Notify your child's current principal, if she is already enrolled in school, of your intention to begin home schooling. You do not need the school or the state's permission to remove your child, but notification is necessary so that the child is not considered truant. You are required to advise the Indiana Department of Education of your intention to home-school and of how many children you will be teaching at home. You can notify the department online.
Ask for copies of your child's school records; this is your right as a parent and also as a school administrator of your home school. You do not have the same state and federal rights to obtain your child's private school records, however.
If children are being home-schooled from the beginning of their education, they must begin school before their seventh birthday.
Home-schoolers have many of the same requirements as other private schools that are non-accredited, which is how home schools are classified in Indiana. You must provide 180 days of instruction for the child or children in your home school. You decide which days and how many hours per day make up 180 days. If you transfer your child from another school to a home school during the school year, the days the child attended in the previous school do count for the 180 days. Keep attendance records, as the superintendent of your public school can legally require submission of copies of your attendance records. Create your own form; Indiana does not have standard attendance forms for home schools.
Attendance records also contribute to the record-keeping you need to maintain to prove that your child is receiving instruction comparable to that he would receive in the public schools. Document your instruction and your child's academic activities so you can prove you are meeting this requirement. Indiana does not have a specific definition of how homeschools must provide an equivalent education; careful record-keeping is your best documentation against any accusation of educational failures.
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Home-schooled children must participate in academic programs that follow the Indiana High School Athletic Association bylaws in order to participate in athletics at public schools. The public school must approve the child's involvement, and the child must attend three classes a day at the public school and two more classes that are school-approved, although they do not need to be on campus. College or vocational courses can satisfy this requirement.
Home-schooled children can attend elementary or junior high extracurricular activities solely at the discretion of the public school.
Indiana does not require a specific curriculum approved by the state for home schools. You are not required to use any state-approved materials or textbooks, nor are any provided for you.
Home-schooled children are not required to participate in the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress. You cannot register your child to take this test at a public school unless they attend that school for one period or more every day. The Indiana Department of Education does suggest taking standardized tests regularly. Private testing can be done at these locations throughout the state: Indiana State University's School of Education, Indiana University's Institute for Child Study, Greater Lafayette Area Special Services, Bob Jones University's Testing Services and the University of Evansville's School of Education.