Massachusetts homeschool evaluation
Who may evaluate, when, and what goes to whom, in the law's words. We name no evaluators and recommend none.
In Massachusetts this rule varies: it depends on what your district agrees to. The rule below says how.
State law sets no test for home schooling. Evaluation is one of the things a district looks at when it reviews your plan, so what you must show depends on the district's policy and the plan it approves.
Checked October 27, 2026 against Massachusetts's statute and education department. Information, not legal advice: they are the final word.
In the law's words
“Districts typically review a proposed home schooling plan for the content, instructional materials, duration and frequency of instruction, methods of instruction, evaluation”
What an evaluator looks at
Whatever the method the law allows asks for, and no more than the law asks. For a review, that usually means work across the year in each subject the state names, with dates on it; for a test, the score report. Bring what fits your method:
- Dated work samples from the start, middle and end of the year: the portfolio keeps them by subject.
- The reading list and the days or hours, if Massachusetts counts them: the reading log, attendance and hours.
- Any test scores you are using: the test-score log. Which tests Massachusetts accepts.
- All of it on one printout: the evaluation packet.
What it costs
Fees vary; ask before you book. We list none, because they differ by person and change from year to year.
Ten questions to ask an evaluator
- Which of the state's allowed methods do you use, and what makes you qualified for it under the law?
- What do you want to see: how many work samples, from which months, in which subjects?
- Do you meet the child, for how long, and where?
- What do you write, and in what form does it reach the office it goes to?
- When will we have the written result, and is that before the state's date?
- What is your fee, and what does it include?
- What happens if you have a concern about progress?
- Do you keep a copy, and for how long?
- Can you see more than one child in one visit?
- Will the result say which method was used, in the law's words?
Finding one
Families usually find an evaluator through a local homeschool group or co-op; see homeschool organizations by state. Check the person against the law's own words above, not against a list: we keep no list and endorse no one.