{"id":662,"date":"2023-12-20T17:15:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T17:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/?post_type=us_state&p=662"},"modified":"2026-01-06T20:25:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T20:25:10","slug":"virginia","status":"publish","type":"us_state","link":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia"},"content":{"rendered":"

History<\/h2>\n

Virginia, located in the southern United States, legalized homeschooling in 1984 and offers multiple options.<\/span>\u00a0Homeschools in Virginia are not considered private, parochial, or denominational schools. <\/span><\/p>\n

Regulation<\/h2>\n

Virginia<\/a> families can homeschool in one of at least three ways. This summary addresses the home instruction option, but there is an <\/span>option<\/span><\/a> for a private certified tutor or teacher or by religious exemption. See link for more specific details. <\/span>Virginia requires parents who elect to homeschool <\/span>their children, ages 5 to 18, to notify their local school district annually. Parents must have at least a high school diploma or give evidence of their ability to provide education or outline a course of study for their students. There are no specific requirements for subjects, record keeping, or minimum instruction time mentioned in the homeschool policy except that students must meet \u201call requirements\u201d of the homeschool code for compulsory attendance. This includes immunizations. <\/span><\/p>\n

Students must show evidence of progress through a standardized test score, a written evaluation from a state-licensed teacher or person with a master\u2019s degree or higher in any academic discipline, or a report card from a correspondence or other school. <\/span>Districts must make AP, SAT, ACT, pre-SAT and pre-ACT tests<\/a> available to homeschool students, as well as possible financial support for students in need.<\/span><\/p>\n

Homeschooled students may ask for permission to <\/span>access<\/span><\/a> <\/span>part-time core classes. Those homeschooling on a religious exemption are not eligible for participation. Participation in sports and other extracurriculars is available at the district\u2019s discretion. Policies regarding homeschooled students with special needs are unclear.<\/span><\/p>\n

State Data<\/h2>\n

Virginia collects and reports homeschool participation information each year. For example, around 14,000 students reported homeschooling in 2000 which increased to almost 60,000 at the height of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

U.S. Census estimates<\/a><\/span><\/span> indicate that around 7.9% of Virginia families homeschooled in the spring of 2020 and increased <\/span>to 9.4% by<\/span> the fall of 2020. While 7.9% is higher than the national average of 5.4% for 2020, 9.4% is below the national average of 11.1% the following fall. Based on U.S. Census data<\/a>, our calculations indicate that about 6.83<\/span>% of K-12 students in Virginia<\/span> were homeschooled during the 2022-23 school year, and 7.33<\/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>\nDownload Homeschool Hub State Data<\/span><\/a>\n

Cross-Sector Comparison<\/h2>\n

During the 2019-20 academic year, 2.6% of Virginia\u2019s K-12 students were homeschooled. Homeschool participation in the state was lower than the 7.7% of students attending private schools but higher than the 0.1% of students attending charter schools. In 2021-22, 3.9% of Virginia\u2019s K-12 students were homeschooled, 8.3% attended private schools, and charter school attendance was unchanged at 0.1%.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

School Choice Context<\/h2>\n

In addition to homeschooling, parents in Virginia have other <\/span>educational choices<\/span><\/a> available. These options include enrollment in traditional public schools through inter- and intra-district choice, magnet schools, and a few charter schools. There is also one private school choice tax credit scholarship. However, homeschooled students do not appear to be eligible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Commentary<\/h2>\n

While many states increase transparency by publicly reporting more of the information they already collect about homeschool participants, like age and gender, we understand that Virginia is legally prohibited from sharing this information.\u00a0 In general,\u00a0 the public reporting of existing data provides more information to help understand participation trends. The state could increase educational opportunities for all students by broadening access to public school offerings like courses and extracurriculars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-662","us_state","type-us_state","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"Virginia - Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy\u2019s Homeschool Hub is your one-stop shop for U.S. homeschooling data and insights. Learn more about Virginia.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virginia - Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy\u2019s Homeschool Hub is your one-stop shop for U.S. homeschooling data and insights. Learn more about Virginia.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Institute for Education Policy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-06T20:25:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/VA.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1468\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1050\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Virginia - Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub","description":"The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy\u2019s Homeschool Hub is your one-stop shop for U.S. homeschooling data and insights. Learn more about Virginia.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Virginia - Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub","og_description":"The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy\u2019s Homeschool Hub is your one-stop shop for U.S. homeschooling data and insights. Learn more about Virginia.","og_url":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/","og_site_name":"Institute for Education Policy","article_modified_time":"2026-01-06T20:25:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1468,"height":1050,"url":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/VA.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/","url":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/","name":"Virginia - Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/VA.png","datePublished":"2023-12-20T17:15:08+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-06T20:25:10+00:00","description":"The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy\u2019s Homeschool Hub is your one-stop shop for U.S. homeschooling data and insights. Learn more about Virginia.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/VA.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/12\/VA.png","width":1468,"height":1050},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/virginia\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Virginia"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/#website","url":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/","name":"Institute for Education Policy","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/us_state\/662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/us_state"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/us_state"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}