When Does the Homeschool Year Start and End? By State
New York's regulation defines the school year as July 1 to June 30 for every purpose in the rule; Pennsylvania and North Carolina use the same months for a narrower filing purpose only; Florida, Texas and Colorado tie their calendar to your own start date.
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When does the homeschool year start? The honest answer is that it mostly depends which state you're asking about, and what you mean by start. Only one of these six states writes a school year into its regulation and applies it across the board. Two more use the same July-to-June stretch, but only for a narrower filing purpose, not as a defined academic calendar. The rest never fix a calendar at all — your year starts whenever your program does.
The one state with a fixed year: New York
New York's regulation doesn't just set a notice deadline; it defines the year itself. Section 100.10(b)(1) states plainly: "The school year begins July 1st and ends June 30th for all purposes within this section." That's a governing definition, not a filing convenience — every deadline and count in the regulation, from the July 1 notice to the fourth quarterly report, runs against that same fixed calendar, whether or not your family's own teaching happens to start in July.
Two states use the same months, for a narrower reason
Pennsylvania's and North Carolina's own guidance also lands on July through June, but each one for a purpose smaller than "the school year." Pennsylvania's affidavit covers that same span and is due by August 1, but nothing in the state's guide calls July-to-June the school year itself — it's the window one filing covers, not a calendar the law imposes on your teaching. North Carolina's Department of Administration is explicit that its own July-to-June figure is narrower still: "The State of North Carolina home school academic year for reporting purposes begins each July 1 and concludes the following June 30." That phrase, "for reporting purposes," is doing real work — it's the year DNPE uses to count your nine required months, not a claim that your teaching has to run on that clock.
Three states: your year starts when you do
Florida, Texas and Colorado never fix a calendar at all. Florida's notice deadline counts from the day you actually establish your program, not from a fixed date on the calendar — one family's 30-day window might run September to October while another's runs January to February. Colorado works the same way, tying its 14-day notice, and the annual notice after it, to your own program's anniversary rather than to a statewide date. Texas has no notice requirement and no statute to define a year with in the first place; a Texas family's "year" is whatever stretch it chooses to teach.
What this means for planning
If you're in New York, your year is already decided for you: plan from July 1. If you're in Pennsylvania or North Carolina, the July-to-June window still matters for your filing, even though it isn't the law's definition of your teaching year. If you're in Florida, Texas or Colorado, nothing outside your own choice sets your calendar — pick a start date that suits your family and count forward from there.
The year planner works either way: give it a start date, your teaching days and your breaks, and it counts forward to your last day, skipping the federal holidays set by law if you choose, with each one's weekend observance handled the way OPM directs for federal employees. Whether your state hands you a fixed calendar or leaves the choice to you, the planner turns that start date into a full year laid out month by month.
Sources (8)
- 8 NYCRR § 100.10, Home instruction (Cornell LII) law.cornell.edu
- Pennsylvania Department of Education: Home Education and Private Tutoring Guide (May 2026) pa.gov
- NC Department of Administration: File a Notice of Intent doa.nc.gov
- Fla. Stat. § 1002.41, Home education programs leg.state.fl.us
- Texas Education Agency: Home Schooling tea.texas.gov
- C.R.S. § 22-33-104.5, Home-based education (Colorado General Assembly) content.leg.colorado.gov
- 5 U.S.C. § 6103, Holidays (Cornell LII) law.cornell.edu
- OPM: Federal holidays opm.gov
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