Homeschooling in Alabama

What Alabama requires

• Notice to authorities: Not required. Most families enroll under a church/cover school; the school handles state notice. Direct home instruction requires a certified private tutor.
• Instructional days: 140 per year
• Portfolio: Not required.
• Standardized testing: Not required.
• Annual evaluator: Not required.
• Quarterly reports: Not required.
• Legal paths: church school, private tutor, cover school

How to start homeschooling in Alabama

1. Confirm you're free to begin. No parent filing with the state in most cases: enroll your child in a church (cover) school, which handles enrollment and reporting with the local district. The only direct home-instruction route is an Alabama-certified private tutor, who files a statement with the county or city superintendent before instruction begins.
2. Plan your school year. Alabama expects 140 instructional days per year — set your calendar before you start so the count takes care of itself.
3. Keep records from your first day. Attendance, samples of work, and any test or evaluation results — every requirement above is answered from these three, and they're painless to keep daily and miserable to reconstruct in May.

How Anchor helps

Anchor logs every day automatically when you make an activity entry. It builds the portfolio your state expects, generates the attendance PDF, and reminds you about evaluations before they're due.