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🚀 How to Start Homeschooling in New Mexico

The first steps for a New Mexico family starting to homeschool: what to file, how to leave a public school, and where to find co-ops, classes and help — drawn from our New Mexico guide and articles.

Homeschooling in New Mexico: the basics

The law: NMSA § 22-1-2 defines a home school as "the operation by the parent of a school-age person of a home study program of instruction that provides a basic academic educational program, including reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science." The requirements are in § 22-1-2.1 (Laws 1985, last amended 2014), and the compulsory attendance law, § 22-12A-4, lists home school alongside public school, private school and state institutions.
Who must attend: a school-age person is at least five years old before 12:01 a.m. on September 1 of the school year, has no high school diploma or equivalent, and hasn't reached their twenty-second birthday on the first day of the school year (§ 22-1-2). A school-age person must attend public school, private school, home school or a state institution until at least age 18, unless they have graduated, received a high school equivalency credential or withdrawn on a hardship waiver. Between 16 and 18, a parent may give written, signed permission to leave school in case of hardship approved by the local superintendent or private school (§ 22-12A-4(A)). PED notes that nothing in statute keeps a parent from teaching a child before age five.
Who may operate a home school: PED says the operator must be the student's parent or legal guardian. A parent or guardian may hire someone else to teach a particular subject, but stays responsible for the law — the notification, immunization records and making sure whoever teaches has at least a high school diploma or high school equivalency credential.
The notification: file PED's home school registration form within 30 days of establishing the home school, then on or before August 1 of each later year (§ 22-1-2.1(A)). Most families use PED's online Home School System, where the notification period opens June 1 each year; print or save the Home School – Parent Notification Report, which has a 5-digit notification number unique to each child for each school year. The system also lets you renew each year, update your address and "unnotify" a student who graduates, moves or transfers to a school.
Paper option: you can instead mail PED's Notification of a Home School form to the New Mexico Public Education Department, Attention: Home School Notification, 300 Don Gaspar Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87501. Write the school year you are notifying for, and send it certified mail, return receipt requested, or by another tracked method for proof; PED staff enter it into the online system. The form asks for the school district where the students live, the parents' legal names, the home address and each child's name, date of birth, gender, grade and ethnicity, and you sign that the person providing instruction has at least a high school diploma or its equivalent.
Subjects: instruction in at least reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science. PED does not approve curricula for home school families, and you choose and buy your own materials — PED doesn't provide books, materials or computers to home schools. PED suggests the New Mexico content standards may help you decide what to teach.
Hours: the home school law itself sets no hours. When PED's FAQ answers "For how many hours must I home school my students each year?", it quotes the public school minimum in § 22-2-8.1 — 1,140 instructional hours a year, exclusive of lunch, or 550 for half-day kindergarten — and PED's notification form lists that minimum among parents' responsibilities.
Immunizations: keep records of your child's immunizations or a waiver of that requirement (§ 22-1-2.1(B)). The Department of Health waiver request form is posted with PED's home school forms. PED's notification form doesn't ask you to send them.
Enforcement: PED, not the school district, is charged with enforcing the home school requirements. If PED finds a home school isn't in compliance with the law, it may order that the student attend a public school or a private school (§ 22-2-2(H)).
Other legal routes: a private school under New Mexico law is a school, other than a home school, that offers on-site programs of instruction and isn't run by a local school board (§ 22-1-2). State accreditation is optional for private schools; since July 2024, non-public schools that want it apply under 6.19.4 NMAC. Each private school must have an attendance policy that follows public school law as closely as practicable (§ 22-12A-4(E)).
Online and charter schools are public schools: a charter school is a public school, and the law makes it a "non-home-based public school" (§§ 22-1-2, 22-8B-4). PED says students in New Mexico's online public schools are not home school students and do not register as home schoolers. If your child attends an out-of-state online school, PED says the law is unclear, but in general you are a home school operator who has hired that organization to teach — so file the notification.

Read the full section in our New Mexico guide

Official sources

Summarized from our New Mexico guide (as of November 2026) and articles. Rules change — confirm on the official pages before you act.

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