South Carolina Homeschool for a Grandchild or Relative's Child in Kinship Care

When a Kinship Caregiver Wants to Homeschool

Most kinship caregivers enroll the child in the local public school using a school residency affidavit (S.C. Code §59-63-32) — it is the fastest path to getting a child into a classroom after a sudden placement. But some grandparents and relatives prefer homeschooling, whether because the child has special learning needs, the local school is far from home, or the family has been homeschooling all along and the child simply moved households.

South Carolina allows homeschooling, but a kinship caregiver without legal custody faces an extra question: do you have the legal authority to make this educational decision?

Legal Authority to Homeschool Without Custody

South Carolina's homeschool statutes give the three options to a parent or guardian; they do not say that a caregiving power of attorney alone makes a non-parent caregiver eligible to act as the parent-teacher. A caregiving POA under S.C. Code §63-15-720 delegates limited caregiving and educational authority without transferring legal custody. Do not assume that it satisfies the parent-or-guardian requirement for homeschooling.

Before withdrawing a child from school, ask the district or the South Carolina Department of Education whether it will accept the POA for the caregiver to serve as the parent-teacher. The POA is valid for up to one year (or the full deployment period plus 30 days for military families under §63-15-800).

A school residency affidavit (§59-63-32) — signed and notarized — supports public school enrollment and gives the caregiver educational decision-making authority within that district. It does not explicitly cover the decision to withdraw a child from school or to homeschool instead. If your only document is the school affidavit, some school districts may question whether you have the authority to un-enroll the child and homeschool.

If the parent is cooperative, a POA can document delegated school authority, but confirm with the district before relying on it for homeschooling. If the parent is unavailable and a court order is needed to decide who may care for the child, ask about a Family Court custody action.

South Carolina's Three Homeschool Registration Options

Once you have established your legal authority, South Carolina offers three ways to register a homeschool program:

Option 1 — District-approved homeschool (S.C. Code §59-65-40): The district board must approve the program. The parent-teacher must have a high school diploma or GED and pass the basic skills exam, or hold a bachelor's degree. Instruction must run at least 4.5 hours a day for 180 days and cover reading, writing, math, social studies, and science. The parent-teacher must keep a plan book or diary, a work portfolio, and progress records, submit semiannual reports, and have the student participate in annual statewide testing and the Basic Skills Assessment Program.

Option 2 — South Carolina Association of Independent Home Schools (SCAIHS; S.C. Code §59-65-45): Membership and compliance with SCAIHS standards replace district approval under §59-65-40. Check SCAIHS's current membership and record-keeping requirements.

Option 3 — Home-school association (S.C. Code §59-65-47): Membership in an association with at least 50 members that meets the statutory requirements. The association's standards are reviewed annually by the State Department of Education; the local district does not approve the program.

Recordkeeping and testing rules differ by option: §59-65-40 requires attendance and progress records, semiannual reports, and annual testing; §59-65-47 requires educational records and semiannual reports; §59-65-45 follows SCAIHS standards.

What About Special Education?

If the child has an IEP from a public school, the same services are not guaranteed after a move to homeschooling. South Carolina treats homeschooled children as parentally placed private-school students for IDEA: the district must consider them for services funded through its proportionate share, but an individual student is not guaranteed the full services in the public-school IEP. Ask the district's special education coordinator what services may be available.

Before pulling a child with an IEP out of public school to homeschool, talk to the district's special education coordinator and to Family Connection of South Carolina (familyconnectionsc.org) to understand what services the child would lose and what alternatives exist.

Medical Consent Is a Separate Question

Deciding to homeschool does not change the medical consent picture. A school affidavit covers educational decisions at the public school level; it does not grant medical authority. A POA covers both education and routine medical consent. If you are homeschooling under a POA, you already have the medical authority you need for doctor visits, dental care, immunizations, and outpatient counseling. If you only have the affidavit, you will need a separate arrangement for medical decisions — either a POA from the parent or, for children 16 and older, the child's own statutory right to consent under S.C. Code §63-5-340.

Our School and Medical Consent Guide for South Carolina covers both the educational and medical sides of kinship caregiving — including the POA process, the affidavit, and the point where a guardianship order makes more sense than renewing informal paperwork every year.

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