Below you will find the Mississippi Laws on Education. Read them and interpret as you may.
Compulsory Attendance Ages:
“Age of six (6) years on or before September 1 … and who has not attained the age of 17 on or before September 1…and shall include any child who has attained or will attain the age of five (5) years on or before September 1 and has enrolled in a full-day public school kindergarten program.” A parent or guardian may disenroll a child from the kindergarten program once, and the child shall not be compulsory attendance age until age six. Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-91(2)(f).
You are not required to submit paperwork on your homeschooler until they reach the compulsory age of six (6). Afterwards, you register with your local school districts attendance officer.
Required Days of Instruction:
180 days, “except that the ‘nonpublic’ school term shall be the number of days that each school shall require for promotion from grade to grade.” Home instruction programs are included in the definition of “nonpublic school.” Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-91(2)(e), (i).
Mississippi does not require any information to be turned in about the number of days attended. However, MSHEA strongly encourages you to keep some form an attendance record.
Required Subjects: Repealed July 1, 1984.
No required subjects.
Home School Statute: Mississippi Code Annotated § 37-13-91(3)(c).
A home school parent is required to comply with the following:
1. The parent, guardian, or custodian of the children must file a “certificate of enrollment” including names, address, and telephone number of parents and children, children’s dates of birth, and a “simple description of the type of education the children are receiving.” The certificate must be submitted by September 15 of each school year to the school attendance officer where the children reside. Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-91(3)(c).
“Any parent, guardian, or custodian found by the school attendance officer to be in noncompliance with this section shall comply, after written notice of such noncompliance by the school attendance officer, with this subsection within ten (10) days after the notice or be in violation of this section.”
Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-91(3)(c).
List of attendance officers coming soon!
2. A parent who has enrolled his child in the public school may, after Sept. 15, still enroll the child in a “legitimate home instruction program and send the certificate of enrollment to the school attendance officer” even though he missed the deadline. Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-91(3)(c).
You can pull your child at ANY time from the public school system.
3. A child must be educated in a “legitimate home instruction program” which is one that is not operated for the “purpose of avoiding or circumventing the compulsory attendance law.” Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-91(3)(c).
4. “It is not the intention of this section to impair the primary right and the obligation of the parent ... to choose the proper education and training” for their children, and nothing in this section shall be construed to grant the State of Mississippi “authority to control, manage or supervise” the private education of children. “And this section shall never be construed so as to grant, by implication or otherwise, any right or authority to any state agency or other entity to control, manage, supervise, provide for or affect the operation, management, program, curriculum, admissions policy or discipline of any such school or home instruction program.” Miss. Code Ann. § 37-13-91(9).
The state of Mississippi or any entity of the state has NO say or right whatsoever as to the private education of your child.
Teacher Qualifications: None.
You do not have to be a certified to teacher to homeschool your child.
Standardized Tests: None.
Standardized testing is not required to homeschool.
