Vermont Home Study Law Changes 2023: What Act 166b Actually Changed

Vermont's home study law underwent its most significant revision in years when H.461 was enacted as Act 66, effective July 1, 2023. If you're reading old forum posts, outdated state summaries, or guides written before that date, you're getting instructions for a system that no longer exists. Here is what actually changed, what stayed the same, and what the 2023 update means for families filing today.

What Changed: The End of MCOS and EOYA Submission

The biggest shift in the 2023 update is the elimination of the requirement to submit your Minimum Course of Study (MCOS) and End of Year Assessment (EOYA) documentation to the Vermont Agency of Education.

Under the old system, Vermont home study families had to:

1. Submit a detailed MCOS narrative describing their planned curriculum for the coming year
2. Submit an EOYA report at the end of the year confirming that the student had completed the planned program

The AOE's Home Study staff — a team of roughly 1.4 full-time equivalents — was responsible for reviewing thousands of these submissions annually. The review was largely procedural, but it created a significant administrative burden on both families and the agency. Families spent time writing narratives that would be glanced at for completeness; staff spent time confirming paperwork they weren't substantively evaluating.

The 2023 changes to 16 V.S.A. § 166b eliminated both requirements entirely. Under the current system:

• You develop an MCOS privately and keep it for your own records
• You conduct a year-end assessment and retain those records privately
• You do not submit either document to the AOE

What Replaced Submission: The Attestation System

Vermont shifted from submission to attestation. On your Notice of Intent or Annual Notice, you sign legally binding statements affirming that you are doing what the law requires. The three core attestations under 16 V.S.A. § 166b are:

Instructional days attestation. You attest that you will provide your child with the equivalent of at least 175 days of instruction during the academic year.

MCOS attestation. You attest that you have developed a Minimum Course of Study covering all required subjects. If your child has a documented disability, you also attest that the MCOS includes necessary adaptations. You are not submitting the MCOS — you are swearing you have one.

Assessment attestation. You attest that you will conduct an annual assessment using one of the five permitted methods and will retain the resulting records. Vermont law does not specify a fixed retention period.

The legal consequence of these attestations is that the accountability has shifted entirely onto the parent. You are signing a legal document stating that you are complying. If you are later found not to be complying — through a custody dispute, a DCF investigation, or a truancy proceeding — the attestation you signed is evidence that you knew what was required and chose not to do it. The practical implication is that you actually need to keep records, even though no one is asking to see them.

What Stayed the Same

The 2023 update did not change the substantive requirements of Home Study in Vermont. These elements remain exactly as they were:

Annual enrollment. Every Home Study family must maintain current enrollment with the AOE each year. New enrollments use a Notice of Intent; returning families use an Annual Notice. This is still an annual requirement — not a one-time filing.

10-business-day lead time. The Notice of Intent must be submitted at least 10 business days before the Home Study program begins. This timing rule still exists and the truancy risk for families who skip it is unchanged.

Required subjects. The subject requirements under 16 V.S.A. § 906 are unchanged: basic communication including reading, writing, and use of numbers; Vermont and U.S. citizenship, history, and government; physical education and comprehensive health including the effects of tobacco, alcoholic drinks, and drugs; English, American, and other literature; natural sciences; and fine arts. At age 13 and thereafter, physical education, comprehensive health, and fine arts are no longer required.

175 instructional days. The 175-day minimum is unchanged.

Five assessment options. The permitted assessment methods — parent portfolio with work samples, Vermont-certified teacher assessment, standardized testing, online academy or school grades, and evidence of passing the GED — remain the same.

Compulsory attendance ages. Vermont's compulsory attendance law (16 V.S.A. § 1121) still covers ages 6 through 16.

Disability evidence for certain new enrollments. Evidence about whether a documented disability affects educational progress is required when the child has not previously been enrolled in a Vermont public school or Vermont Home Study program. IPE Form B is one route; a Vermont public-school report card, IEP, or 504 Plan may be accepted as an alternative under current AOE guidance.

The AOE's Role Under the New System

A common misunderstanding about the 2023 changes to 16 V.S.A. § 166b is that they removed the AOE from the process entirely. They did not. The AOE is still the processor and record-keeper for Home Study enrollment. It still:

• Receives and reviews Notice of Intent submissions for completeness
• Issues written acknowledgment confirming Home Study enrollment
• Maintains records of which students are enrolled in Vermont Home Study programs
• Can be contacted if districts raise truancy concerns to verify enrollment status

What the AOE no longer does is review curriculum content or evaluate your assessment documentation. It processes the enrollment form and issues the acknowledgment. The substantive educational decisions — what to teach, how to assess, what constitutes progress — are entirely yours.

Practical Consequences for Families Who Filed Before 2023

If you were homeschooling in Vermont before July 2023 and have been operating under the old system, the transition to the new system is straightforward. You no longer need to write a detailed MCOS narrative for the AOE — you maintain that document privately. You no longer submit your EOYA report — you keep it in your records.

What you do need to do is ensure your record-keeping is actually adequate, now that the discipline of annual submission isn't there. Under the old system, the EOYA submission deadline created a natural forcing function — you had to have something ready to submit. Under the new attestation system, that external deadline is gone. Families who relied on the submission deadline to organize their documentation need to build internal systems to replace it.

Implications for Withdrawal Timing

One aspect of the 2023 changes that affects families deciding to start Home Study mid-year: because the AOE is now only reviewing forms for completeness rather than reading curriculum narratives, the processing time has generally shortened. Written acknowledgment is due within 10 business days after receipt of a complete notice, but many families report acknowledgments arriving faster under the streamlined system.

That said, do not count on a fast turnaround. The 10-business-day wait period is a legal requirement regardless of how quickly the AOE processes your specific form. If you pull your child from school before the acknowledgment arrives, the absences are unexcused — and the 2023 changes did not alter that rule at all.

Navigating the current Vermont home study system — especially if you're withdrawing from public school mid-year and need to get the sequence right — is what the Vermont Legal Withdrawal Blueprint is built for. It's written around the post-Act 66 system, not the old MCOS-submission framework, and covers the Notice of Intent, the 10-business-day acknowledgment period, the school withdrawal letter, and the records you need to build and keep.

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