Vermont Independent School Moratorium: What It Means for Microschools

Vermont has a unique school choice tradition: towns without their own high schools pay tuition for students to attend independent schools, including some well-known private academies. That system has been under legislative pressure for years, and in 2022, the Vermont Legislature placed a moratorium on approval of new independent schools, legally restricting the State Board of Education from reviewing or approving new applications. If you're trying to start a microschool that can access public tuition, this directly affects your options.

Here's what the moratorium means, what led to it, and what paths are still open for Vermont microschool founders.

Vermont's Independent School System: Background

Vermont has long allowed certain independent (private) schools to receive public tuition payments from towns that lack a local public school. These are called "approved independent schools" — they go through a state approval process and, once approved, can accept publicly-funded students.

In practice, this created a small-scale school choice system. Families in tuitioned towns could send their children to approved independent schools at public expense. The list of approved schools includes well-established Vermont academies (Thetford Academy, Lyndon Institute, etc.) and some smaller private schools.

The 2022 Moratorium

In 2022, the Vermont Legislature placed a moratorium on approval of new independent schools. The State Board of Education is legally restricted from reviewing or approving new applications until the Legislature takes action.

The moratorium was tied to broader concerns about Act 46 (school consolidation), Act 73 (which restricted public tuition eligibility), and the state's fiscal stress around education funding. The Board determined it needed legislative direction before expanding the pool of publicly-funded school options further.

As of 2026, the moratorium remains in effect. There is no pending legislation that appears likely to lift it in the near term.

What Act 73 Did to Public Tuition Eligibility

Even if the moratorium weren't in place, Act 73 created an additional hurdle for newer independent schools. Under Act 73, an independent school must meet additional criteria to receive public tuition, including the requirement that at least 25% of its 2023–2024 enrollment consisted of publicly funded students.

For a brand-new school, that 25% threshold is essentially impossible to meet immediately. This means even if the moratorium were lifted tomorrow, a newly approved school would have limited ability to access public tuition in the near term.

What This Means for Microschool Founders

If your goal is to operate a small private school that:

• Receives public tuition from local towns
• Has state-recognized diploma-granting authority
• Participates in Vermont's school choice program

...that path is effectively closed for new entrants right now. The moratorium plus Act 73's historical enrollment requirement make it not viable.

This does not affect home study microschools. The home study path under 16 V.S.A. §166b — which is what most Vermont learning pods and microschools use — is completely separate from the independent school system. H.461, signed in June 2023, actually simplified home study registration significantly. Under current law, families file a Notice of Intent, attest to 175 days of instruction covering required subjects, and choose their own assessment method. No AOE curriculum approval required.

The independent school moratorium has zero impact on families operating under home study.

H.461 (2023): The Actual Good News

While the independent school moratorium is a constraint, H.461, signed in June 2023, moved in the opposite direction for home study families. Before H.461:

• Parents had to submit their minimum course of study (MCOS) curriculum to the AOE for review
• End-of-year assessments had to be submitted to AOE

After H.461:

• Parents only need to file a Notice of Intent at least 10 business days before starting
• No curriculum submission required — you attest to having an MCOS covering required subjects
• Assessments are only submitted if the AOE specifically requests them
• The AOE's role shifted from pre-approval to notification

This is a meaningful deregulation. It makes the home study model even more flexible and less bureaucratic. See Vermont homeschool laws for the full current requirements.

Your Practical Options as a Microschool Founder

Given the moratorium, most Vermont microschool founders operate in one of these ways:

Home study pod (most common): Each family files as a home study program under §166b. The families co-locate instruction at a neutral space or rotate homes. No independent-school approval is needed for the home-study filing, and no public tuition is available. The statutory home-study definition still limits how many nonresident children can be served from a particular home, while zoning, fire/building, child-care, and other facility rules may apply. Families retain curriculum control.

Tutoring or enrichment business (not an independent school): A facilitator or business can provide tutoring/enrichment to home-study families, but each family retains its own home-study responsibility. It does not create public-tuition eligibility, and the operator still needs to address applicable business, employment, zoning, fire/building, child-care, and insurance requirements.

Home study with public school access: Under Act 77 and Vermont's public-school integration rules, home-study students may access public-school courses, extracurriculars, and sports subject to the district's policy and applicable prerequisites. For high schoolers, dual enrollment at CCV or UVM is available at no cost (up to two dual-enrollment courses). This hybrid approach lets families build a strong program without needing independent-school status. See Vermont Act 77 dual enrollment for how it works.

If the Moratorium Lifts

If the legislature eventually lifts the moratorium or creates a new pathway for small independent schools, the process for approval would go through the Vermont Agency of Education and State Board. At that point, schools would need to demonstrate they meet AOE standards for approved independent schools — curriculum, teacher qualifications, facilities, governance. That's a longer-term project for a well-established microschool, not a starting point.

For now, the home-study framework avoids the independent-school approval process, but founders still need to follow the home-study notice and assessment rules and applicable facility, zoning, and child-care requirements.

The Vermont Micro-School & Pod Kit at homeschoolstartguide.com/us/vermont/microschool/ is built around the home study model — with complete NOI filing guidance, two-child rule compliance tools, participation agreements, and a legal structure overview that reflects H.461 and current Vermont law.

See more Vermont guides →