Wisconsin Homeschooling Law

See Also:

Find out how the current law came about in the History of Wisconsin Homeschooling Law.

Wisconsin Parents Association has a handbook which covers the PI-1206 and other legal issues in homeschooling.

Wisconsin Christian Home Educators may also be able to assist you with legal questions.

Home School Legal Defense Association provides legal counsel for homeschooling issues through premium payments.

Is HSLDA right for you? Here's another view to consider.

Wisconsin homeschooling law requires that families who wish to homeschool file form PI-1206 with the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) by October 15 of each school year. On this form each family indicates:

how many children will be homeschooled in each grade (children's names are not required)
that the primary purpose of the homeschooling is to provide private or religious-based education
that the homeschooling is privately controlled
that the homeschooling will provide at least 875 hours of instruction each school year
that the homeschooling provides sequentially progressive curriculum in the six mandated areas of reading, language arts, math, social studies, science and health.
that the purpose of the homeschooling is not to avoid compulsory school attendance

Wisconsin homeschoolers are not required to obtain approval to homeschool and homeschoolers are not required to submit any other forms or records besides the PI-1206. Testing is not required.

It is a good idea to establish a record keeping system to record your attendance (mark each day you did schooling) and to record the hours you did schooling. If a school official or someone else comes to your door, all you are required to show them is your attendance record. Many families also keep records of curriculum plans that demonstrate how they are providing the 'sequentially progressive curriculum' which the law specifies. Many families also do test their children and use the results to modify areas of study which the testing indicated as weak areas for the student. Also, homeschooling families are not required to follow the calendar or daily schedule of local public schools, although some families find it works well to roughly follow the same schedule.

You can obtain PI-1206 through the DPI by calling 1-888-245-2732, extension 1, by writing to the DPI and requesting a form (Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, P.O. Box 7841, Madison WI 53707) or by visiting the DPI website: www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dfm/sms/homeb.html The DPI website also has information on how to fill out the form, some FAQs about the homeschool program, and enrollment statistics.