Part-Time Programs for Homeschool Students: Application and Requirements

Part-time programs for homeschool students are public school programs offering public school education to homeschool students on a part-time basis. The term includes any program offered by or on behalf of (e.g. contracted by) a local education provider that serves homeschool students. 

School districts, charter schools, and boards of cooperative services (BOCES) are local education providers that can offer part-time programs for homeschool students. 

The term also refers to any subcomponent of a program—for example, a campus, a microschool, or any other component providing programming to students.

C.R.S. § 22-33-104.3(1).

There are four primary requirements in the legislation:

1. Students who attend a private school are not eligible to enroll part-time in a public school or in part-time public school programs for homeschool students. 
2. A part-time public school program for homeschool students cannot – directly or indirectly – fund, reimburse, or subsidize a private activity or private purchase for a student or a student’s parent or legal guardian. 
3. A part-time public school program for homeschool students must follow the same laws as the local education provider that authorizes the program. For example, they must follow the same requirements around licensed teachers and background checks.
4. A local education provider cannot operate a part-time public school program for homeschool students outside the geographic boundaries of the local education provider unless they follow a process to get authorized to do so by the state or the local board of education where they will operate.

In January 2026, CDE gave a presentation to the State Board of Education about part-time public school programs that serve homeschool and private school students. The presentation included information about part-time programming and the respective roles of the board and department in these programs. It clarified that CDE does not have authority to approve the programs being offered; rather the department becomes aware of them during the audit process after funding has already been distributed. Based on increasing enrollment numbers, the department estimated that these programs would cost more than $100 million statewide in FY 2025-26.

During the state budget development process, the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) expressed interest in taking action to support balancing the state budget by reviewing the department’s anticipated cost of $100 million+ for part-time enrichment programs. More information is available on pages 6 -10 of the JBC Staff Comeback Memos. The memo includes examples of part-time enrichment programs identified through CDE’s School Finance Audit Team that are noted as “concerning.” The memo included the following examples: 

• One-time classes and field trips being used to calculate 90 hours of instructional time;
• Evening and weekend events being used to calculate 90 hours of instructional time; 
• Submitted time that appears to be extracurricular or athletics - particularly where the programs look like something that public school families and many homeschool families pay for on their own;
• Courses that are integrated into the private school day - and that may result in an offset in private school tuition for the family; and 
• Several schedules that primarily consisted of after-school sports, field trips, one-time classes, and courses such as “Experiential Education - Team Building - Communication Skills.” 

While those discussions were happening in the JBC, the State Board took up this topic again in early April and voted to move forward a legislative proposal to address this topic. The board’s discussion included that boards of cooperative services (BOCES) had opened these part-time programs in more than 100 school districts without seeking permission from those local boards of education.  

The Colorado State Legislature ultimately passed the 2026 Colorado School Finance Act establishing a new framework and requirements for part-time programs for homeschool students. All statutory references in these FAQs can be found on pages 35-43 of the School Finance Act. 

A part-time program for homeschool students may not–directly or indirectly–fund, reimburse, or subsidize a private activity or private purchase for a student or a student’s parent or legal guardian. Under the the new statutory definition in section 22-33-104.3(3)(a), a private activity or purchase includes, but is not limited to:

• activities, supplies, items, or materials of personal value 
• that are generally not available to students in a local education provider’s regular full-time programs or schools. 

An example of a non-fundable activity would be to fund or subsidize something for a part-time homeschool student that a full-time public school student or the student’s family would need to pay for with private funds.

• For example, assume a private entity offers an activity that is advertised to the public as costing a particular fee, tuition, or rate such as: $200 for a five-week painting class every Wednesday; $250 per month in fees to play lacrosse on a club team; or $500 for 12 weeks of jujitsu classes. It would not be allowable for the local education provider to fund these private activities of personal value for homeschool students when these activities are not funded for full-time students in the local education provider’s full-time schools. 

An example of a fundable activity would be if a local school district contracts with an equine therapy program to provide equine therapy in the full-time program, the local school district could also offer that opportunity in a part-time program for homeschool students. Another example would be if a charter school contracts with a local welding shop to offer off campus CTE courses to its full-time students, it can offer those same CTE courses to students in a part-time program for homeschool students.

