AK State Homeschool Organization
Alaska Private and Home Educators Association (APHEA)
APHEA is a membership-based coalition of parents that works together to provide educational alternatives to public schools and hosts the annual APHEA Convention in the spring.
Some homeschool families opt to enroll in publicly funded and run home education programs, like IDEA which hosts multiple curriculum fairs each spring.
AK Homeschool Law
There are four options for homeschooling in Alaska. Parents can choose to homeschool under the state statute, homeschool with a private tutor, homeschool with school board approval, or homeschool as a religious private school. For more information about these options as well as other helpful information on homeschooling in Alaska on the Department of Education website and the Home School Legal Defense Association.
AK Homeschool Events and Field Trip Destinations
The Alaska Aviation Museum is located in the heart of Alaska aviation. It sits on the south shore of Lake Hood, the busiest seaplane base in the world, with more than 87,000 takeoffs and landings per year. A half-mile away is Ted Stevens International Airport, the air crossroads of the world. You can watch takeoffs and landings right from the museum.
The museum presents one of the finest displays of Alaskan aviation history with interactive displays, memorabilia, photographs, films and artifacts from personal collections of Alaska’s pioneer aviators.
Offers a few options for field trips:
Virtual Museum Tour- Docent-guided virtual tour covers the history of Alaska through aircraft, appropriate for all grade levels
Museum Tour- Docent-guided tour covers the history of Alaska through aircraft, appropriate for all grade levels
Self-Guided Experience- Students and teachers can discover the museum together. Feel free to bring your own materials.
The Alaska Botanical Garden’s mission is to showcase the beauty and value of Alaska’s gardens and natural areas through science, education, and recreation using organic and sustainable practices. Field trips and guided tours are available.
The Alaska Law Enforcement Museum is home to the colorful history of the dedicated officers who brought law and order to one of the largest and far-flung jurisdictions of America.
Have a guided walk though of the museum exhibits, watch the movie in the museums theater room, get Safety Bear education items, and get group photos with safety bear or the Highway Patrol car.
Alaska Native Heritage Center preserves and strengthens the traditions, languages, and art of Alaska’s Native People through statewide collaboration, celebration, and education.
Enjoy self-guided tours, educational films, traditional village sites, artifacts, and dynamic cultural exhibits.
Education programs at the Alaska SeaLife Center foster ocean literacy and stewardship by connecting people of all ages to Alaska’s marine ecosystems in meaningful ways. Gain a deeper understanding of marine science through the process of discovery!
Learn more about the animals in the aquarium or go on a virtual field trip with researchers with their Discovery Zone!
Programs are offered year-round. Whether your group is interested in spending the night with sea lions or connecting to the aquarium from afar, they have something for everyone!
Alaska State Museums in Juneau and Sitka provide a multitude of educational materials and resources for Alaska’s teachers to share with their students.
Their homeschool program is geared towards homeschool students looking to experience the culture, beauty, and ecology of Alaska’s great outdoors! Students will experience the unique natural and cultural heritage of Alaska through engaging cross-disciplinary lessons that combine arts, culture, and outdoor play. Each EDventure will begin with a wildlife-themed lesson chosen by zoo educators as the month’s highlight. The program includes zoo trail explorations, outdoor scavenger hunts, animal encounters, science discoveries, hands-on projects and art-infused learning through literature and painting.
While the students are in class, the rest of the family is welcome to tour the zoo!
Find classes for families and youth, camps and workshops for school-age children to activities and programs for tots – all designed to build skills and enrich understanding.
Family classes develop skills in a wide range of media including painting, quilting, calligraphy, and more.
Camps & workshops are designed to foster imagination and experimentation in art, science, and technology.
With the museum’s Community Supported Education activity boxes, you can bring home hours of hands-on and virtual STEAM activities for toddlers, youth and adults.
Want to see a hundred bald eagles in a single glance? Spy a couple dozen roosting in a lone tree? Listen to the hair-raising chorus of their weird, trilling calls? Visit the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve—site of the largest gathering of bald eagles in the world. Each October and November, between 3,000 and 4,000 bald eagles descend upon this 48,000-acre preserve centered on river bottomlands a few miles north of Haines to feast on late runs of salmon.
Denali State Park is an integral part of one of North America’s most spectacularly beautiful regions. The park’s 325,240 acres, almost one-half the size of Rhode Island, provide the visitor with a great variety of recreational opportunities, ranging from roadside camping to wilderness exploration.
Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve
This vast landscape does not contain any roads or trails. Visitors discover intact ecosystems where people have lived with the land for over ten thousand years. Wild rivers meander through glacier-carved valleys, caribou migrate along age-old trails, endless summer light fades into aurora-lit night skies of winter. Virtually unchanged, except by the forces of nature.
Kenai National Wildlife Refuge
From ice fields and glaciers to tundra, forests, and coastal wetlands, the Kenai Refuge is often called “Alaska in miniature”. Biodiversity is unusually high for this latitude because of the juxtaposition of two biomes: Sitka spruce-dominated coastal rainforest and the westernmost reach of boreal forest in North America. This refuge is known for its moose, brown and black bears, lynx, wolves, trumpeter swans, and more. The Kenai River, which originates in the refuge, is renowned for its wide variety of sport fish including Chinook (king), sockeye (red), and coho (silver) salmon, Dolly Varden, and rainbow trout.
The Pioneer Air Museum has a large collection of 15 airplanes, numerous engines, parts, model airplanes, a Huey helicopter, and much more!
The mission of the Pioneer Air Museum is to collect, protect, and preserve for educational purposes objects that reflect the history of interior and arctic Alaskan aviation through acquiring, restoring, interpreting, and displaying historically significant objects.
Is homeschooling for you?
The community of homeschool families is diverse. One study reports that 41% of homeschool students are Hispanic, Black, Asian, or other non-White/non-Hispanic groups (2). Homeschoolers come from all faiths – Christians, Jews, Muslims, agnostics, atheists. Teaching parents have a range of formal education, from high school diplomas to graduate degrees, and cover the array of household incomes.
How do you homeschool?
While laws regulating home education vary from state to state, homeschooling IS legal in all 50 states. Many states offer more than one option. One of the first steps in your family’s homeschool journey is to become familiar with the laws in your state. Then the fun begins!
Click on your state below for resources on homeschool regulations, state homeschool organizations, homeschool conventions in your area (here’s why these are amazing for new and experienced homeschool parents), as well as other homeschool perks in your state.
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Disclaimer: Please note that the information on this page is provided for your convenience as a research tool and resource as to where to find the information you need to homeschool in your state. The team at 3 Moms Blog are not attorneys. This content has not been reviewed by an attorney. It is not legal advice.
Brian D. Ray. (2017) A systematic review of the empirical research on selected aspects of homeschooling as a school choice, Journal of School Choice, 11:4, 604-621, accessed April 7, 2023 at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15582159.2017.1395638
US Department of Education. (2019) Homeschooling in the United States: Results from the 2012 and 2016 Parent and Family Involvement Survey (PFINHES: 2012 and 2016). Accessed 4/7/2023 at https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020001.pdf