Arizona · state guide

Starting and running a small school in Arizona

The enrollment affidavit is the parent's job, the immunization file is yours — and the ESA and the homeschool affidavit cannot both exist.

8 cited requirements · 4 dated deadlines · 17 sources · every claim as of 20 July 2026, the oldest reading date on this page

In short

Arizona puts the enrollment affidavit on the parent rather than the school. Private schools carry real immunization recordkeeping and an annual report; homeschools carry almost nothing beyond a one-time affidavit and five subjects. The compliance load comes from the Empowerment Scholarship Account programme, and most of it lands on families as quarterly receipt deadlines — deadlines a school can cause them to miss by invoicing late.

How Arizona classifies a school like yours

This is the fork everything else hangs off. Get it wrong and every deadline below is the wrong set of deadlines.

Private school

Arizona's immunization statutes define “school” to include private and parochial schools, so those duties do apply. Most other duties in Title 15 do not.

A.R.S. § 15-871· read 20 July 2026

Homeschool

Section 15-802 is the operative statute and, read in full, requires no standardized testing, curriculum approval, teacher qualifications, attendance records, or progress reports. An affidavit of intent, five subjects, and a notice when instruction ends.

A.R.S. § 15-802(A)–(C)· read 20 July 2026

The requirements, each cited to its source

8 requirements, grouped by what kind of duty they are. Every one links to the statute, rule or agency document it was read in, with the date it was read there.

What the statute requires

The birth certificate clock is 30 days, then 10, then the police

At first enrollment, notify the enrolling adult in writing that a certified birth certificate is due within 30 days. A photocopy goes in the pupil's file and the original is returned. If it is not produced, the school gives written notice that non-compliance within 10 days is referred to law enforcement. Separately, request a transfer pupil's record within 10 school days, and forward records within 10 school days when asked.

A.R.S. § 15-828(A), (E), (G)· read 20 July 2026

Reporting abuse to a school resource officer does not satisfy the duty

Section 13-3620(P) says so expressly. “School personnel, including substitute teachers” are named with no public/private limit, so private-school staff are covered by category. Report immediately, by phone or electronically, to DCS or a peace officer — the peace officer route only where the suspected abuser has no care, custody or control of the child. A supervisor carries an independent duty under (A)(6), excused only if they reasonably believe the report was already made, so a head of school who hears a concern owes their own report. Penalty is a class 1 misdemeanour, rising to a class 6 felony where the failure involves a reportable offence.

Where this is unsettled: Subsection (A)(7) names district and charter board members, not private-school board members — a gap worth knowing about rather than relying on.

A.R.S. § 13-3620(A), (D), (P), (Q)· read 20 July 2026

What you file, and with whom

The statute says November 30 and the rule says November 15 — and they genuinely conflict

Section 15-874(D) reads: “By November 30 of each school year, each school district and private school shall complete and file a report with the local health department and the department of health services, using forms provided by the department of health services.” A.A.C. R9-6-707(A) sets November 15 for the report to the Department and expressly includes private schools. Treat the earlier date as controlling.

Where this is unsettled: This is a real conflict between statute and administrative rule, not a research error. Both were read. Filing by 15 November satisfies both.

A.R.S. § 15-874(D); A.A.C. R9-6-707(A)· read 28 July 2026

What you have to keep

The immunization record is statutorily part of the permanent student record

Section 15-874(A) requires immunizations to be recorded on a standardized form developed by the Department of Health Services and provided by it, and says the record “shall be a part of the mandatory permanent student record.” Pupil name and birth date, admission date, immunizing agents, dose dates, schedule, lab evidence of immunity, and exemption information. A copy goes to the parent on request at no charge. Arizona sets no number of years — the designation as permanent is the retention rule.

A.R.S. § 15-874(A)· read 28 July 2026

School-choice programme conditions

An ESA family may not also file a homeschool affidavit

Section 15-2402(B)(5) requires the parent to agree to “Not file an affidavit of intent to homeschool pursuant to section 15-802, subsection B, paragraph 2 or 3.” The signed ESA agreement itself constitutes school attendance. Families switching from homeschooling to an ESA routinely file both and create a problem for themselves.

A.R.S. § 15-2402(B)(5)· read 28 July 2026

An ESA invoice missing one of five fields gets the family denied

A.A.C. R7-2-1508(A) requires the qualified student's name, the private school's name, the transaction date, tuition or fee amounts, and the total charged — plus proof of method of payment where the family is claiming a reimbursement. The duty to submit is the parent's, not yours, but they can only submit what you give them: a missing field denies their reimbursement, and repeated deficiencies can remove them from the programme. The Department's Parent Handbook additionally asks for the student's grade level (preschool and kindergarten only) and dates of service.

Where this is unsettled: The rule is the legal floor; the handbook is programme policy that can change without legislation. Meeting the handbook is the safer standard.

A.A.C. R7-2-1508(A), (C)(2)· read 20 July 2026

Keep ESA records at least two fiscal years, because that is the audit reach

The Department may audit account activity from the last two fiscal years including the current one, so your records have to outlive that window. This is narrower than Texas, whose ESA audit provision has no time limit at all — do not carry a Texas retention habit into Arizona or the reverse.

A.A.C. R7-2-1508(C)(2); audits A.R.S. § 15-2403· read 20 July 2026

Tax-credit scholarship schools need fingerprinting; ESA schools do not

Section 43-1601(3) makes fingerprinting of all teaching staff and personnel with unsupervised student contact a condition of being a “qualified school” for the school tuition organization tax-credit programme. The separate ESA “qualified school” definition carries no fingerprinting condition. Two Arizona programmes, two different staff-screening answers.

