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Rhode Island
Home Schooling - State Laws &
Regulations
Please Note This Important
Notice:
Rhode Island
home schooling laws and regulations cannot be summarized in a short
informational page or overview. It is incumbent upon
you to perform due diligence in researching and
familiarizing yourself with your state's legal's and
regulations as they pertain to homeschooling. This
information is provided for you to give you a
starting point. This is not intended to be legal
advice and is distributed for basic informational
purposes only. For more information about the laws
and regulations in this state please contact a state
or local support group or your public library.
Six years of age and over and under sixteen years of age on or before
September 1.
§ 16-19-1 Attendance required - Excuses for nonattendance.
(a) Every child who has completed or will have completed six (6)
years of life on or before September 1 of any school year and has
not completed sixteen (16) years of life shall regularly attend some
public day school during all the days and hours that the public schools
are in session in the city or town in which the child resides. Every
person having under his or her control a child as described in this
section shall cause the child to attend school as required by this
section, and for every neglect of this duty the person having control of
the child shall be fined not exceeding fifty dollars ($50.00) for each
day or part of a day that the child fails to attend school, and if the
total of these days is more than thirty (30) school days during any
school year, then the person shall, upon conviction, be imprisoned not
exceeding six (6) months or shall be fined not more than five hundred
dollars ($500), or both; provided, that if the person so charged shall
prove that the child has attended for the required period of time a
private day school approved by the commissioner of elementary and
secondary education pursuant to § 16-60-6(10), or a course of at-home
instruction approved by the school committee of the town where the child
resides, or that the physical or mental condition of the child was such
as to render his or her attendance at school inexpedient or
impracticable, or that the child was excluded from school by virtue of
some general law or regulation, then attendance shall not be obligatory
nor shall the penalty be incurred.
(b) Every child enrolled in school who completes or has completed
sixteen (16) years of life and who has not yet attained eighteen (18)
years of age shall regularly attend school during all the days and hours
that the public schools are in session in the city or town in which the
child resides unless the person having control of the child provides
written permission to the school department of the city or town to
terminate the child's enrollment. Provided, however, that nothing in
this subsection or in subsection (a) of this section shall prohibit or
limit cities or towns from enacting programs of early intervention
and/or mediation in an effort to address the problems of students who
are habitually late or absent from school.
§ 16-19-2 Approval of private schools - Requirements - Review. -
For the purposes of this chapter a private school or at-home instruction
shall be approved only when it complies with the following requirements:
(1) that the period of attendance of the pupils in the school or in the
home instruction is substantially equal to that required by law in
public schools; (2) that registers are kept and returned to the school
committee, the superintendent of schools, truant officers, and the
department of elementary and secondary education in relation to the
attendance of pupils, and are made the same as registers kept by the
public schools; (3) that reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, the
history of the United States, the history of Rhode Island, and the
principles of American government shall be taught in the English
language substantially to the same extent as these subjects are required
to be taught in the public schools, and that the teaching of the English
language and of other subjects indicated in this section shall be
thorough and efficient; provided, however, that nothing contained in
this section shall be construed or operate to deny the right to teach in
private schools or in at-home instruction any of the subjects or any
other subject in any other language in addition to the teaching in
English as prescribed in this section; provided, further, that any
interested person resident in any city or town aggrieved by the action
of the school committee of the city or town either in approving or
refusing to approve at-home instruction may appeal the action to the
department of elementary and secondary education. The department of
elementary and secondary education, after notice to the parties
interested of the time and place of a hearing, shall examine and decide
the appeal without cost to the parties. The commissioner of elementary
and secondary education shall also grant a hearing to any party
aggrieved by a refusal to approve a private school pursuant to §
16-60-6(10). The decision of the board of regents for elementary and
secondary education shall, if an appeal is made to the board, be final.
§ 16-22-2 Courses in history and government. - A course of
study on the principles of popular and representative government as
enunciated in the Constitution of Rhode Island and the Constitution of
the United States shall be taught in all the public schools of this
state. The course of study shall be prescribed by the department of
elementary and secondary education. Commencing with the fourth grade in
elementary schools, instruction shall be given in the history and
government of Rhode Island, and in every high school thorough
instruction shall be given in the Constitution and government of Rhode
Island and in the Constitution and government of the United States. No
private school or private instruction shall be approved for the purposes
of chapter 19 of this title unless the course of study shall make
provision for instruction substantially equivalent to that required by
this chapter for public schools.
§ 16-22-4 Instruction in health and physical education. - All
children in grades one through twelve (12) attending public schools, or
any other schools managed and controlled by the state, shall receive in
those schools instruction in health and physical education under rules
and regulations the department of elementary and secondary education may
prescribe or approve during periods which shall average at least twenty
(20) minutes in each school day. No private school or private
instruction shall be approved by any school committee for the purposes
of chapter 19 of this title as substantially equivalent to that required
by law of a child attending a public school in the same city and/or town
unless instruction in health and physical education similar to that
required in public schools shall be given.
