New Jersey is in the northeastern United States and legalized homeschooling in 1967, also known as <\/span>nontraditional schooling<\/span> in the state<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n New Jersey<\/a> supports parents choosing a nontraditional mode of education for their children, ages 6 to 16, with a dedicated <\/span>webpage<\/span> specifying the various choices and associated requirements. There are three options for educating a child from home in New Jersey: alternative education, home education, and home instruction.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Parents are not required to notify the state or local district of their intent to homeschool. There is one exception: If a high school student leaves a public school for homeschooling, the parents must complete a transfer form. Otherwise, parents are encouraged to notify their local school boards to avoid truancy issues. See <\/span>N.J. Legislative Statutes (state.nj.us)<\/span><\/a> and<\/span> navigate to Title 18A for Education Statutes for more information. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n There are no requirements regarding attendance records, minimum instructional time, subjects, or testing. However, parents are expected to provide an \u201cequivalent education.\u201d Similarly, there are no minimum education or certification requirements for parents.<\/span><\/p>\n No state policy on homeschool students\u2019 access to public school classes or activities exists. <\/span>Nonpublic<\/span> school students may have part-time access to extracurricular activities provided at public schools. However, no explicit statute governs this limited access. <\/span>Access is determined by each district<\/span><\/a>. Further, nonpublic students do not have access to public school course offerings, and funding is not available. <\/span><\/p>\n Despite otherwise limited access to public school offerings, students with special needs in New Jersey are guaranteed services. Specifically, \u201ci<\/span>n accordance with the federal special education law, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (P.L. 108-446 \u00a7612), the board of education must ensure that \u201call children with disabilities residing in the State, including children with disabilities attending private schools, regardless of the severity of the disability, and who are in need of special education and related services, are identified, located and evaluated…\u201d See <\/span>here<\/span><\/a> for details.<\/span><\/p>\n New Jersey does not require parents to file information about their homeschool participation and, therefore, does not report homeschool participation for the state. Nevertheless, the U.S. Census survey provides some <\/span>hints<\/span> at homeschool participation in the state. The U.S. Census estimates<\/a><\/span> indicate that around 4.7% of New Jersey families homeschooled in the spring of 2020 and increased to 10.7% by the fall of 2020. This was close to the national average of 11.1% at that time. Based on U.S. Census data<\/a>, our calculations indicate that about 3.62<\/span>% of K-12 students in New Jersey <\/span>were homeschooled during the 2022-23 school year, and <\/span>3.69<\/span>% during the 2023-24 school year. Due to<\/span> <\/span>survey<\/span> changes<\/span>, the<\/span> data from 2020<\/span> reflects<\/span> the percentage of households, while <\/span>the data from <\/span>following years<\/span> reflect<\/span>s the percentage of<\/span> students<\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nRegulation<\/h2>\n
State Data<\/h2>\n