Supplies, items, or materials of personal value covers items that are purchased for and retained by the student or the student’s family that are not normally purchased and retained by full-time public school students. Examples of non-fundable supplies, items, or materials of personal value are: ski passes, museum memberships, a computer that becomes the student’s personal computer without an expectation of return to the public school program, funds to cover the family’s curriculum materials of choice etc. These would be supplies, items, or materials of personal value that are not available to full-time students and cannot be offered in part-time programs for homeschool students.

The new statutory language states that a part-time program for homeschool students may not–directly or indirectly–fund, reimburse, or subsidize a private activity or private purchase for a student or a student’s parent or legal guardian. C.R.S. § 22-33-104.3(3)(a). CDE is aware of programs that were subsidizing private activities and private purchases through public school programming that was offered in the same location as fee- or tuition-based programming. For example, a student would attend “public school” for the morning for free and then pay a fee or tuition to attend private programming in the afternoon. Or, alternatively, the location would host “public school” on Thursdays and private school on Fridays. On paper, these may have been run by different legal entities. However, the practical reality was that public school funding was paying for what would otherwise have been a private purchase or private activity for the family. Public school funding was being used to decrease or subsidize the cost of the activities being provided by a private entity.

The legislature intended to end these types of programs that use public school funding to subsidize private activities. Therefore, part-time public school programs should not be co-located with fee- or tuition-based programming that is available to the same students. This applies regardless of whether it is the same entity or a different entity that is offering the fee- or tuition-based programming.

• For example, a local education provider contracts with Private Entity A to provide public school programming to students on Monday and Wednesday mornings. At the same location, Entity B offers programming on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and full days on Fridays. Families pay a fee or tuition to access the afternoon and full-day Friday programming. Some of the families enrolled in the public school program also pay the fee to attend the afternoon or the full-day programming. 

The result is that what would normally be privately funded programming is converted into “public school,” which subsidizes the private activity for the family. Therefore, this type of program that co-locates with private entities offering fee- or tuition-based programming does not meet the statutory requirements related to private activities and private purchases.  

To evaluate this requirement, a local education provider should ask questions such as:

• Is the proposed part-time program for homeschool students co-located with programming that is available to those same students for a fee or tuition? Either by the same entity offering the public school programming or a different entity?
• Can the students attending the part-time public school program pay the fee or tuition and attend both the public school and non-public school offerings at that location?

If the answer to both of these questions is yes, the program would not meet the statutory requirements.

The new legislation states that a part-time program for homeschool students must verify the student’s eligibility for enrollment by requiring a copy of the Notice of Intent to Homeschool.

§ 22-33-104.3(3)(c).

Therefore, the local education provider that operates the program must request a copy of the student’s most recent Notice of Intent to Homeschool prior to enrollment and maintain that documentation for future audit. Additionally, a local education provider cannot submit for funding in the Student October Count a student that is enrolled in a private, independent, or parochial school.

§ 22-54-103(10)(j). 

It is therefore recommended that enrollment paperwork include an attestation from the family that the student is not
meeting the requirements of the compulsory school attendance laws through enrollment in a private school, independent school, or parochial school.  

• For a charter school authorized by the state Charter School Institute (CSI), the geographic boundaries are the boundaries of the school district where the school is physically located, or within the accounting district for the school if the school has no physical location;
• For a charter school authorized by a school district, the geographic boundaries are the boundaries of the school district;
• For a Board of Cooperative Services (BOCES), the geographic boundaries are the boundaries of the BOCES’ K-12 school district members; and 
• For a school district, the geographic boundaries are the school district’s boundaries.

The new legislation states that local education providers “shall not” operate a part-time program for homeschool students outside their defined geographic boundaries unless they obtain authorization to do so from the state or the local board of education.

§ 22-33-104.3(4). 

To determine if authorization is required, a local education provider must analyze all the physical addresses where programming is provided to students in the program. This analysis of physical locations must go down to the course and activity level for every student in the part-time program. This student-level analysis must occur for every subprogram, microschool, campus, or other component of the part-time program for homeschool students. As a part of the application materials, the department will be providing a fillable template spreadsheet and an example to assist with this process.

