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Indiana · state guide

Starting and running a small school in Indiana

A homeschool is legally a nonaccredited nonpublic school, so both run on one statute — and the duty is one line: keep daily attendance.
7 cited requirements · 3 dated deadlines · 15 sources. Every claim is as of , the oldest reading date on this page.

In short

In Indiana a homeschool is legally a nonaccredited nonpublic school, so both tracks share a statute and the state confirms it directly. The standing duty is small: keep an accurate daily record of attendance and produce it on request. Nothing is filed with the state routinely, and a nonaccredited school is not bound by any Indiana education-code requirement on curriculum or program content. Choice Scholarship money changes that in one step.

How Indiana 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.

  • Nonaccredited nonpublic school

    Not bound by any Indiana education-code requirement regarding curriculum or program content. Keeps daily attendance; reports only on request.

    Ind. Code § 20-33-2-20(a), (c) · last read 28 July 2026

  • Homeschool

    The state confirms directly that an Indiana homeschool is legally a nonpublic, nonaccredited school. Everything in the nonaccredited column applies; nothing in the accredited column does. The Department's own page states that reporting homeschool enrollment — registering a homeschool — is not required in Indiana, and that submitting the Homeschool Registration Form is not required. An optional enrollment form exists; it never has to be renewed.

    Indiana DOE, Homeschool Information · last read 28 July 2026

  • Accredited nonpublic school

    Submits required reports and produces an annual performance report, disseminated to school constituents rather than published under public-school procedures.

    511 IAC 6.1-1-4 · last read 20 July 2026

The requirements, each cited to its source

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

What the statute requires

  • An internal-escalation policy for abuse reports is itself unlawful in Indiana

    Section 31-33-5-5(b) expressly forbids a “public or nonpublic school, school corporation, facility, or agency” from establishing any policy that restricts or delays the duty to report. Section 31-33-5-2(a) removes discretion unless a report has already been made and documented by the person in charge; notifying that person is a follow-up step under (d), never a substitute. Knowing failure is a Class B misdemeanor. The 24- and 48-hour figures that circulate belong to DCS's own duties, not yours — your deadline is immediate.

    Ind. Code § 31-33-5-1, § 31-33-5-2, § 31-33-5-5(b); penalty § 31-33-22-1 · last read 20 July 2026

  • Proof of birth date at enrollment is mandatory for public schools and merely permissive for private ones

    Section 20-33-2-10 carries the asymmetry in a single section: requiring proof of birth date and prior school at initial enrollment is mandatory for public schools but only permissive for private schools. The records-transfer duty is not asymmetric — send a student's records promptly when another school requests them.

    Ind. Code § 20-33-2-10(a), (d) · last read 20 July 2026

What you file, and with whom

  • Report a withdrawal only if nobody asks for the records within 15 school days

    Section 20-33-2-21(b) makes the report conditional: if no school requests the student's records within 15 school days of withdrawal, report the student's name, address, and withdrawal date to the Secretary of Education or the local superintendent. Section 20-33-2-21(a) separately requires reporting the number of students by grade level — on request only, not as a routine annual enrollment filing.

    Ind. Code § 20-33-2-21(a), (b) · last read 20 July 2026

What you have to keep

How this part is kept in Pearspark: attendance is a register per school year, immunizations are tracked against the list your state sets, enrollment and withdrawal dates sit on the student record, and each student's permanent records stay retrievable by the family and by a receiving school even if the school closes. How records work.

  • A nonpublic school's attendance record exists “solely to verify” enrollment on request

    Subsection (a) requires an accurate daily record of the attendance of each student subject to compulsory attendance, kept by every public and nonpublic school. Subsection (b) — records “open at all times for inspection” by attendance officers, labor department agents and school police — is public-school only. Subsection (c) limits the nonpublic duty: in a nonpublic school the record is required to be kept solely to verify enrollment and attendance on request of the Secretary of Education or the local school corporation superintendent. No specific form is required.

    Ind. Code § 20-33-2-20(a), (b), (c) · last read 28 July 2026

  • An unsigned high-school withdrawal form makes the student a dropout at the BMV

    Withdrawing a high-school student to a nonaccredited nonpublic school takes a specific form, completed by a parent signature alone. It is not a homeschool registration form. If it is unsigned, the student is treated as a dropout and the principal must report to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles for license revocation. No such form is required for elementary or middle school.

    Ind. Code § 20-33-2-28.6; Indiana DOE, “Homeschool Frequently Asked Questions” (linked from the Department's Homeschool Information page) · last read 20 July 2026

  • Indiana is the strictest missing-child state here: you may not release the records at all

    Section 31-36-1-5 binds “a school” without qualification, so it reaches nonpublic and nonaccredited schools. Once a notice is attached you may not issue a copy of the records without authorization from the state clearinghouse, and you may not tell the requester a notice exists. Record the requester's name, address, phone and stated reason, then notify the clearinghouse immediately. The notice stays attached until the school is told under § 31-36-2-6 that the child has been found.

