Maryland's record expectations are lighter than most families assume. There is no yearly plan to submit, no quarterly report, no attendance register to file. What you keep, you keep for the review and for your own future self.
Keep for the current year
- The portfolio. Instructional materials, reading materials, and samples of your child's work across the eight required subjects, dated and spread through the year.
- Your Home Instruction Notification. A copy of what you filed and proof of when — an email timestamp or a certified-mail receipt.
- Review notes. The date of each review, who you met with, and anything they said. If a concern is ever raised in writing, that letter matters.
- Umbrella paperwork. Your acceptance letter, the enrollment agreement, and anything the entity files on your behalf.
Keep for a few years
There is no regulation setting a retention period, so use judgment. A common habit is keeping each year's portfolio summary and a small sample of representative work for three to five years, and recycling the bulk of the worksheets once the year's reviews are done. Digital copies take no space — photographing work as it happens is the least painful method.
Make Maryland paperwork the easy part
Pennsole keeps your portfolio, review dates, subject coverage, and notices in one calm place — and the Home Instruction Notification generator is free.
More Maryland guides: requirements · free notification generator · umbrella school directory · where to submit · free portfolio checklist
General guidance, not legal advice. Always confirm details with your local school system or umbrella.
Keep essentially forever
- High school records. Course descriptions, credits, grades, and a transcript. Colleges, employers, and the military may ask years later.
- Test scores, if you chose to test.
- Immunization and medical records.
- Anything documenting a disagreement with a school system — correspondence, written deficiency notices, appeal paperwork.
What you do not need
You do not need an attendance log, an hour count, a lesson plan book, or a written curriculum statement to satisfy Maryland. Track days and hours if they help you stay organized — plenty of families find them useful — but they are not a Maryland legal requirement, and a reviewer cannot require them.
A simple system
One binder or one folder per child, a tab per subject, work filed the week it happens. That is the whole thing. The free eight-subject portfolio checklist makes a good cover sheet for each year, and the requirements page is worth a re-read each August.