Yes. The legislature included these requirements for all types of programs, regardless of whether they are offered through a brick-and-mortar program or an online program. 

The geographic boundary of an online school or program is defined by the local education provider that authorized the school or program, even if the online school or program does not have a physical address. 

To determine if the online programming is offered inside or outside the geographic boundaries, the local education provider should consider the physical locations of any optional or required in-person components of the program. For example, the physical locations of any drop-in centers available to homeschool students or in-person activities or opportunities available to homeschool students.

When the State Board of Education reviews applications from multi-district online schools, the State Board approves a full-time school that delivers a sequential program of synchronous or asynchronous instruction. The State Board has never approved multi-district part-time programs for homeschool students to operate statewide. 

However, CDE is aware that some multi-district online schools allow part-time students to enroll in a component of the full-time program. In these situations, the online school is offering a part-time program for homeschool students that must meet the requirements described above. If the program includes an in-person component that takes place outside the defined geographic boundaries, the local education provider must seek authorization from the department of education or the local board of education as described below. 

No, there is no impact on the existing laws regarding out-of-district enrollment in a single district online school or program. A local education provider is allowed to enroll and seek funding for up to ten out-of-district students (counting both part-time and full-time) in an online school or program without having to seek authorization to operate a multi-district online school. Once a local education provider enrolls more than ten out-of-district part- or full-time students in an online program or school, they must apply to the State Board to operate a multi-district online school.

Local education providers should:

• Evaluate whether they currently offer, directly or by contract, a part-time program for homeschool students as defined in the statute. 
  • The individual(s) responsible for the Student October Count data submission should be able to identify if students were submitted with a home-based education flag during the 2025/2026 school year. 
• Begin evaluating all the physical locations where the program is offered, down to the student course and activity level. 
  • If they determine that a program is operating outside geographic boundaries, LEPs should evaluate whether to adjust the program to operate within the geographic boundaries (for which no authorization is required) or to seek authorization to operate outside geographic boundaries.
• Evaluate whether the program complies with the other requirements in law (e.g. not enrolling private school students and not funding private activities and private purchases that are not available to full-time students).
• If the program is compliant and the LEP wants to operate outside geographic boundaries, assess whether to apply with a local board or with CDE. 
  • If the program is offered in multiple districts, it may be easier to submit just one application to CDE. 
  • The schedule of meetings for local boards of education may also be relevant to your decision. These requirements go into effect with the 2026-27 school year. However, CDE can offer a grace period as long as authorization is obtained by a local board by September 15, 2026. 
• If LEPs intend to offer a part-time program for homeschool students in the 2026-27 school year, LEPs should review their internal systems to ensure that they are not enrolling private school students and that homeschool students submit a copy of their family’s current Notice of Intent to Homeschool prior to September 15, 2026. 

If you have questions about whether something qualifies as a part-time program for homeschool students, what physical locations should be considered in the analysis of geographic boundaries, whether your program complies with law, or any other questions, reach out to PartTimeHomeschool@cde.state.co.us.

There will be a temporary process in place for the 2026-27 school year. A local education provider can apply to operate a program outside its geographic boundaries through one of two potential avenues.

1. With the local board of education where the instruction/programming is offered; OR
2. With the Colorado Department of Education.

There will be one application form that must be used to seek approval from either CDE or the local board (or boards) of education. The application will be reviewed by the Education Data Advisory Committee (EDAC) on June 5. The department will post a copy of the application on this website after it is approved, which we anticipate will be no later than June 10. Please note, however, that the application process will not open until June 15. 

We will begin accepting applications to operate part-time programs outside the geographic boundaries on June 15. Our team will process these applications as quickly as possible; however, at minimum, our team will provide approval or denial within 30 business days. We encourage applicants to submit applications as early in the application window as possible.

The application process will close at 5pm MT on August 14 to ensure that all applications can be processed prior to the 2026 Student October Count.

Only local education providers (school districts, charter schools, and BOCES) can operate or contract out part-time public school programs for homeschool students. Therefore, only local education providers can apply for authorization to offer programming outside the geographic boundaries of the local education provider.

