New York Homeschooling: IHIP, Quarterly Reports, and the Annual Assessment

The short version

New York’s home instruction rules live in Section 100.10 of the Commissioner’s regulations, which defines the school year as July 1 through June 30 and requires parents to file a written notice of intention to instruct at home with the district superintendent each year by July 1 (8 NYCRR 100.10(b)(1)). Everything after that notice follows a fixed sequence: the district sends an IHIP form, the parent files the IHIP, the district rules on it, the parent files four quarterly reports on dates the parent chose, and the fourth report arrives together with an annual assessment (100.10(c), (g), (h)).

A note on sourcing. The regulation’s text is cited throughout to an archived copy of NYSED’s Part 100.10 page, because NYSED retired its live regulation-text page; the department’s current guidance lives on its home instruction questions and answers page, which restates the same provisions.

For how New York’s regime compares with the other 49 states, see the 50-state homeschool law guide.

The notice of intent

The annual deadline is July 1. Parents must file a written notice of intention to home instruct with the superintendent of their district each year by that date, and the regulation defines the school year it governs as July 1 through June 30 (100.10(b)(1)).

Families who start later do not wait for the next July. A family that begins home instruction after the school year has started, or that moves into a district mid-year, must file the written notice within 14 days of commencing home instruction in that district (100.10(b)(2); restated on the NYSED Q&A page).

The notice starts a clock on the district’s side. Within 10 business days of receiving it, the district must send the parents a copy of Section 100.10 itself and an IHIP form for each child of compulsory attendance age (NYSED Q&A, mirroring 100.10(c)(1)). The same section governs every filing that follows, so the mailed copy is the family’s reference for the rest of the year; this guide works from the IHIP content requirements rather than reproducing the regulation in full.

A mid-year start runs through the same sequence on a compressed calendar. A family that withdraws a child in November files the notice within 14 days (100.10(b)(2)), receives the regulation and the IHIP form within 10 business days (NYSED Q&A), and has four weeks from receiving the form to file the IHIP, since the August 15 alternative has already passed (100.10(c)(2)). The quarterly schedule shrinks in proportion, which is covered below.

What an IHIP must contain

The Individualized Home Instruction Plan is due within four weeks of receiving the district’s form, or by August 15, whichever is later, and the district must provide assistance in preparing it if the parent asks (100.10(c)(2)).

The content requirement is short. Under 100.10(d), each child’s IHIP must contain exactly four things:

• the child’s name, age, and grade level;
• a list of the syllabi, curriculum materials, and textbooks to be used, or a plan of instruction, in each of the required subjects;
• the dates on which the parent will submit the four quarterly reports, which must be “spaced in even and logical periods”;
• the names of the individuals providing instruction.

A plain list of textbooks can satisfy the curriculum requirement. NYSED’s guidance adds one wrinkle: if the district is unfamiliar with a listed text, it may ask for more information, and the parent may answer with either a written scope and sequence or a copy of the text itself, which the district is to return promptly (NYSED Q&A).

The quarterly report dates are the parent’s to set. They go into the IHIP once, and the rest of the year’s deadlines flow from them.

An IHIP skeleton

The skeleton below contains a field for each element 100.10(d) requires, with a signature line added. Repeat the subject block for every required subject, checking the subjects against the copy of Section 100.10 the district sends with the form.

INDIVIDUALIZED HOME INSTRUCTION PLAN (IHIP)
School year: July 1, 20__ through June 30, 20__

1. STUDENT
   Name:         ______________________________
   Age:          ______
   Grade level:  ______

2. INSTRUCTION IN EACH REQUIRED SUBJECT
   (Repeat for every subject required under Section 100.10.
   For each, give a list of syllabi, curriculum materials,
   and textbooks to be used, OR a plan of instruction.)

   Subject: _____________________________________
   Syllabi / curriculum materials / textbooks,
   or plan of instruction:
   _____________________________________________
   _____________________________________________

3. QUARTERLY REPORT DATES
   (Four dates, spaced in even and logical periods.)
   Report 1: ____________
   Report 2: ____________
   Report 3: ____________
   Report 4: ____________  (annual assessment filed with
                            this report)

4. INSTRUCTORS
   Name(s) of the individual(s) providing instruction:
   _____________________________________________

Parent/guardian signature: ___________________  Date: ________

Review, deficiencies, and appeal

The district does not simply file the IHIP away. Within 10 business days of receiving it, or by August 31, whichever is later, the district must either notify the parents that the IHIP complies or give written notice of deficiencies. Parents then have 15 days to submit a revised IHIP, and the district has 15 days to rule on the revision. A parent who disagrees may appeal to the board of education, and from there to the Commissioner of Education within 30 days (100.10(c)(3)–(6)).

Every stage of this exchange has a deadline, on both sides. A family that files on time and answers a deficiency notice within its 15-day window stays inside the process the regulation defines, whatever the district’s view of the plan.

