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 5-year-old does not need to be enrolled in school or in a registered home study program. Vermont law does not compel attendance for children who have not yet reached age 6. Many Vermont districts offer or require kindergarten registration, but this is a local programmatic expectation, not a legal compulsory attendance requirement.

When your child turns 6, compulsory attendance begins. At this point, they must either be enrolled in a public or approved private school, enrolled in VTVLC, or operating under a properly filed home study program with the Vermont Agency of Education.

The practical implication: if your child is 5 and you want to home educate through kindergarten, you have the option to do so without filing anything with the state — kindergarten-age children are simply not yet subject to Vermont's compulsory attendance law. Some families choose to file a home study NOI anyway to establish their program formally and start building documentation habits. Either approach is legally valid.

When the Notice of Intent Becomes Required

The NOI requirement kicks in when compulsory attendance applies — age 6. If your child will be 6 before the start of the Vermont school year (typically after Labor Day), you must file your Notice of Intent with the AOE before that school year begins, or if you're withdrawing from an existing public school enrollment, before you stop sending them.

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 10-business-day acknowledgment, then formally withdraw. Don't keep your child home before completing this sequence — unexcused absences accumulate toward the truancy threshold (10 absences triggers DCF involvement under Vermont's CHINS statute).

What Home Study Looks Like at the Kindergarten Level

Vermont's required subjects under 16 V.S.A. § 906 apply to all home study students regardless of age:

• Reading
• Writing
• Mathematics
• Citizenship, history, and government (including Vermont history)
• Literature
• Sciences
• Fine arts
• Physical education
• Health

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 a Vermont-certified teacher
• Portfolio of at least 4 work samples per subject
• Online grade reports (if using an online curriculum program)

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: when your child turns 6, file the NOI with the AOE, receive 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, file the NOI before the Vermont school year begins in which they would reach age 6. You don't want to receive a truancy notice before your NOI is acknowledged.

Getting the Filing Right

Vermont's kindergarten home study decision is low-stakes legally — the requirements are the same as for any age, and compliance is straightforward. 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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