Online School & Homeschool in San Juan

Online school and international curriculum in San Juan Puerto Rico

For San Juan families — externally examined Cambridge, IB and AP qualifications behind a homeschool transcript you issue yourself.

Live online Cambridge IGCSE, Cambridge A-Level, Pearson Edexcel International, IB Diploma Programme, and American Curriculum with Advanced Placement (AP) for San Juan families. The capital holds Puerto Rico's corporate, legal and medical sectors, the island's international and bilingual school tier, and its largest homeschooling community — a community that operates under one of the freest legal frameworks anywhere. Puerto Rican home educators run their own non-governmental schools and issue their own transcripts, entirely lawfully. What an external examination board adds on top of that is independence: a grade nobody in the family awarded.

Challenges San Juan families face

A parent-issued homeschool transcript is self-attested, which some university admissions offices weigh differently.
International and bilingual school fees in San Juan are set at US private-school levels.
Competitive admission to selective mainland and international universities.
Specialist subjects are hard to teach at home without a subject specialist.
Time zone: Puerto Rico runs AST (UTC-4) with no daylight saving — seven hours behind Nairobi, so mornings and very early afternoons work.

Why San Juan families choose Smartious

External examination behind a self-issued transcript: Puerto Rican home educators lawfully issue their own transcripts. Cambridge, Edexcel, IB and AP are marked by an independent board — an admissions officer sees a grade nobody in the family awarded.
Full-time genuinely available here: Puerto Rico requires no registration, no notification and no state curriculum, so a full international programme is straightforward — more so than anywhere else we teach.
A-Levels alongside the AP route you already know: AP is thoroughly established on the island; A-Levels and the IB open the UK, Spain, Canada and 160+ other countries on the same record.
Subject specialists for what a parent cannot teach: Further Mathematics, A-Level Physics, Chemistry at university-entrance standard — taught live in groups of four to six.
Honest about what we are not: We are not a Puerto Rico Department of Education licensed school and do not issue a Puerto Rico diploma. We teach externally examined qualifications.

Puerto Rico has the freest home-education framework in our entire coverage, and San Juan families are entitled to a precise account of it. There is no Puerto Rico law expressly regulating home education and none establishing criteria for how a home school operates. Article II, Section 5 of the Constitution of Puerto Rico is cited as protecting the right, alongside the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution, under which parents hold a fundamental right to direct the care, custody and control of their children. Education is compulsory from age five under 3 LPRA sec. 391 and is reported in practice as running to around eighteen, with the law no longer requiring a specific number of school days after sixteen. The mechanism is the interesting part: under L.P.R.A. 18 sec. 2322 — a statute that uses the English word "homeschooling" — the parent is the non-governmental entity under whose auspices the school operates, and is also the school director. Home educators are therefore exempt from compulsory public school attendance because they are operating a non-governmental school. In practice that means no registration, no notification, no approval from any agency, no official registry, no mandatory state curriculum, no routine supervision, and no requirement that a parent hold teacher certification or an education degree. "Adequate" education is not defined in law and is understood as one that prepares the child for adult life and its responsibilities, taking account of their individual characteristics. If a child was already enrolled at a school, withdrawal is the only formality — a written letter to the principal is strongly recommended, public schools use a withdrawal form with the home-education code, and families should request copies of the academic record, test results and immunisation certification. No Puerto Rico case law on home education is reported. Two organisations are worth knowing and neither is a competitor of ours: T'CHERs, the Caribbean Center of Home Education Resources, is an island-wide body offering free orientation and guidance, and HSLDA publishes Puerto Rico material in Spanish. What that freedom leaves is one specific gap, and it is the gap we fill. Most home educators here operate as non-government schools and use their own transcripts to evidence grades and completed work rather than an official diploma. That is entirely lawful — and it is also self-attested. Cambridge, Pearson Edexcel, IB and AP qualifications are set and marked by an independent examination board, which means an admissions officer at a selective university sees a grade nobody in the family awarded. Smartious is not a Puerto Rico Department of Education licensed school and does not issue a Puerto Rico diploma; what we provide is the external examination layer.

Smartious delivers to San Juan families online; the live programme is complete without in-person supplementation.

Live online via Smartious LMS. Puerto Rico sits seven hours behind Nairobi with no daylight saving, so Puerto Rican morning and very early afternoon classes both fall in our teaching day at a constant time every week, with all sessions recorded.

San Juan holds Puerto Rico's corporate, legal and medical sectors, the island's international and bilingual school tier, and its largest homeschooling community — operating under a framework requiring no registration, notification or state curriculum, in which families lawfully issue their own transcripts. Puerto Rico runs AST (UTC-4), seven hours behind Nairobi.

Family situations we work with

Established homeschooling families wanting externally examined qualifications.
Families operating as their own non-governmental school under LPRA 18.
Professional and medical-sector households outside the private tier's fees.
Students targeting selective mainland US, UK, Spanish or Canadian universities.
Families wanting A-Levels and the IB alongside the AP route they already know.
Students needing a subject a parent cannot teach at A-Level standard.

San Juan communities and nearby areas

Condado · Guaynabo · Bayamón · Carolina · Trujillo Alto · Caguas · Río Piedras

Common questions from San Juan families

Is homeschooling legal in Puerto Rico?

Yes, and unusually freely. There is no law expressly regulating it, no registration or notification requirement, no official registry, no mandatory state curriculum and no teacher-certification requirement. Under L.P.R.A. 18 sec. 2322 the parent is the non-governmental entity under whose auspices the school operates and is also its director, which exempts the family from compulsory public school attendance. Article II, Section 5 of the Constitution of Puerto Rico is cited as protecting the right.

So why would we need an external examination board?

Because most home educators here lawfully issue their own transcripts, and a self-issued transcript is self-attested. Cambridge, Edexcel, IB and AP are set and marked independently, so a selective university sees a grade nobody in the family awarded. That is the specific thing we add.

Can our child study with you full-time?

Yes. Puerto Rico is the freest framework in our coverage for that — no registration, no notification, no state curriculum. We also teach supplementary alongside a school enrolment where a family prefers.

Do you issue a Puerto Rico diploma?

No. We are not a Puerto Rico Department of Education licensed school. We teach toward Cambridge, Edexcel, IB and AP examinations, which carry their own international validity.

Guides for families in Puerto Rico

What parents say

Rated 4.9 out of 5 on Google from 130+ reviews. Read our Google reviews

“Smartious Homeschooling delivers genuinely effective one-on-one instruction. The teachers are patient, consistent, and skilled at identifying and addressing each learner's specific academic gaps. Since enrolling, our child has become more confident, enjoys lessons, and is now performing above grade level. For families in Nairobi seeking a dependable, academically rigorous homeschooling programme with personalised support, Smartious is a standout choice.” — Allan H., Google review