Homeschool Tracker & Planner › Homeschool requirements by state › New Jersey
Homeschool record-keeping
Attendance log: Not required by the state
Portfolio: Not required by the state
No days/hours (N.J.S.A. 18A:38-25 'equivalent instruction').
No notice is required except when withdrawing from high school or after a district refuses enrollment; boards may not test the child and are not required to keep a record, so no attendance log or portfolio applies.
Whatever New Jersey asks for, a daily log covers it: the date, which student, minutes or hours of instruction, the subjects touched, and a line of notes. Add a photo of one piece of work a week and you also have a portfolio. Keep the log all year and the end-of-year form is a matter of copying totals.
Keep New Jersey records in the app
Homeschool Tracker & Planner has the New Jersey rules built in, logs a school day in a few taps, and exports the attendance and hours PDF with a signature line. Free for the first 14 entries.
How many days or hours of homeschool does New Jersey require?
No days/hours (N.J.S.A. 18A:38-25 'equivalent instruction').
Do I have to keep attendance records to homeschool in New Jersey?
New Jersey does not require an attendance log by statute. Most families keep one regardless: it is the fastest way to answer a district question, it feeds the year-end paperwork, and it settles any later dispute about days of instruction. A log with the date, hours and subjects for each school day is enough.
What do I file to homeschool in New Jersey?
No notice is required except when withdrawing from high school or after a district refuses enrollment; boards may not test the child and are not required to keep a record, so no attendance log or portfolio applies.
What is the easiest way to keep the records?
Homeschool Tracker & Planner for iPhone logs each school day in a few taps (student, minutes, subject, notes and a photo of the work), tracks days and hours against the New Jersey target, and exports an attendance and hours PDF with a parent certification line, plus a portfolio PDF. Records stay on the phone; no account is needed.
https://www.nj.gov/education/safety/nontraditional/faq_homeschool.shtml
Verified against the official source, September 13, 2026.