My Learning Source New Mexico › Homeschooling in New Mexico › Laws & requirements

⚖️ New Mexico Homeschool Laws & Requirements

What New Mexico law asks of homeschool families — notice or registration, school days and subjects, testing, records and diplomas — summarized from our New Mexico guide with links to the official sources.

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a state institution until at least age 18, unless they have graduated, received a high school equivalency credential or withdrawn on a hardship waiver.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

Records, testing and going back to school

Testing: home school students in New Mexico are not required to take annual standardized tests. If you want your children tested, PED says standardized testing is available to home school children and suggests searching for home school assessments online.

Records: records beyond immunizations aren't a legal requirement, but PED encourages home school operators to keep thorough, accurate records of their notifications, instructional hours and educational materials, and portfolios of student work. These help a student who transfers to a school or goes on to college or training. Keep your yearly Parent Notification Reports, too — they are your proof that you notified PED.

Returning to public school: anyone entitled to a free public education may enroll or re-enroll in a public school at any time (§ 22-1-4(C)). When a student transfers from a home school, the local school board's rules must place the student at a grade level appropriate to the student's age or to the student's score on a student achievement test given under the state assessment system (§ 22-1-4(D)). PED says elementary and middle school students will likely be placed with students their age, and that placing high school students is more complicated — ask your district what rules it uses.

Credits on transfer: acceptance of credits earned through home study is decided by the local school board's policy, or a charter school's governing council, so a student may have to show competency another way, such as standard assessments. PED lists helpful records: a transcript of completed courses, a list of materials used, the lessons covered, test scores and a portfolio of work, including exams.

Student ID: PED's home school system can hold your child's state student ID (STARS, now called Nova). Families can opt out of having one assigned, but a home school student needs this ID to take dual credit college classes; PED's home school administrator can find an existing ID or create a new one.

Read the full section in our New Mexico guide

Diplomas, the HSE and college

Diplomas the state recognizes: PED lists two routes — transfer back to a public or non-public school for the school year before graduation and complete the state's requirements for a New Mexico diploma of excellence, or, starting at age 16, take a high school equivalency exam with the parent's or guardian's permission.

Diplomas the state doesn't recognize: a diploma created by the parent or legal guardian, or graduation through a correspondence course, a private online school, a distance learning school or a home school program the parent buys. PED warns that a college may not recognize these, so call the admissions offices of the colleges your student is considering to learn what documentation they want.

High school equivalency (HSE): the Higher Education Department (HED) offers three pathways — the GED test, the HiSET exam and the National External Diploma Program (NEDP) — and the credential looks the same whichever you choose. You can earn one if you aren't enrolled or required to be enrolled in high school and don't already have a diploma or HSE; 16- and 17-year-olds need a parent or legal guardian to submit HED's Underage Permission Form.

Transcripts: home school students aren't legally required to have a transcript, but PED says one helps when a student transfers into a school or applies to college. PED suggests listing course titles, credits per course, the textbooks or programs used, how much of the material was covered, overall and assignment grades, and samples of writing — plus a written explanation of your own graduation requirements if you aren't following New Mexico's.

Admission to New Mexico's public colleges: by law, the boards of state universities, colleges and community colleges may not require a student who completed a home-based program and has qualifying test scores to get or show a high school equivalency credential, and they must evaluate home school applicants fairly and without discrimination (§§ 21-1-1(B), 21-1-1.1). The University of New Mexico, for example, decides home school admission on a GED or HiSET score or a transcript; a transcript applicant needs 4 years of English, 4 of math, 3 of lab science, 3 of social studies and 2 of a language other than English, and the transcript should be signed or validated by the homeschool administrator.

Legislative Lottery Scholarship: under § 21-21N-2, a qualified student includes one who "completed the requirements of a home-based or nonpublic secondary educational program in New Mexico," then attends a public college, university or tribal college within 16 months (or begins U.S. armed forces service within four months and enrolls within 16 months of honorable or medical discharge), and completes the first semester with at least a 2.5 GPA in 12 or more credit hours. PED says a 2021 law made the scholarship available to home school students, and that the student must have been registered with PED — the parents must have notified the state during the relevant school years. HED says the Lottery Scholarship pays 100% of tuition.

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.

More for New Mexico homeschool families

Loading the full New Mexico site… If it does not appear, everything on this page is readable above.