Vermont · Record-Keeping Guide
Homeschool Record Keeping in Vermont: What the End-of-Year Assessment Actually Requires
Vermont asks for an enrollment notice each year, a minimum course of study, and an end-of-year assessment - which, since the 2023 changes, you attest to and keep yourself rather than submit. Here's the whole picture in plain English.
The Vermont framework: enroll, plan, and assess
Vermont's home study law (16 V.S.A. § 166b) asks families to:
- File an enrollment notice with the Agency of Education each year, at least 10 business days before your start date - including each child's details and an attestation that you will assess progress at year's end and keep the record of it.
- Outline a minimum course of study - the skills and topics you plan to cover in each of the required subject areas for the year.
- Assess at the end of the year: a certified teacher's review of your child's work, a portfolio of work samples showing progress, or a standardized test. Since 2023 you keep the assessment record at home - you attest that it happened rather than filing results.
"You keep it" still means "you need it"
Vermont trusts families to hold their own records - which makes the record itself the whole system. The family with a dated log, a book list, and organized work samples has their end-of-year assessment (and the answer to any question that ever comes) sitting ready on a shelf.
What the end-of-year assessment rests on
- Work samples showing progress - one of the named assessment routes is precisely a portfolio of work showing growth through the year.
- Coverage of your course of study - evidence that the skills and topics you listed in the enrollment notice actually happened.
- A record you can keep for years - attestation means the burden of proof lives at home, so durable, organized records matter more, not less.
How The Homeschool Log maps to each requirement
📋 Your course of study, made real A sentence or two per subject each day becomes dated proof that the plan from your enrollment notice actually happened, subject by subject.
🖼️ The work-sample portfolio, automatic Photograph the work when it happens; photos file themselves by date and subject - a ready-made portfolio option for the end-of-year assessment.
📗 Reading, tracked automatically The book log keeps every title and reading level; snap a cover and it fills itself in.
🧾 Year-end, assembled in minutes Pick the year's range and generate the packet: narrative summaries from your own entries, the book list, and your samples - your assessment record, done and archived. See a sample report →
Keep the record Vermont trusts you to keep
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Log as you go, and your end-of-year assessment builds itself all year long.
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This guide summarizes 16 V.S.A. § 166b in plain language for convenience. It isn't legal advice; verify current requirements with the Vermont Agency of Education or a group like HSLDA.