Mississippi
• Compulsory Attendance Ages: Between 6 and17 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." (§ 37-13-91)
• 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.") (§ 37-13-91(2)(e))
• Required Subjects: Repealed July 1, 1984.
• Teacher Qualifications: None.
• Standardized Tests: None.
• 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, dates of birth of children, 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 child resides.
"Any parent, guardian, or custodian found by the school attendance officer to be in noncompliance with this section shall, after written notice of such noncompliance by the school attendance officer, comply with this subsection within 10 days after such notice or be in violation of this section."
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.
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."
4. "It is not the intention of this section to impair the primary right and the obligation of the parents ... 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." (§ 37-13-91(9))
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Mississippi State High School Graduation Standards:
- English units: 4
- Math units: 3, incl. Algebra I and 1 higher course
- Eff. Class of 2009: 4, incl. Algebra I and 1 higher course
- Eff. Class of 2012: 4, incl. Algebra I and 2 higher courses
- Social studies units: 3. 3 units must include 1 unit each of World History and U.S. History and .5 unit each of U.S. Government and Mississippi Studies or Mississippi State and Local Government.
- Science units: 3, incl. Biology I
- Eff. Class of 2012: 4, incl. 1 lab, Biology I. Lab unit may be satisfied by course selected from physical sciences (physical sciences, chemistry, physics).
- P.E./Health units: .5. Must be completed in "Comprehensive Health or Family and Individual Health."
- Arts: 1. May be fulfilled by 2-course sequence for Computer Graphics Technology I and II
- Foreign language: 0
- Electives units: 4.5
- Other units: 1. 1 unit "business and technology" comprised of .5 unit each of keyboarding and "Computer Applications."
* Eff. Class of 2009: 21
Other diploma options: State does not offer differentiated diploma pathways. State has policy on awarding proficiency-based credit.
Technical notes and citations: Eff. Class of 2012: All students must complete college preparatory curriculum unless parent requests child's opt-out, in which case the student must complete the graduation requirements effective with the Class of 2009.
Mississippi Public School Accountability Standards 2004, Appendix A; MISS. CODE ANN. § 37-16-7; Code Miss. R. 36 000 069
Important Note: State Graduation requirements are not necessarily the best guideline for homeschoolers to use. They have been included here as a guideline for what a typical public school student would need to complete in order to graduate.
A more important guideline may be the College Entrance requirements for where your student would like to attend college. While colleges have differing requirements, there are many colleges that publish requirements for homeschool graduates.
Related Pages:
Homeschool Support Groups in Mississippi
Colleges in Mississippi