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🚀 How to Start Homeschooling in West Virginia

The first steps for a West Virginia 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 West Virginia guide and articles.

Before you buy

Apply as early as you can. A student's first-year award is cut to 75%, 50% or 25% for applications submitted after June 15, and after February 28 there is no money for that school year.
Spend inside the portal. Services (other than tuition) are bought in the closed Marketplace, and goods from approved websites through TheoPay. Hope money is never paid to parents.
Reimbursement is the exception. It is allowed only for the purchases named in the Board's Reimbursement Policy, such as off-the-shelf curriculum. Submit requests within 90 days with an itemized invoice and proof of payment. Anything bought before the first deposit reaches your account is not reimbursed.
Check the technology limits. Computers, tablets, monitors, printers, 3D printers, cameras and smartboards can each be bought only once every two calendar years, and multiples of items like headsets and keyboards are denied.
Parents can't pay themselves, and family members can't be paid to tutor. Refunds go back to the student's account, and you can't deposit your own money into it.
Plan for the June 8 progress report. A certified teacher who is not a registered Hope provider can still do the portfolio review, but the account can't pay them.
Amounts, dates and rules change. Confirm anything important on the Hope Scholarship website or with the Hope Engagement Center (681-999-HOPE).

Read the full section in our West Virginia guide

Homeschooling in West Virginia: the basics

Compulsory attendance starts with the school year in which a child turns 6 before July 1 and lasts until the 17th birthday. Home instruction is one of the exemptions. (W. Va. Code §18-8-1a, §18-8-1(c))
Notice of intent: when you start homeschooling, give the county superintendent or county board a notice of intent with each school-age child's name, address and age, and an assurance that the child will be taught reading, language, math, science and social studies and assessed every year. If the child is in public school, give the notice on or before the day home instruction begins. It is a one-time notice. You must also notify the county when you stop homeschooling and file a new notice if you move to another county. (§18-8-1(c)(2)(A))
Parent education: the person teaching must submit evidence of a high school diploma or equivalent, or a postsecondary degree or certificate. (§18-8-1(c)(2)(B))
Annual assessment, with four options: a nationally normed standardized achievement test (acceptable progress is a mean in or above the fourth stanine, or improvement over the prior year); the public school testing program, taken at a public school in your county; a portfolio review by a certified teacher, who writes a narrative on progress in the five subjects; or another assessment agreed with the county superintendent. (§18-8-1(c)(2)(C))
Reporting: send the assessment results to the county superintendent only for grades 3, 5, 8 and 11, by June 30 of the year of the assessment. Keep each year's assessment for three years. If a child doesn't make acceptable progress, start a remedial program. After a second year without acceptable progress, you must give the superintendent more evidence that appropriate instruction is being provided. (§18-8-1(c)(2)(D)–(E))
The county superintendent must offer available help such as textbooks and teaching materials. With county board approval, a homeschooled child may take any class the county offers, and county vocational schools must admit homeschoolers as capacity allows, at no more than public school students pay. (§18-8-1(c)(3), §18-5-15g)
Learning pods and microschools have their own exemption with similar notice and testing rules, and the law says they are not homeschooling. (§18-8-1(n))

Read the full section in our West Virginia guide

Official sources

Summarized from our West Virginia guide (as of October 2026) and articles. Rules change — confirm on the official pages before you act.

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