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: 2026-07-30 — 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	Annual standardized test — state-approved standardized tests in grades 5, 7 and 9 on the independent (Route 1) path; a church-related umbrella school sets its own
Records	Yes — records/portfolio must be kept (see the statute for what to retain).
Worth knowing	Route-dependent: these figures are the independent home-school route; a CRS umbrella school carries its own terms

Citations: Tenn. Code SS 49-6-3050, 49-6-3004; 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))

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

Tenn. Code Ann. § 49-6-3050 (home schools)
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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Other states: South Dakota · Texas · Utah · All states

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