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Attendance: how to count a day

Your state's law sets the number, if any. How you count the day in between is mostly yours.

To count a homeschool attendance day, start with your state's law: in Peabody's state law pages, 12 states set a number of days and 7 of them also set hours or offer hours instead. Most laws we read do not say what a day must contain. Mark full days, half days and days off as they happen, and write a short note for the unusual ones.

Checked October 30, 2026.

By Peabody editors.

This is a plain-words summary, not legal advice. Laws change: check your state's current law and its education department before you act.

What counts as a school day for homeschool?

These are the states whose law, as our records read it, sets a number of days. Everywhere else the law sets hours or no number at all; see what to file, and days or hours.

Florida's record goes the other way: The law sets no number of days or hours for a home education program. It says a home education program is excluded from meeting the requirements of a school day.

StateWhat the record says
ColoradoThe program must include no less than 172 days of instruction, averaging four instructional contact hours per day.
GeorgiaThe program must give instruction equal to 180 school days a year, with each school day at least four and one-half school hours.
Indiana180 days of instruction. The Department says you decide which days your school will be in session and how long to teach each day. For a mid-year transfer, days attended at the first school count toward the 180.
IowaCompetent private instruction means instruction provided on a daily basis for at least 148 days during a school year, met by attendance for at least 37 days each school quarter. The Department's handbook says this applies to all CPI students. Independent…
KansasClasses must run for a period substantially equivalent to public school. KSDE gives the public school time as at least 186 days of not less than 6 hours per day, or 1116 hours per year for grades 1-11.
LouisianaThe Department of Education's guidelines say a child between 5 and 18 who is not in a public or nonpublic school or a BESE-approved home study program for at least 180 days in the school year could put the parents in violation of the compulsory attendance law.
MaineThe notice must state the program will provide at least 175 days of instruction a year. The Department of Education says at least 175 instructional days are required and there is no hourly requirement, per day or per year.
North DakotaThe law says instruction must last at least four hours each day for a minimum of one hundred seventy-five days each year.
PennsylvaniaThe law says 180 days of instruction a year, or 900 hours a year at the elementary level or 990 hours a year at the secondary level. A family may count either days or hours.
South CarolinaOption 1: the instructional day is at least four and one-half hours, not counting lunch and recesses, and the year is at least 180 days. Options 2 and 3 (association standards): the law requires the instructional year to be at least 180 days. It sets no…
TennesseeIndependent home school students must receive a minimum of four hours of instruction per day for 180 days per school year.
VermontThe notice includes an attestation that each child will be provided the equivalent of at least 175 days of instruction in the minimum course of study per year (16 V.S.A. 166b(a)(5)).

Does a half day count?

In a state that counts days and says nothing about length, a short day is still a day you taught. In a state with a per-day rule, a half day may not reach it. These states pair days with hours, or let you count hours instead:

Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee

Peabody's attendance record has three marks: a school day, a half day (it counts as one half), and no school. Tap a date once for a full day, again for a half, again for no school.

Do field trips and outings count?

The day counts in our records do not list kinds of learning that count or don't. Indiana's Department, for example, says you decide which days your school will be in session and how long to teach each day.

If the museum or the nature walk was the lesson, mark the day and write what it was in the note: "Science museum, the space hall, a page in the notebook after." If your state counts hours, log the time and the subject.

What about sick days and holidays?

Mark them "no school". They count as neither a school day nor a half day, so your total stays honest and the record shows why the week is short. The attendance record shows your total against the target you type and how many weeks are left in your school year, so a sick week tells you early how much catching up there is, if any.

Does a 7 pm lesson count?

Several laws leave the clock to you. New Hampshire: It says dates and hours of instruction do not have to match the district calendar, and the academic term does not have to match the district school year.

Utah: The statute says the parent is solely responsible for the time, place and method of instruction, and the State Board of Education says Utah law does not require homeschool families to follow a set number of school days or instructional hours.

If your state counts hours, the evening lesson's time counts the same as a morning one in the hours log. Peabody's Tap Clock starts with one tap and stops with another; a lesson that runs past midnight is split between the two dates, and a clock left running stops at four hours and asks you.

Can I count days and hours at the same time?

Yes, and where the law allows either, keeping both lets you choose later. Pennsylvania: A family may count either days or hours.

Mark the day in attendance and run the Tap Clock during lessons. They are two views of the same record book, and both print.

Start counting

Open the attendance record to tap days on a month grid and print a signed year or month sheet, or the hours log to time lessons by subject. Your state's page offers the number its law gives as your target.

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