    Where this is unsettled: The trigger fires only for children under 13 (§ 31-36-1-4) — but the separate duty in § 20-33-2-10(e) binds any Indiana school receiving a records request whenever a notice is attached, at any age. The age limit is not an exemption.

    Ind. Code § 31-36-1-5; trigger § 31-36-1-4; also § 20-33-2-10(e) · last read 20 July 2026

School-choice program conditions

  • Choice Scholarship schools get visited at random, and certify under penalty of perjury

    The state visits at least 5% of eligible schools at random each year. By signed assurance, participating schools must hold recognized accreditation, administer the statewide assessments, report a Choice student's withdrawal, expulsion, or 20 consecutive absences within 5 business days, cooperate with audits, allow parental record access, run staff evaluations, and conduct expanded criminal history and child protection index checks. Schools serving Choice students with disabilities need a written special education plan.

    Where this is unsettled: The assurances verified here are from a 2021–2022 application packet. Indiana moved the school application online in 2026, and current-year assurances may differ — confirm against this year's packet before relying on the list.

    Ind. Code § 20-51-4-3(d)–(f); Indiana DOE Choice Scholarship school application assurances · last read 20 July 2026

The dates

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

  • 15 school days after withdrawal

    If no school has requested the student's records by then, report the withdrawal to the Secretary of Education or local superintendent.

    Applies to:
    All nonpublic schools, accredited or not
    If it slips:
    Statutory reporting failure.

    Ind. Code § 20-33-2-21(b) · last read 20 July 2026

  • Within 5 business days

    Report a Choice student's withdrawal, expulsion, or 20 consecutive absences.

    Applies to:
    Choice Scholarship schools
    If it slips:
    Program participation and payment accuracy.

    Indiana DOE Choice Scholarship school application assurances · last read 20 July 2026

  • 1 March to 1 September

    First Choice Scholarship student application period for the school year.

    Applies to:
    Choice Scholarship families
    If it slips:
    The family's award for that year.

    Indiana DOE, Indiana Choice Scholarship Program · last read 28 July 2026

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

Indiana Choice Scholarship Program

What it pays

No award figure was read in a primary source for this program, so none is stated here. The amount is set annually and published by the state. Indiana DOE — Choice Scholarship award amounts and income guidelines (published annually as “Final Award Amounts” and “Estimated Award Amounts”).

How the money actually moves

The Department of Education administers the program and publishes final award amounts for the completed year and estimated amounts for the year ahead. Beginning in 2026 the school's own application to participate is digital. Participation is annual and certified under penalty of perjury.

What a school must be before it can take any

Recognized accreditation; administration of the statewide assessments; expanded criminal history and child protection index checks; audit cooperation; parental record access; staff evaluations; a written special education plan for Choice students with disabilities. The state visits at least 5% of eligible schools at random each year.

Ind. Code § 20-51-4-3(d)–(f); Indiana DOE, Indiana Choice Scholarship Program · last read 28 July 2026

Checked, and it does not bind you

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

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 claims that no requirement exists. Each says that no primary source for one was read.

Open questions

  • Any numeric records-retention period, for either mode. None appears in the relevant chapters, and Indiana's statutory retention schedules run to public agencies.
  • Immunization record retention — the statute delegates to health-department procedures and the specific rule was not located.
  • Whether the immunization-record duty reaches nonaccredited nonpublic schools. The statute says “each school,” but the substantive mandate is keyed to accredited elementary and high schools, and a separate provision bars state and local health access to identifying records of students at nonaccredited nonpublic schools.
  • Teacher qualification or licensure recordkeeping for nonpublic schools — the accreditation rule cross-references other chapters that were not verified.
  • The armed-intruder drill duty for state-accredited nonpublic schools (Ind. Code § 20-34-3-20). The substance was located, but only on a commercial aggregator, and Indiana's official code portal blocked access. Omitted rather than cited to a non-primary source.
  • Fire or safety inspection records for nonpublic schools — no primary source located.
  • Whether any homeschool immunization duty exists — no primary source imposing one was found, and nothing is inferred from the general “each school” language.

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

  • Indiana's official code portal (iga.in.gov) is a JavaScript application that returns an empty shell to automated fetching; this was re-confirmed on 2026-07-28. Section 20-33-2-20 was re-read that day in FindLaw's current-code text, which matched the cited subsections and their public/nonpublic split exactly. The remaining chapter citations rest on official 2015 and 2016 code snapshots corroborated against current state DOE guidance.
  • The Department's Homeschool FAQ PDF moved. Its old address (in.gov/doe/files/Homeschool-FAQ-v2.pdf) returned HTTP 404 on 2026-07-28, and the FAQ is now reached through a link on the Department's Homeschool Information page — which is what the citations here point at, because the landing page is the stable address and the document behind it is not.
  • Where statutes say “state superintendent,” the state now renders that office “Secretary of Education.”

Sources

Every source cited on this page, with the date it was last read. One host used here, codes.findlaw.com, refuses automated requests but opens 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.

Another state

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

The record-keeping half, once you're open

Attendance registers, immunization evidence and permanent records that outlive the school, all included from day one. Your first 30 days are free.

Start your 30-day free trial How records work