Missouri counts hours. The easy way is to log them as they happen.

Missouri is the state that counts homeschooling in hours (a thousand of them per term, split by subject and by location) and asks for the written record to match. Missouri homeschool families keep a plan book or daily log, a portfolio of the student’s work, and a record of evaluations, with at least 1,000 instruction hours per term (Mo. Rev. Stat. §167.031). A family either logs the hours in the minute it takes each day, or sits down at the end of a term and tries to reconstruct a year of them.

Make your Missouri paperwork, free preview

Checked against Mo. Rev. Stat. §167.031. Requirements on this page last reviewed July 16, 2026. The regulation text is always the source of truth.

The hour requirement, in three numbers

A Missouri home school offers at least 1,000 hours of instruction per school term, with at least 600 hours in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science or related academic courses, and at least 400 of those 600 hours occurring at the regular home school location (Mo. Rev. Stat. §167.031). Families choose their own term start and end dates, so long as a term spans no more than twelve months, and a daily log of instruction hours can satisfy the plan-book requirement.

Number	What it counts
1,000 hours	Total instruction per term, on the family's own calendar.
600 hours	Reading, language arts, math, social studies, and science (or related academic courses).
400 hours	Of the 600 core hours, the portion at the regular home school location.

Stated in calendar voice on purpose: no single day matters. The count is a year-long accumulation that is either logged as it happens or reconstructed afterward.

One daily log, three statutory artifacts

On Eformogi the record is a timeline the family owns, and the Missouri statute maps onto it directly:

The plan book: each day's entry names the subjects and activities, with hours attached; the daily log is the plan book.
The portfolio: a photo of the essay, the math page, the project, attached to the day it happened; samples accumulate all term.
The evaluation record: test results and progress evaluations, filed as entries when they occur.

Each capture takes about thirty seconds, free. At the end of a term the three totals (overall, core, at-home core) are sums over a record that already exists, and the years roll up into a family-issued verifiable transcript a college or scholarship program can check directly at a public link. See how receivers verify, no account on their end.

MOScholars and FPE: legally distinct from home school

Since SB 727 took effect on August 28, 2024, a family educating at home while receiving MOScholars funds operates as a Family Paced Education (FPE) school under Mo. Rev. Stat. §167.013, legally distinct from a traditional home school, which by definition does not receive such funds. A MOScholars qualified student is a Missouri resident whose household income does not exceed 300% of the free and reduced-price lunch standard or who has an IEP or ISP (§166.700), and renewal requires submitting nationally standardized test, AP/IB, or college-admission scores to the State Treasurer (§§166.700, 166.705).

Program guidance describes MOScholars spending flowing through the family's EAO and its marketplace, with unused funds rolling over and annual account audits by the State Treasurer, so families generally keep receipts and expense records. A platform migration to Odyssey was announced in June 2026, so mechanics may change for 2026-27; your EAO is the source of truth. Either way, the family-side habit is the same one the homeschool statute already asks for: a record kept as it happens.

Generate the documents from the record

The record is free for families, forever: capture, the daily hour log, the portfolio, the transcript, verification, export. Generating filled-in compliance artifacts from it (an hour-log summary with the 600/400 split computed, a portfolio package organized by subject and date) is the one optional paid family service, part of Family Pro, $99 per year. Every document previews filled-in, free, before any decision to pay.

Why a family-owned record

Missouri does not collect the plan book, the portfolio, or the hour log. The statute asks the family to keep them. That makes the family record the record, full stop: twelve years of hours, work, and progression, owned and portable across terms, across the FPE/home-school line, and across states. The hour summary and the portfolio are documents that record produces, not the place it lives. Read the sovereignty contract.

Frequently asked questions

What records does Missouri homeschool law require?

Missouri homeschool families keep a plan book, diary, or other written record of subjects taught and activities engaged in, a portfolio of samples of the child's academic work, and a record of evaluations of the child's academic progress (Mo. Rev. Stat. §167.031). A daily log of instruction hours can satisfy the plan-book requirement, which matters, because Missouri also counts hours.

How do Missouri's 1,000 hours work?

A Missouri home school offers at least 1,000 hours of instruction per school term, with at least 600 hours in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science or related academic courses, and at least 400 of those 600 hours occurring at the regular home school location (Mo. Rev. Stat. §167.031). Three numbers, one log: total hours, core-subject hours, and at-home core hours all come out of the same daily record.

When does the Missouri homeschool year start and end?

Missouri homeschool families choose their own school-term start and end dates, so long as a term spans no more than twelve months (Mo. Rev. Stat. §167.031). The hour count runs against the term the family defines, which makes the daily log the natural unit of record, whatever the calendar looks like.

What is the difference between an FPE school and a home school in Missouri?

They are legally distinct. Since SB 727 took effect on August 28, 2024, a family educating at home while receiving MOScholars funds operates as a Family Paced Education (FPE) school under Mo. Rev. Stat. §167.013, while a traditional home school, by definition, does not receive such funds. A family is one or the other, not both, and the label follows the funding.

Who qualifies for MOScholars, and what does renewal require?

A MOScholars qualified student is a Missouri resident whose household income does not exceed 300% of the free and reduced-price lunch standard or who has an IEP or ISP (Mo. Rev. Stat. §166.700). Renewal requires submitting scores to the State Treasurer from a nationally standardized norm-referenced achievement test, an AP or IB examination, or a college-admission examination (§§166.700, 166.705). Program guidance describes spending flowing through the family's EAO and its marketplace, with annual audits of accounts by the State Treasurer, so families generally keep receipts and expense records; a platform migration to Odyssey was announced in June 2026, so confirm current mechanics with your EAO.

Does Missouri still have the declaration of enrollment?

Missouri's formerly optional declaration of enrollment appears to have been abolished by Senate Bill 63 of 2025, which also opened public school athletic and cocurricular activities to home school and FPE students. As of mid-2026, HSLDA and the revised statutes are the references to confirm before acting on either change.

Will colleges accept a family-issued Missouri homeschool transcript?

The receiver's own published policy says what it needs, and many colleges publish guidance for homeschool applicants that names a family-issued transcript. What Eformogi adds is that the transcript is verifiable at one link: every entry is sealed and a receiver checks it directly, with no Eformogi account on their end, and verifying one link is free. The policies we have read are mapped at eformogi.com/receivers/directory.

What does this cost?

The record is free for families, forever: capture, the daily hour log, the portfolio, the verifiable transcript, verification, export. Generating filled-in compliance artifacts, like an hour-log summary or a portfolio package, is the one optional paid family service, part of Family Pro at $99 per year, and every document previews filled-in, free, first.