No.

Oklahoma’s compulsory school attendance statute recognizes the right to homeschool children ages 5 to 18, an option that is not regulated by the state and lacks legal requirements for notification, teacher qualifications, mandated subjects, and assessments. 

When homeschooling, the Oklahoma State Department of Education recommends following the 1973 Attorney General interpretation of the compulsory attendance laws. Attorney General opinions carry the force of law in the absence of applicable statute.

The Attorney General opinion states that to meet the compulsory attendance statute, private instruction needs only to be provided in good faith and equivalent to state-provided instruction. The Department of Education has taken this to mean, among other things, following the statutory age and attendance requirements that apply to public schools.. 

The opinion also emphasizes that private instructors and institutions require no qualifications or set courses of study, though the statute could be invoked if instruction is obviously inadequate or used solely to avoid “proper education.”

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

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