you use — only that it covers the six required subjects sequentially.

The six required subjects under §118.165:

1. Reading
2. Language arts (writing, grammar, spelling)
3. Mathematics
4. Social studies
5. Science
6. Health

All-in-one curriculum packages (like Sonlight, Abeka, BJU Press, or Timberdoodle) provide structured year-by-year coverage of all core subjects. These work well for parents who want a complete course of study without building their own from scratch.

Subject-by-subject approach: Many Wisconsin families use a combination of publishers — one math program, a separate language arts curriculum, and supplementary resources for science and social studies. This allows you to customize for your child's pace and learning style.

Eclectic and unschooling approaches: Some families use a loosely structured approach built around interests and experiences rather than a packaged curriculum. This is legal in Wisconsin as long as the six subjects are addressed and the 875-hour threshold is met. However, documentation becomes more important when the structure is less formal.

Step 6: Set Up Your Record-Keeping System

The DPI purges PI-1206 records after seven years. Your own independently maintained records are the only long-term documentation of your child's home-based education. These records matter for college applications, military enlistment, employment background checks, and any future re-enrollment in public school.

At minimum, maintain:

• Hours log: Date, subjects covered, activities, approximate hours. A simple spreadsheet works. The 875-hour requirement across six subjects gives you a clear annual target.
• Portfolio samples: Retained work samples, graded tests, completed projects. Especially important for high school years.
• Course descriptions: Particularly for high school, document what each course covered, which materials were used, and how it was assessed.

You do not submit these records to anyone annually. They are your records.

What Age to Start Homeschooling in Wisconsin

Wisconsin's compulsory attendance age is 6 to 18. You can homeschool at any point in this range.

For children under 6, there is nothing to file — compulsory attendance has not attached, and the DPI does not accept PI-1206 filings for children under 6. A 5-year-old kept home from kindergarten requires no paperwork.

Many families begin home-based programs well before age 6 as a matter of educational philosophy. Legally, the PI-1206 filing requirement kicks in when the child turns 6 or when you formally withdraw them from a school they were attending, whichever comes first.

Can You Start Mid-Year?

Yes. Mid-year withdrawal from public school is common in Wisconsin and fully legal. The rules are the same as a standard start, but the timing window is tighter: file the PI-1206 before or on the day your child's last school attendance occurs, and use a courtesy notice to close the loop with the school.

Families frequently plan mid-year transitions around natural breaks — Thanksgiving, winter break, spring break — to minimize disruption. There is no reason to wait if the situation at school warrants an immediate exit. The legal framework accommodates it.

Getting the Foundation Right

The PI-1206 and the withdrawal sequence are the part that most new Wisconsin homeschool families get wrong. The state's law is genuinely minimal, but the few requirements that exist are precise — and the consequences of getting the timing wrong (an unexcused absence record, a truancy referral) create avoidable stress.

The Wisconsin Legal Withdrawal Blueprint provides the complete filing sequence, annotated HOMER portal screenshots, courtesy notice templates, and scripts for responding to school pushback — in a single document designed to get you from decision to legal compliance without gaps.

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