Homeschool laws by state / Tennessee

Homeschool Laws & Requirements in Tennessee

Every requirement below is verified against Tennessee's actual statutes and links to the official text. Last verified: 2026-09-06 — re-checked weekly against primary sources.

What Tennessee requires

Notice / filing	Required — see the filings below Notice of Intent / Declaration — Give your local director of schools notice before each school year starts — your children's names, ages and grades, where you'll teach, your planned curriculum and hours, and your own schooling. The law sets no fixed date, just "before the year begins." Attendance Records Submission — Tennessee is one of the few states where the attendance records you keep get sent in: submit them to your local director of schools at the end of each school year. Your Year-End Report's attendance pages are exactly this record — print it and send it.
Days / hours	180 days of instruction per school year; 4 hours per day.
Subjects	No subject list is written into the law.
Testing / evaluation	Standardized testing — Testing still happens in grades 5, 7 and 9 on the independent route, and since May 2026 you choose how: either a nationally normed test you pick yourself covering reading and math, proctored by someone who isn't a relative and scored by the test's publisher at your own cost, or the same state-approved test public school students take, given by the state or an approved testing service. The grade 9 test can't be an end-of-course exam. Results go to you, your director of schools and the state board — and nothing more is asked of your family because of them. A church-related umbrella school sets its own testing instead
Records	Yes — Keep attendance records and submit them to the director of schools at the end of each school year. No portfolio or work samples are required. Tenn. Code § 49-6-3050(b)(2)
Worth knowing	Route-dependent: these figures are the independent home-school route; a church-related umbrella school carries its own terms. Public schools must also let home-school students take advanced courses such as AP, and the PSAT/NMSQT, Pre-ACT and CLT10 college-prep exams, when there is space

Citations: Tenn. Code SS 49-6-3050, 49-6-3004, AS AMENDED BY PUBLIC CHAPTER 912 (HB 1729, 114th G.A., signed 1 May 2026, effective on signature per S 12): 4 hours per day for the public-school number of days; attendance records SUBMITTED to the local director of schools at the end of each school year (S 49-6-3050(b)(2)); P.C. 912 S 1 rewrote S 49-6-3050(b)(5)(A) to give grades 5/7/9 TWO options - (i) a standardized test SELECTED BY THE PARENT-TEACHER giving nationally normed analytics in English language arts and mathematics, proctored by a non-relative, recorded by the test developer, at the parent-teacher expense, or (ii) the state-board-approved test administered by the commissioner or designee or an LEA-approved professional testing service, with the grade-9 test barred from being an end-of-course examination under S 49-6-6001; P.C. 912 S 2 rewrote (b)(5)(B)(iii) so ALL results from any (b)(5) test go to the parent-teacher, the director of schools and the state board; P.C. 912 S 3 DELETED S 49-6-3050(b)(6) OUTRIGHT, repealing the consultation / licensed-teacher remedial plan / compelled-enrollment / retest ladder - there is now NO consequence tied to test results; P.C. 912 S 4 rewrote (f) so public schools must allow home-school students, space available, into advanced courses and preparatory college entrance examinations (PSAT/NMSQT, Pre-ACT, CLT10) and must post dates, capacity and financial-aid information on their websites. Route 1 only - the church-related-school umbrella routes under S 49-6-3050(a)(2),(a)(3) are exempt from this section and are unchanged. Enrolled act read verbatim from the Secretary of State copy; the compiled TCA mirrors still show the pre-act text

What Tennessee law does NOT require

Most websites won't say this plainly, so we will — because knowing what the law doesn't ask of you matters as much as knowing what it does:

No specific list of required subjects is written into the law.

Moving to or from Tennessee

Moving INTO Tennessee	Provide the notice to the new LEA's director of schools (Route 1) or enroll with a church-related school before instructing. Tenn. Code § 49-6-3050(b)(1)
Moving OUT of Tennessee	No exit filing is required. Tenn. Code § 49-6-3050 (no move clause)

Read the law yourself

Public Chapter 912 (2026) — rewrote the grades 5/7/9 testing options, repealed the (b)(6) consequence ladder, and opened AP / PSAT/NMSQT / Pre-ACT / CLT10 access (enrolled act, Secretary of State)
Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-6-3050 (home schools) — ⚠ this mirror predates Public Chapter 912; the (b)(5), (b)(6) and (f) text it shows is superseded
HSLDA - Tennessee
Summary provided by HSLDA, an independent homeschool advocacy organization not affiliated with SpeedyRecord. Summaries can lag or paraphrase — the official text above is always the authority.

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SpeedyRecord is a recordkeeping tool, not a law firm, and this page is not legal advice. We verify these requirements against Tennessee's statutes and link the official text so you can read the law yourself; laws change, and the "last verified" date above tells you when we last checked. For legal questions about your family's specific situation, talk to a licensed attorney. © MyAiGuidanceCounselor LLC · Privacy · Terms · Compliance disclaimer