Ohio is not one of the most stringent in it's rules and regulations concerning home schooling, however, there are specific guidelines that need to be followed. Unlike some of the other states, it is not required for the home school teacher to have a bachelor's degree. It is, however, necessary to have either a high school diploma or GED certificate. If the parent, or proposed teacher does not have one of these, the home schooling can be supervised by someone with a degree until the parent completes the qualifications to get their own.

The first step in home schooling in Ohio, is to notify the local school district of your intent, and fill out some paper work, which will outline the requirements of each year of schooling. You will be asked to give the name of the child to be home schooled, the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the parents, the name of the home school teacher, (if different from the parent), and the educational background of the teacher. This paperwork is required at the beginning of each school year. The person responsible for home schooling the child will need to make a list of the intended subjects for the year, as well as a list of the text books that will be used. The actual subjects and the text books are determined by the home school teacher, however, they are subject to approval by the district involved.

The state requires that the home school teacher includes, in their curriculum, specific subjects, including, language, reading, writing, spelling, math, history of the United States, the state of Ohio, local history and government, science, health, physical education, fine arts, including music, and, first aid and fire safety. A total of 900 hours of actual schooling is required for the school year.

These subjects are taught at the discretion of the individual teacher. For instance, music may be piano lessons, or physical education may be any physical activity that the student and family enjoy such as skiing, biking etc. While local schools do not fund home school students in Ohio, many schools will assist the parent with finding text books and other materials. There are also e-schools available to allow students to take classes online.

Home schooling groups in every community provide support and often field trips and social activities. At the end of the academic year, the student is required to be evaluated by a licensed teacher, an accredited home school evaluator, or someone else jointly approved by the parent and the state. These evaluations can consist of testing or presentation of paperwork and reports showing progress in all of the subjects.

If for any reason any of these requirements are neglected, the state and district may refuse application for home schooling for the next year. Many schools, at the senior level will allow the home school student to test into the senior year, if they wish to graduate from their local school. However, most home school students go on to take their GED certification. By and large, this certification and the subsequent college application testing, which is very similar, makes it fairly easy to transition from home schooling to college level.