If a current program operated by a private entity is seeking authorization, it must locate a school district, charter school, or BOCES willing to bring the application forward.

If a local education provider with geographic boundaries defined by District A wants to operate any part of its program in District B, the local education provider may seek authorization from the local board of education in District B. In this situation, the local education provider will fill out the CDE-approved application and take it to the local board in District B for approval. Once the local education provider has approval from the local board of District B, the local education provider will submit the approved application to CDE and will be eligible to submit homeschool students in the 2026 Student October Count. 

To be eligible to submit students for the 2026 Student October Count, the local education provider seeking to operate the part-time program outside geographic boundaries must have obtained authorization from the local board of education, and submitted the completed application and authorization by September 15, 2026 to CDE. This is the date that the Annual Audit Review questionnaires and initial documentation are due to the School Auditing Office. On that date, local education providers will be required to submit assurances that their part-time programs for homeschool students are compliant with law. The local education provider should therefore plan accordingly to obtain a vote from the local board of education to authorize the program prior to that date.    

If the local education provider in District A offers part of its program in District B and another part of its program in District C, the local education provider would need approval from the local boards in both districts. Alternatively, the local education provider may submit one application to CDE for approval to operate in both districts.

No. The legislature imposed several requirements to limit the increasing costs of programs for homeschool students. As a part of the application to operate outside the geographic boundaries, a local education provider must confirm that:

• The program was in operation for the 2025-26 school year, as demonstrated by submission of students in the 2025 Student October Count; and
• The program will not enroll and submit for funding more students in the program than were submitted in the 2025 Student October Count.

No. No authorization from the local board or the state is required if the local education provider operates the program (down to the course and activity level of each student) within the geographic boundaries.

However, the program must still meet the requirements for all part-time programs for homeschool students discussed above. 

As a part of the Annual Audit Review process for the 2026-27 school year, all local education providers who submit homeschool students in the 2026 Student October Count will be required to sign assurances regarding the compliance with the requirements for part-time programs for homeschool students. These assurances will be required prior to any submission of part-time students with a home-based education flag. They will be due on September 15, 2026. CDE will be posting training dates on these assurances soon.

This information should be communicated by the program or from the local education provider that operates or contracts for the program.

You can contact your local school district or local charter schools to ask if they intend to offer any part-time programs for homeschool students in the 2026-27 school year.

Going forward, submitting an annual Notice of Intent to Homeschool will be required in order to take part in a public part-time program for homeschool students. Click here for a template you can use for this notice of intent.

Under longstanding Colorado laws, all children under the age of 17 must meet compulsory education requirements. To meet this requirement, children must generally be enrolled in public school, or a private school, or must be participating in a home-based educational program provided by the parent. 

When a child is meeting the compulsory education requirements through a home-based education program, the parent must provide an annual written notification to a school district. There is no standard template for the notice but it must certify the name, age, place of residence, and number of hours of attendance of each child enrolled in the home-based program. A nonpublic home-based educational program must include no less than one hundred seventy-two days of instruction, averaging four instructional contact hours per day.

C.R.S. § 22-33-104.5.

Click here for a template you can use for this notice of intent.

Yes, a parent can still submit the notice to any district. However, if they submitted it to District A, they will need to provide a copy upon enrollment to District B in order to enroll in District B’s part-time program for homeschool students.

An “umbrella school” is not a concept that is recognized in Colorado laws. However, CDE is aware that some “umbrella schools” have offered supportive services to homeschool families, such as transcripts and records retention, under the label of being a “private school.” When a student is enrolled in an umbrella school that is not providing private school instruction to satisfy the student’s compulsory school attendance requirements, the student remains eligible to enroll in a public school part-time program for homeschool students. However, to confirm eligibility for public school enrollment, the student’s family will need to submit a Notice of Intent to Homeschool to a school district in the state and provide a copy of that notice to the local education provider enrolling the student in the part-time program.

I pay for my child to receive some instruction each week (e.g. 10 hours a week) from a private entity. However, as the parent, I continue to be responsible for ensuring that my child receives the full home-based educational program required by law. Can my child still participate in part-time public school programs for homeschool students?

