NC Law

The compulsory attendance law in NC requires that students must attend school “between the ages of seven and 16 years.”  Since the NC compulsory education age ends at 16, your student will not be considered truant after their sixteenth birthday if they aren’t enrolled in a legal homeschool. However, it is highly recommended that you keep your school open till all of your students graduate from high school or transfer to another school. There are many situations where proof that the student is or was attending a legally recognized homeschool until graduation is necessary. Examples of these situations could be obtaining a driver’s license, dual enrollment at a community college, college admission and joining the military.

As long as your student is being homeschooled, the law requires that you keep an attendance record and administer a nationally standardized achievement test. In high school, the college admissions tests ACT plus essay will qualify for this annual achievement test.

If you are opening a new homeschool or would like more information about the NC homeschool law, see Getting Started–Step 2: Open Your School.