Home Study

Foreign Service families may choose to home study when a post offers limited educational facilities or because of personal or religious preferences. With a wealth of online learning options available, home study remains a popular choice for Foreign Service families. If they choose the home study option, families should be aware that they will have to abide by local education laws (which may have specific curriculum requirements for that country) and they will have limited outside support while instituting their education plans. Explore GCLO’s Home Study FAQs as a starting point for families considering home study.

Before choosing the home study option, families currently or planning on living abroad should understand that home study is not a legal practice in every country. Please check directly with post management and the CLO Coordinator. Additional, non-governmental, home study information can be found at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) website, which tracks the status on home study worldwide. Visit HSLDA International for more information.

Families are not required to file an affidavit with the U.S. state from which they choose to follow the education standards.

Home Study Allowances

The Department of State offers employees with children a Home Study/Private Instruction Allowance if they decide to educate them at home while posted overseas. This is a reimbursable allowance. (Employees from other agencies should check with their certifying official on whether a similar allowance is available.) Families are encouraged to work with their Financial Management Officer at post or their agency’s certifying officer to ensure their planned purchases and education programs meet the respective requirements before purchasing.

Prior to committing to a particular home study/private instruction/virtual schooling program, employees/parents should review allowable expenses for Home Study/Private Instruction at DSSR 277.3 and contact the Financial Management Officer (FMO) at post to ensure expenses incurred will be reimbursed. Please note: Only allowable (non-third party) expenses are reimbursable. Program consultant fees and consultant-related fees ​charged by third party providers (also known as umbrella or cover schools) are the employee’s/parent’s responsibility and are not reimbursed under the Education Allowance with one exception – for a child under the Special Needs Education Allowance (SNEA) program (3 FAM 3280) and this requires prior approval from MED and is limited to locating an adequate school away from post. Please see the Office of Allowances FAQ’s 17a-d regarding this situation.

Allowance Resources

Home Study Resources and Curricula

Home study options tend to fall into two categories. A family can either buy a full curriculum for the school year or can create personalized curriculum from different resources. Some families have also used education consultants to construct personalized programs. GCLO collects information on the programs and resources Foreign Service families are using worldwide. Below is a list of curricula most recently used by Foreign Service families.

Listings of private entities on this page are provided as a convenience and should not be construed as an endorsement by the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. government of the entity, its views or the products or services it provides. The order in which names appear has no significance, and the links may be removed at any time at the discretion of the Department.

Home Study Resources
Home Study Curricula

Note: Prior to committing to a particular home study/private instruction/virtual schooling program, employees/parents should review allowable expenses for Home Study/Private Instruction at DSSR 277.3Please note: Only allowable (non-third party) expenses are reimbursable. Program consultant fees and consultant-related fees ​charged by third party providers (also known as umbrella or cover schools) are the employee’s/parent’s responsibility and are not reimbursed under the Education Allowance. 

The following programs are reviewed annually and updated as needed but may include programs that charge non-allowable fees that are not reimbursable under the education allowance. Parents should contact the Financial Management Officer (FMO) at post with any questions on allowable fees.

 

ABC Mouse
Abeka
Ace Pace Series
Acellus Academy
Adventure Academy
Aleks
All About Reading
All About Spelling
All In One Homeschool
Ambleside Online
Analytical Grammar
Apologia
Art of Problem Solving Academy
Artistic Pursuits
Audible
Beast Academy
Bitsbox
BJU Press
Bookshark
Brave Writer
Brightways Global Academy
Cambridge Latin
Carson Dellosa Publishing
Charlotte Mason Homeschooling
CK12
Classical Academic Press
Classical Conversations
Conceptual Academy
Coursera
Critical Thinking Company
CTC Math
Cursive Logic
DinoLingo
Easy Grammar
EDX
Elemental Science
Epic
Evan-Moor
Gather Round Homeschool
History Unboxed
HomeLife Academy
Hooked on Phonics
Horizon Programs
IEW – Institute for Excellence in Writing
IXL Learning
Johns Hopkins CTY
Khan Academy
Kumon
Lakeshore Learning
Learning without Tears 
Lifeway
Little Passports
The Great Courses
Timberdoodle
Magic School Bus
Math Mammoth
Math U See
McNeese State University Online
Monarch
Mosdos Press
Moving Beyond the Page
My Father’s World
Mystery Science
Origins 
Osmo
Pathfinders
Power Homeschool Services
Prodigy
Rainbow Resource
Science for Kids
Reading Eggs
Renfort Homeschool
Robinson Curriculum
Rosetta Stone
Salt and Light Learning
Sassafras Science Adventures
Saxon Math
Simply Charlotte Mason
Singapore Math
Song School Latin
Sonlight
Spanish Writing Strands
Spell to Write and Read
Starfall
Story of the World
Talk Read Sing
Tandem
Tapestry of Grace
Teachers Pay Teachers
Teaching Textbooks
The Creative Writer Story of the World
The Good and the Beautiful
The Well-trained Mind
Time4Learning
US History for Expats
Williamsburg Academy 
Wilson Hill Academy
Winston Grammar 
WriteShop Junior
Writing with Ease
Writing with Skill
Home Study in the U.S.

There are no homeschooling education allowances available to child dependents living in the U.S. Home instruction requirements and procedures vary by state and county. For more information, contact your state’s Department of Education.

Washington, DC Area Information on Home Study

Disclaimer

Listings of private entities on this page are provided as a convenience and should not be construed as an endorsement by the U.S. Department of State or the U.S. government of the entity, its views or the products or services it provides. The order in which names appear has no significance, and the links may be removed at any time at the discretion of the Department.

U.S. Department of State

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