In Virginia, “[e]xcept as otherwise provided in this article, every parent, guardian, or other person in the Commonwealth having control or charge of any child who will have reached the fifth birthday on or before September 30 of any school year and who has not passed the eighteenth birthday shall, during the period of each year the public schools are in session and for the same number of days and hours per day as the public schools, cause such child to attend a public school or a private, denominational, or parochial school or have such child taught by a tutor or teacher of qualifications prescribed by the Board of Education and approved by the division superintendent, or provide for home instruction of such child as described in § 22.1-254.1.” Parents who believe that a child is not mentally, physically, or emotionally prepared to attend school may inform the school board that they want to delay school attendance until the following year if the child has not reached his 6th birthday on or before September 30.

The compulsory attendance law permits a child subject to that law to attend a private or public school or receive an education through alternatives to school attendance outlined in state law unless the child is excused from attendance by a local school board, as stated in § 22.1-254 of the Code of Virginia.

Home instruction or home schooling is one alternative to school attendance. In Virginia “any parent, guardian, legal custodian, or other person having control or charge of a child” (§ 22.1-254 of the Code of Virginia) may provide home instruction as prescribed by § 22.1-254.1 of the Code of Virginia.

 For further information regarding home instruction or religious exemption, please contact:

434.738.6111 Extension 21037

kwinn@mcpsweb.org