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Homeschooling is legal in Portugal as ensino doméstico. Your child stays enrolled at a Portuguese school, a family member with a degree teaches the Portuguese curriculum at home, and the school monitors progress and sets the exams.
This guide covers the rules in Decreto-Lei 70/2021, what they mean for expat families and online schooling, costs, and routes to university in Portugal and abroad.
Yes, through ensino doméstico or ensino individual. In both, your child stays enrolled at a Portuguese school, which monitors the learning and certifies it.
| Law | What it says |
|---|---|
| Lei n.º 85/2009, article 2 | School is compulsory from 6 to 18, or until the secondary diploma. Parents must enrol their child at a public, private or cooperative school, or an institution recognised by the Portuguese authorities |
| Decreto-Lei n.º 70/2021, article 4 | Ensino doméstico is taught at home by a family member or someone who lives with the child. Ensino individual is taught by a qualified teacher to one pupil outside a school |
| Decreto-Lei n.º 70/2021, article 16 | In ensino doméstico, the person who teaches must hold at least a licenciatura (bachelor's degree). In ensino individual, the teacher must be qualified to teach in Portugal. Portuguese is the language of schooling |
| Decreto-Lei n.º 70/2021, articles 7 and 12 | Learning follows the Portuguese curriculum and citizenship themes, under a one-year protocol with the school. The protocol includes at least one in-person session at the school at the end of the school year |
| Decreto-Lei n.º 70/2021, article 19 | To finish each cycle, the child sits the school's end-of-cycle exams (provas de equivalência à frequência), or the national exams where they exist |
The school can cancel ensino doméstico if the protocol isn't followed, or if the child fails the end of a cycle two years running, and the child then moves into a school. Numbers are small: there were 560 students in ensino doméstico at the end of 2024/25, up about 20% on the year before, according to Ministry of Education figures reported by Diário de Notícias.
For a child who lives in Portugal, studying with a foreign online school doesn't meet the enrolment duty on its own.
The Ministry of Education's guidanceLei 85/2009 requires enrolment at a Portuguese public, private or cooperative school, or an institution recognised by the Portuguese authorities. We know of no foreign online school with that recognition, CambriLearn included.
It doesn't work as a full English-language route. Portuguese is the language of schooling, although parts of the curriculum can be taught in a foreign language from the national curriculum if the teaching parent proves proficiency and the school offers that option.
Families who live in Portugal and want a British curriculum usually choose one of the country's private international schools.
If your child's education needs to travel with you between countries, speak to a consultant about where you'll be living, because the rules depend on the country you live in.
