Vermont Notice of Intent Homeschool: AOE Enrollment and the 10-Day Rule

The Notice of Intent is the document that makes your home study program legal in Vermont. File it correctly and on time, and the Vermont Agency of Education issues an acknowledgment letter that protects your family. Miss the 10-day window or leave required fields blank, and your child is still legally enrolled — and racking up absences — at their current school while the paperwork sits in a queue.

Here is exactly how the process works.

What the Notice of Intent Is

Under 16 V.S.A. §166b, every Vermont family that wants to operate a home study program must submit a Notice of Intent to the AOE annually. It is not a curriculum approval request. Since Act 66 took effect on July 1, 2023, the AOE no longer reviews what you plan to teach or evaluates your end-of-year assessment. The Notice of Intent is an administrative document: it tells the state that a home study program exists, identifies the student and the responsible adults, and captures a set of legally binding attestations from the parent or guardian.

The AOE reviews the form purely for completeness. When it's satisfied that all required fields are filled and all attestations are signed, it issues an official Home Study Acknowledgment Letter.

What Must Be Included

The Notice of Intent is available through the AOE's online portal or as a printable paper form. Vermont law specifies the following required elements:

Student demographics. The student's full legal name, date of birth, and age.

Guardian information. Names, mailing addresses, email addresses, town of legal residence, and telephone numbers for all parents or guardians with legal custody who are authorized to make educational decisions for the student.

Instructional days attestation. A signed statement affirming that the student will receive the equivalent of at least 175 days of instruction during the academic year.

Assessment attestation. A signed statement affirming that the parent will assess the student's progress at the end of the year using one of the five approved methods, and will maintain the resulting assessment records privately.

MCOS attestation. A signed statement affirming that a Minimum Course of Study has been developed covering all required subjects. If the student has a documented disability, this attestation must also affirm that the curriculum includes necessary adaptations.

Independent Professional Evidence (IPE), if applicable. Students who have not previously been enrolled in a Vermont public school or a Vermont home study program require professional evidence of any documented disabilities. This form must be attached to the Notice of Intent before submission.

The 10-Day Waiting Period

Vermont law requires the Notice of Intent to be submitted at least 10 business days before the home study program begins. This is not a soft guideline — it is a hard legal requirement.

The consequence of ignoring it is immediate: until the AOE processes your enrollment, the student remains legally enrolled at their current school. Every day they don't show up is an unexcused absence. Vermont law provides that accumulating 20 unexcused absences can trigger intervention from the Department for Children and Families. This is the most common compliance failure new families make, and it is entirely preventable.

The practical rule: if you decide to withdraw your child from public school, do not pull them out the same week. Submit the Notice of Intent first, wait the 10 business days, and only begin home study once you've received the acknowledgment letter — or at minimum, once the waiting period has elapsed.

If you're withdrawing mid-year rather than at a natural school year break, the same rule applies. There is no emergency exemption to the 10-day requirement.

Annual vs. One-Time Filing

Unlike some states where a single notification suffices for the duration of homeschooling, Vermont's Notice of Intent must be filed every year. Each new school year requires a fresh submission. The AOE issues a new acknowledgment letter each year.

This annual cadence matters for record-keeping. Keep every acknowledgment letter you receive. If your child later wants to access a public school course, join a sports team, or re-enroll full-time, the acknowledgment letter is what you present to the building principal or district office. It proves legal compliance.

How the AOE Processes the Form

The AOE Home Study Team, which was reduced to approximately 1.4 full-time equivalents after Act 66 streamlined the program, reviews submissions for completeness only. They are checking that every field is filled, that signatures are present, that the IPE form is attached if required, and that all attestation boxes are checked.

They are not reading your MCOS. They are not evaluating whether your curriculum is rigorous. They are not approving your assessment method.

Once the form passes the completeness check, an acknowledgment letter goes out. The turnaround is generally faster now than under the pre-Act 66 system, when the same team was also manually reviewing thousands of full MCOS narratives.

What Happens After Enrollment

Once you're enrolled and teaching, the Notice of Intent process largely recedes into the background. Your day-to-day obligations are delivering 175 days of instruction across required subjects and documenting your child's learning well enough to support the year-end assessment.

The documentation you build throughout the year is the foundation of your EOYA. Vermont law requires retaining assessment records for at least two years. For high school students, records should be kept permanently — they are the raw data behind any transcript you generate for college applications or dual enrollment at institutions like the Community College of Vermont or Vermont State University.

The AOE Acknowledgment Letter stays relevant whenever your child interacts with the local school district. Vermont's integration law (16 V.S.A. § 563(24)) gives homeschooled students the right to access public school courses and extracurricular activities — but you need the letter to exercise that right.

The Vermont Portfolio & Assessment Templates include a Notice of Intent preparation checklist so you can verify every required field before you submit, along with templates for organizing your documentation from the first day of the school year through the final EOYA.

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