The four quarterly reports

Four reports are due each year, on the dates the parent wrote into the IHIP. Under 100.10(g), each report must:

• state the number of hours of instruction during that quarter;
• describe the material covered in each subject listed in the IHIP;
• give either a grade for the child in each subject or a written narrative evaluating the child’s progress;
• include a written explanation if less than 80 percent of the amount of material planned for that quarter in any subject was actually covered.

The 80 percent clause deserves a plain reading. It does not forbid falling behind the plan. It requires a written explanation when coverage in a subject falls below 80 percent of what the IHIP projected for the quarter, which makes the quarterly report the place where a family documents a slow season rather than hides it.

Choosing the dates is simpler than it looks. The regulation’s stated constraint is that the four dates be “spaced in even and logical periods” across the July 1 to June 30 school year it defines (100.10(b)(1), (d)). A family teaching September through June can divide its own instructional calendar into four roughly equal stretches and put a date a week or two after each stretch ends. Since the dates come from the IHIP, a family that wants different dates next year writes different dates into next year’s IHIP.

Mid-year starts scale the schedule down. NYSED’s guidance says the number of quarterly reports should be proportional to the period of home instruction; its example is a family beginning around the end of the public school’s first reporting period, which schedules three reports for the remainder of the year (NYSED Q&A).

A quarterly report skeleton

As with the IHIP, this skeleton tracks the elements 100.10(g) requires. Repeat the subject block for every subject in the IHIP.

QUARTERLY REPORT  (No. __ of 4)
Student: ______________________  Grade: ______
Reporting period: ____________ through ____________
(Date per the IHIP: ____________)

1. HOURS OF INSTRUCTION THIS QUARTER: ________

2. SUBJECTS
   (Repeat for each subject listed in the IHIP.)

   Subject: _____________________________________
   Material covered this quarter:
   _____________________________________________
   _____________________________________________
   Grade OR written narrative of progress:
   _____________________________________________

   If less than 80% of the material planned for this
   quarter in this subject was covered, written
   explanation:
   _____________________________________________

3. ANNUAL ASSESSMENT (fourth report only)
   Attached: [ ] standardized test results
             [ ] written narrative evaluation

Parent/guardian signature: ___________________  Date: ________

The annual assessment

The annual assessment is filed at the same time as the fourth quarterly report, and it must take one of two forms: a commercially published norm-referenced achievement test, or an approved alternative evaluation (100.10(h)).

Which tests are accepted

The regulation names the acceptable standardized tests: the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the California Achievement Test, the Stanford Achievement Test, the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, the Metropolitan Achievement Test, a State Education Department test, or another test approved by the department (100.10(h)(1)(i)).

Which grades must test, and which may substitute a narrative

A written narrative evaluation may substitute for the standardized test every year in grades 1 through 3, and no more often than every other year in grades 4 through 8; NYSED’s guidance confirms that grade 4 may be the first narrative year in the every-other-year pattern (100.10(h)(2); NYSED Q&A). The regulation provides no narrative option for grades 9 through 12, so high school students test annually (100.10(h)(2)(i)–(ii)).

In practice the grade bands produce three distinct stretches. In grades 1 through 3 a family can run entirely on narratives and never administer a standardized test. In grades 4 through 8 the “no more often than every other year” rule means a family using the narrative in grade 4 tests in grade 5, may use a narrative again in grade 6, and so on through grade 8 (100.10(h)(2)(ii)). From grade 9 the choice disappears: every year ends with one of the accepted tests.

The narrative is not a parent document. It must be prepared by a New York State certified teacher, a home instruction peer review panel, or another person who has interviewed the child and reviewed a portfolio of the child’s work, chosen by the parent with the superintendent’s consent and at the parent’s expense (100.10(h)(2)(iii)).

Where the test can be given

The regulation allows four settings: at the public school, administered by its professional staff; at a registered nonpublic school; at a nonregistered nonpublic school with the required consents; or at the child’s home or another reasonable location, administered by a New York State certified teacher or another qualified person the superintendent approves. The district must provide the test on request, and the parent bears the costs of off-site administration (100.10(h)(1)(ii)–(iv)). NYSED recommends telling the district whether the year will end in a test or a narrative by the end of the third quarterly reporting period (NYSED Q&A).

Scores, probation, and remediation

A test score is adequate if the composite score is above the 33rd percentile on national norms, or if it reflects one academic year of growth compared with a prior test (100.10(h)(1)(v)). Only the composite counts; NYSED states that individual subtest scores are not considered (NYSED Q&A).

An inadequate score, or a narrative certifying inadequate progress, places the home instruction program on probation for up to two years, during which the parent writes a remediation plan (100.10(i)). Probation is the consequence the regulation names, and it is bounded at two years. The growth alternative matters here as well: a low-scoring student who gains an academic year against a prior test still scores adequately.

The year at a glance

Nearly every document in this cycle is written by the parent, on dates the parent chose in the IHIP; the 50-state law guideplaces New York’s requirements alongside the other 49 states’.

Regulations and district practices change; families should confirm current requirements with the New York State Education Department and their district superintendent’s office before filing.