Vermont Homeschool Kindergarten: When You Must Start and How It Works

Vermont parents who want to home study their kindergartner often discover that Vermont's compulsory attendance law gives them more flexibility than they expected — and some find they're filing a Notice of Intent before they strictly need to. Understanding when Vermont's home study requirements actually kick in changes the planning conversation.

Vermont's Compulsory Attendance Age Is 6, Not 5

Under 16 V.S.A. § 1121, Vermont's compulsory school attendance applies to children ages 6 through 16. Kindergarten in Vermont is generally for 5-year-olds. This means:

A child under 6 is not subject to compulsory attendance unless the child is enrolled in kindergarten through grade 12. Vermont law does not require attendance for a child who has not yet reached age 6, but a child under 6 who is enrolled in kindergarten must attend continually under 16 V.S.A. § 1122.

When your child turns 6, compulsory attendance begins. At that point, they must attend a public school, an approved or recognized independent school, an approved education program such as VTVLC, or a properly filed home study program with the Vermont Agency of Education.

The practical implication: if your child is under 6 and not enrolled in a school, you can provide home education without filing a Home Study notice. If your child is enrolled in kindergarten, however, the attendance rule in § 1122 applies. If you plan to continue Home Study after compulsory attendance begins, file the NOI at least 10 business days before commencing it and wait for written acknowledgment.

When the Notice of Intent Becomes Required

The NOI is required before commencing a Home Study program. If your child will be subject to compulsory attendance when the program begins, submit it at least 10 business days before the intended start date. If you're withdrawing from an existing public or private school enrollment, keep the child attending until the AOE sends written acknowledgment, then formally withdraw.

If your child is already enrolled in a Vermont public school kindergarten and you want to withdraw to Home Study, the full withdrawal process applies: file the NOI, wait for the written AOE acknowledgment within 10 business days after receipt of a complete notice, then formally withdraw. Don't keep your child home before completing this sequence — unexcused absences can contribute to truancy action. Ten unexcused absences are a frequent threshold for administrative action, not an automatic DCF referral; CHINS means Child in Need of Care or Supervision under 33 V.S.A. § 5102(3)(B) and (D).

What Home Study Looks Like at the Kindergarten Level

For children under 13, Vermont's required subjects under 16 V.S.A. § 906 include:

• Basic communication, including reading, writing, and the use of numbers
• Citizenship, history, and government specific to Vermont and the United States
• Physical education and comprehensive health education, including the effects of tobacco, alcoholic drinks, and drugs
• English, American, and other literature
• Natural sciences
• Fine arts

At age 13 and thereafter, physical education, comprehensive health, and fine arts are no longer required.

For a 5-6 year old, this translates into fairly gentle, developmentally appropriate activities. Learning to read is reading. Building blocks and simple counting is mathematics. Songs and art projects cover fine arts. Running around outside is physical education. The law doesn't prescribe methods or rigor — it just requires that these subject areas are part of your program.

Vermont's 175-day requirement is the more concrete number to track. At the kindergarten level, keeping a simple log of learning days is sufficient. Most Vermont families use a calendar with checkmarks or a simple spreadsheet.

Assessment at the Kindergarten Level

Vermont requires annual assessment for home study students. The assessment options include:

• Standardized testing (various publishers offer kindergarten/1st-grade level assessments)
• Teacher assessment by someone holding a current, valid Vermont teacher certificate
• Parent report and portfolio with at least 4 samples of student work
• Online grade reports (if using an online curriculum program)
• Evidence of passing the GED

For kindergarten-age students, portfolio assessment is typically the most natural fit. A portfolio for a young child might include early reading work, math worksheets or photos of manipulative-based learning, artwork, a writing sample (even dictated and parent-scribed), and notes from a nature walk or science activity.

Vermont-certified teachers who work with home study families for assessments are accustomed to evaluating young children's portfolios. There's no expectation that a 6-year-old will demonstrate grade-level mastery on a standardized test — the assessment is about whether the child is making meaningful educational progress given their starting point.

Curriculum for Vermont Home Study Kindergarten

There are no Vermont-specific curriculum requirements beyond the subject coverage. Popular approaches for kindergarten:

Play-based and child-led: Particularly appropriate for 5-6 year olds whose developmental readiness for formal academics varies widely. Charlotte Mason-style approaches emphasizing living books, nature study, and narration are a natural fit.

Structured reading programs: All About Reading, Logic of English, Bob Books with systematic phonics instruction. Reading is foundational and worth being intentional about regardless of overall approach.

Math manipulatives: Math-U-See, Right Start Mathematics, or simply kitchen math (counting, sorting, measuring) with a simple curriculum guide. Kindergartners learn math best concretely.

Free resources: Khan Academy Kids app is free and covers kindergarten math and early literacy. Starfall is a well-regarded free reading program. Vermont's library system provides books and sometimes curriculum-adjacent materials.

Starting Without Enrolling

Some Vermont families start home study from birth — their child has never been enrolled in a public school. For these families, the process is simpler: as the child approaches compulsory attendance, file the NOI at least 10 business days before the intended Home Study start date, receive written acknowledgment, and continue what you've been doing. There's no school to withdraw from.

If you're in this category and your child is approaching 6, submit the NOI at least 10 business days before the intended Home Study start date and wait for written acknowledgment before relying on Home Study to satisfy compulsory attendance.

Getting the Filing Right

Vermont's kindergarten Home Study decision is low-stakes legally — compliance is straightforward, and the required subject coverage for children under 13 is described above. The main thing is filing the NOI before your child is subject to compulsory attendance and doing the sequence correctly if you're withdrawing from an existing enrollment.

The Vermont Legal Withdrawal Blueprint covers the NOI for families starting fresh (no prior enrollment) and the withdrawal process for families pulling a child from an existing Vermont school. It includes guidance on what assessment documentation to start building in year one so that the annual assessment is a formality rather than a scramble.

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