by Spencer Mason, September 2021
If you have had a North Carolina homeschool open for more than eleven years, you may have received a postcard from the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE). These cards were mailed to 25,000 homeschools to determine if they are still in operation. The card makes this request, “Please log into your account (www.ncdnpe.org) to update your enrollment and contact information or to close the home school if it is no longer operating. You can contact our office at 984-236-0110 to close or confirm your home school status. Your homeschool will be CLOSED if we do not receive a response from you by September 15, 2021.”
Please note that you may update your enrollment and contact information and confirm the status of your homeschool online or by phone. If you call, you will probably not be able to speak to a person. Leave a voicemail message. If you don’t receive a return call from DNPE within a week or two, call again and leave another message.
By law, DNPE must be notified when a homeschool has a change of address or is no longer operating. Unfortunately, a large number of homeschools fail to comply with these legal requirements. We encourage all homeschoolers to log into their DNPE account once a year to insure that your address is correct and you have at least one student enrolled.
Although not required, we also encourage you to provide the other information requested. It is very important that you update your address when you move, and for the good of all homeschoolers, please close your school when you have no students.
If you have homeschooled eleven years or more and did not receive this post card, you may want to check and make sure your homeschool has not been closed. The DNPE can close your homeschool if
- the homeschool street address on record is invalid,
- the homeschool has moved out-of-state,
- a homeschool does not administer a national standardized test annually,
- a homeschool reports no student enrollment,
- a homeschool does not operate on a regular schedule for at least nine calendar months of the year, excluding reasonable holidays and vacations.
If you find that your school has been closed, don’t panic. You will find that DNPE is homeschool friendly, and they can help you get your school reopened.
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