Most Maryland portfolio reviews are short, friendly, and uneventful. Families still walk in nervous, usually because nobody told them where the boundaries are. COMAR 13A.10.01 draws them fairly clearly.
What a reviewer may do
- Review the portfolio. Relevant materials — instructional materials, reading materials, and samples of your child's work — in the eight required subjects.
- Discuss your instructional program. A conversation about how the year is going and how the subjects are being covered.
- Meet with you at a mutually agreeable time and place. Reviews are scheduled, not sprung on you.
- Review no more than three times in a school year. Most systems review twice, near the end of each semester.
What a reviewer may not require
- Standardized test scores. Maryland does not require testing for home instruction.
- A teaching certificate or degree. No credential is required of the parent.
- A minimum number of days or hours. Maryland sets no statewide count. Days and hours you track in Pennsole are for your own organization, not a legal minimum.
- Curriculum approval. You choose your materials; a reviewer does not license them.
- Extra paperwork of the school system's own invention. A local school system may not impose requirements beyond the regulation.
- Observation of your teaching, or a review in your home if you prefer another place. The meeting place is mutually agreed.
Keep in mind that an umbrella is a different story. A supervising entity may set its own conditions as part of enrollment, and many do. That is contract, not state law — worth reading before you sign. Our Maryland umbrella school directory lists what each program asks for.
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.
If a reviewer does raise a concern
Nothing is decided in the room. If the superintendent concludes the program is not regular and thorough, they must tell you in writing exactly what the deficiencies are. You then have 30 days to show the deficiency has been corrected or is being corrected. Only if no evidence of correction is provided — or no satisfactory plan exists — can the child be required to enroll promptly in a public or nonpublic school. You also have the right to appeal an adverse decision to the county board of education within 30 days.
How to make the whole thing dull
Bring a portfolio that answers the questions before they are asked: a tab per subject, work spread across the year, dates visible. Our free eight-subject portfolio checklist walks through what to keep in each one, and the Maryland requirements page lays out the rest of the regulation in plain language.