Basically, there are six options for meeting the compulsory attendance requirement in the state of Florida:
Public school
Private school
Parochial school
Private tutor
Home education
Personalized education program (a new option, as of July 1, 2023)
Of those six options, two allow you to teach your own children at home (home education, and PEP), though it's important to note that PEP is considered separate from home education in statute. (We have loads of information on the why behind this in the PEP FAQs section of our forum.)
As for home education laws:
The official website of the Florida Legislature is http://leg.state.fl.us. There, you can look up any of the Florida statutes.
The statutes directly pertaining to Home Education are primarily in statute 1002, although you will also see references there to statute 1006 (about extracurriculars, including 1006.15 where the Craig Dickinson Act ensures that home education students have the right to take extracurriculars at public schools), and other references to other specific, related statues as well.
Now that PEP (Personalized Education Program) also exists as a separate option for compulsory attendance (it is considered separate from home education in statute), you may want to familiarize yourself with PEP info as well. You can find loads of helpful info about PEP in the PEP FAQs section of our forum.
If you're new to homeschooling and have questions about your rights, responsbilities, and freedoms under Florida law, please reach out to us! You can message us through the contact form on our site, or post a question here in the forum. We want all parents to be informed, so we are happy to answer questions!
(If you want to know more about HEF, who we are, and what we do, also check out our "What does HEF do?" FAQ in the general Questions & Answers section of the forum!)
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