Yes. The student would still be eligible if they are a homeschool student for purposes of compulsory school attendance laws and are only supplementing their homeschool education with private services. However, to confirm eligibility, the parent must submit the Notice of Intent to Homeschool to a school district in the state and a copy of that notice to the local education provider enrolling the student in the part-time program. 

If the student is enrolled in a private school full-time, the student is not eligible to participate in a  part-time public school program for homeschool students.

(For local education providers and part-time programs for homeschool students, please review the FAQ above on programs that offer a-la-carte public school and private programming.) 

Outside geographic boundaries: If an existing private entity provides programming that is outside the geographic boundaries of its local education provider authorizer, the program should first check with its current authorizer to see if the authorizer intends to submit an application on behalf of the program. 

If the current authorizer does not intend to submit an application, the existing private entity can seek out a local education provider willing to contract with the program and submit an application to CDE (or applicable local board of education) to operate out of boundaries. The local education provider will be responsible for ensuring that the program meets all legal requirements and is eligible to submit an application. 

In geographic boundaries programs: If an existing private entity provides programming within the geographic boundaries of one local education provider, the private entity can request to contract with that local education provider to serve part-time homeschool students in that area.

For example, if a private entity has been running microschools only in the boundaries of District A, the private entity can contact any one of these local education providers: (1) leadership of District A, (2) a charter school in the geographic boundaries of District A, or (3) a BOCES board that includes District A as a member. The private entity would inquire if the local education provider is willing to contract with the private entity to offer a part-time public school program for homeschool students that takes place only in District A. If one of the local education providers agrees to contract with the private entity to provide that programming only within the boundaries of District A, no additional certification process is required. 

However, the requirements for all part-time programs will still apply (e.g. cannot enroll private school students, must request a copy of the Notice of Intent to Homeschool in order to verify eligibility for enrollment, cannot fund private activities or private purchases). The local education provider will be responsible for ensuring that the program meets all legal requirements prior to submitting the students in the program as part of the local education provider’s pupil enrollment count.

If a program was not in operation during the 2025-26 school year, it will not be eligible to be submitted for authorization to operate out of geographic boundaries for the 2026-27 school year. 

All applicants for the 2026-27 authorization process must show that they were in operation during the 2025-26 school year by demonstrating that their students were submitted in pupil enrollment for October count.

•  For example, District A cannot get authorization for a new program in 2026-27 to offer programming to students in District B.

A local education provider may operate or contract for a new program in 2026-27 as long as the programming for students is exclusively provided inside the geographic boundaries of the local education provider. 

• For example, District A can directly offer or contract to offer a new program that is exclusively provided to students in District A. As long as all the programming (down to the student course and activity level) is provided inside District A, there is no prohibition on enrolling students from District B other than existing laws regarding single-district online schools and programs.

The amendments of SB26-023, the School Finance Act, closed a loophole on the practice of creating “contract schools.” The legislation defined contract schools as full-time complete educational programs being offered exclusively by a private entity pursuant to a contract with the public entity. 

After the passage of SB26-023, CDE has heard from some private entities that were contracted with a BOCES to offer a full-time education to students. Those programs were receiving full-time funding for the students enrolled with the private entities. The legislature clarified and made clear that this practice of creating “contract schools” is not permitted. 

Such programs may have other options available to them. For example, they can connect with the local school district or a local charter school to see if the district or charter school is willing to integrate their students into a program of the district or charter school. They could also potentially seek a charter contract under the Charter Schools Act. They could also seek authorization as a part-time program for homeschool students. 

If the contract school submitted students for the 2025 Student October Count and now seeks to apply for authorization as a part-time program for homeschool students, CDE will treat them as an existing program rather than a new program. If the applicant LEP seeks to operate the part-time program outside the geographic boundaries of the LEP, the program will be limited to the number of students that were submitted for the 2025 Student October Count. For example, if the full-time contract school submitted twenty 1.0 FTE students in the 2025 Student October Count, they could still submit up to twenty 0.5 FTE students in the 2026 Student October Count.