A.R.S. § 43-1601(3)· read 20 July 2026

The dates

Most of these bind only some schools — read the “applies to” line before putting one in your calendar. Several bind the family rather than the school.

30 November by statute, 15 November by rule

Annual immunization report to the local health department and the Department of Health Services.

Applies to:: Private schools (and school districts)
If it slips:: Statutory reporting failure. The two dates conflict; filing by 15 November satisfies both.

A.R.S. § 15-874(D); A.A.C. R9-6-707(A)· read 28 July 2026

31 October, 31 January, 30 April, 31 July

ESA debit-card receipts, filed by the family. A family that spent nothing in a quarter must still file an attestation to that effect.

Applies to:: ESA families, driven by the school's invoicing
If it slips:: The family — not the school — gets a deficiency notice and 15 days to fix it, after which the Department may remove them from the programme. None of this is your legal duty, but a late invoice from you becomes their missed deadline.

A.A.C. R7-2-1508(D), (G), (H), (K)· read 20 July 2026

Within 30 days of starting instruction, and within 30 days of ending it

Homeschool affidavit of intent to the county school superintendent, and notice when instruction ends.

Applies to:: Homeschooling families not on an ESA
If it slips:: Compulsory-attendance exposure for the family.

A.R.S. § 15-802(B)(2), (C)· read 20 July 2026

Twice each school year

Review each pupil's immunization records; obtain documentary proof before admitting a pupil.

Applies to:: Private schools
If it slips:: Children without documentation are excluded from entry after written notice to the parent.

A.R.S. § 15-872; A.A.C. R9-6-705(A)(1)–(3)· read 20 July 2026

The school-choice money, and what taking it costs you

Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA)

What it pays

Section 15-2402(C) sets the deposit at “an amount that is equivalent to ninety percent of the sum of the base support level” — the statute states a percentage of what the student would otherwise generate, not a flat figure, so the dollar amount moves with state funding and with the student's own funding weights.

Current-year figures: Arizona Department of Education — Empowerment Scholarship Accounts.

How the money actually moves

The account is the parent's and the Department of Education administers it. A school does not invoice the state: it invoices the family, who submits receipts through the programme's debit-card and expense-reporting system on a quarterly cycle. That makes your invoice format a compliance artifact for someone else — R7-2-1508(A) prescribes five fields it must carry.

What a school must be before it can take any

The ESA “qualified school” definition imposes no fingerprinting condition and no accreditation condition. Arizona's staff-screening requirement belongs to the separate school tuition organization tax-credit programme under § 43-1601(3), which is a different programme with a different answer.

A.R.S. § 15-2402(B)(5), (C); § 15-2403; A.A.C. R7-2-1508· read 28 July 2026

Checked, and it does not bind you

Duties commonly assumed to reach private schools in Arizonathat, read in the source, do not. Knowing what you don't have to do is worth as much as the list of what you do.

The school immunization recordkeeping and November reporting duties do not reach homeschools — the statutes define “school” as a public, private or parochial school through grade twelve.

A.R.S. § 15-871; A.R.S. § 36-671· read 20 July 2026

Section 15-803 imposes no attendance-reporting duty on private schools or homeschools; it defines unlawful non-attendance and truancy. The commonly repeated claim of a private-school truancy-reporting duty was checked and not substantiated.

A.R.S. § 15-803· read 20 July 2026

The missing-child record flagging duty in § 15-829 does not reach home-instructed children. Subsection (A) routes notification for a home-instructed child to the county school superintendent rather than to the family, and (C) has the superintendent remove the flag.

A.R.S. § 15-829(A), (C)· read 20 July 2026

What this page does not answer

The research behind this page recorded what it could not confirm as carefully as what it could. None of the following is a claim that no requirement exists — it is a statement that no primary source for one was read.

Open questions

Whether Arizona affirmatively requires no registration, licensing, or accreditation of private schools. Only secondary sources assert this, and an absence is not safely provable from what could be fetched.
Private school teacher certification requirements, beyond the tax-credit fingerprinting condition above.
Fire, building, or health and safety inspection requirements for private schools — likely local fire code and occupancy matters, not traced to a state primary source.

Zoning

Not covered. This research is state statute and administrative rule only, and zoning for a small school is a municipal question — a use classification, an occupancy threshold and a conditional-use process, all set by city ordinance. Rather than extrapolate, we have left it out. Ask your city's planning department which use classification applies to a school of your size in your building.

How to read what is here

Outside the ESA audit window and the immunization record's designation as part of the permanent student record, no Arizona statute or rule read here sets a retention period in years for private schools or homeschools.
The ESA duties sit in administrative rule (A.A.C. Title 7, ch. 2), which is law. The Department's Parent Handbook asks for more than the rule does. Meeting the handbook is the safer standard; meeting only the rule is the legal floor.

Sources

Every source cited on this page, with the date it was last read. Four hosts used here — codes.findlaw.com, law.justia.com, k12.ncseaa.edu and azed.gov — refuse automated requests but open normally in a browser.

The rest of the decision, once the rules are settled

Regulation is the first question a founder has and rarely the last.

How to start a microschool All guides

Another state

8 states are covered so far, chosen on search demand and school-choice programme size. The other 42are not, and we would rather leave a gap than publish a page we haven't researched.

Florida Texas Ohio Indiana Utah Georgia North Carolina

The record-keeping half, once you're open

Attendance registers, immunization evidence, permanent records that outlive the school. A real sandbox school, no signup, no card.

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