All guides

State guides

What your state actually requires of a small school

Whether you must file anything to open, what you must keep and for how long, which dates bind you, and what a school-choice program demands before it will pay you: all of it is state law, and no two of these states agree. Each guide below was researched against primary sources: statute, administrative rule and state agency documents.

77 cited requirements across 8 states, with 163 source citations. This is a sourced reference, not legal advice. Every requirement on this page links to the statute, rule, or state agency document it came from — read the source before you act on it, and confirm with your own counsel or your state agency. Legislatures move: check the “last read” date on each item.

If your state isn't one of the eight

What your state requires, we won't guess at: ask your state education agency. What those requirements ask a school to keep is not state-specific: a daily attendance register, immunization evidence against the list your own state sets, permanent records that stay retrievable after a student leaves or the school closes, and CSV extracts carrying the columns agencies ask for. That side works the same in all fifty.

If your agency or scholarship program insists on its own worksheet, send the template to support@pearspark.com and we add it as a one-click preset. Tell us your state while you're there: the next guides we write are the ones schools ask for.

The part that is the same everywhere

The sequence the decisions bind in, the money arithmetic, and what 250 prelaunch founders said they most needed help with.