The 900/990 Hour Math: How NY’s Homeschool Hour Requirement Actually Plays Out Week to Week

New York doesn’t just ask homeschool families to teach — it asks you to log it. Grades K through 6 need 900 hours of instruction a year; grades 7 through 12 need 990. Both have to spread across at least 180 days. On paper, that’s simple. On a real family’s calendar, it raises the question every new homeschool parent eventually asks: what does that actually mean for my Tuesday?

Do the division first. 900 hours over 180 days averages out to 5 hours a day. 990 hours averages to 5.5. That’s a ceiling framed as an average, not a daily mandate — NY doesn’t require exactly 5 hours logged every single day. A shorter Tuesday and a longer Thursday both count, as long as the year’s total clears the threshold.

180 days is the other half of the equation, and it’s easy to undercount. Field trips, co-op days, and documented reading time can all count as instructional time in many districts — check your own district’s guidance — which means the “day” requirement is often more flexible than the “hour” requirement feels.

What this looks like on a real week. A first-grade household spreading 900 hours across a 36-week school year needs about 25 hours a week — a light morning block most days, no marathon sessions required. A tenth-grade household chasing 990 hours across the same 36 weeks needs closer to 27.5 hours a week, which starts to look more like a traditional school day once you add in independent reading and project work.

The paperwork point that trips people up. Hours aren’t just something you track for your own peace of mind — they’re one of the specific line items each Quarterly Report has to document (more on exactly what those reports require in tomorrow’s post). A simple running log — subject, date, minutes — beats an end-of-quarter reconstruction every time.

The one thing this requirement isn’t. It’s not a bar for how much your child needs to “get through” academically — NY’s hour count is an attendance-style measure, not a mastery measure. That’s a separate question, and it’s the one the Annual Assessment (Thursday’s post) is actually built to answer.

If you haven’t filed your IHIP yet this year, our free planning template walks through all seven required subjects plus a reusable quarterly log: Get the free NY IHIP Planning Template → https://auxesislab.com/ny-ihip-template/