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Formation & registration

Starting a homeschool co-op in Texas: what you actually have to file

Texas is one of the lighter states for a small co-op: $25 to incorporate, a periodic report that is requested rather than filed on a schedule, and — for most charities — no state registration before soliciting.

Administered by Texas Secretary of State (formation) · Office of the Attorney General (charitable trusts)

How to read the badges

statute
We read the cited section of the law itself.
agency
It comes from the regulator’s own published guidance.
unverified
We could not confirm it. Treat it as a lead to check, not an answer.

Every source below is the agency or legislature that makes the rule. We do not cite compliance vendors.

Forming a nonprofit corporation

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File a certificate of formation on Form 202 with the Secretary of State. The filing fee is $25. You need a minimum of three directors where the corporation is managed by a board, a registered agent with a Texas registered office address, and an explicit statement in the certificate if the corporation will not have members. Paying by credit card adds a statutory convenience fee of 2.7 percent. Incorporating at state level is what creates the liability shield for the people running the co-op; federal tax exemption is a separate question, and the two get confused constantly.

Ongoing state reports

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A Texas nonprofit corporation files an informational report not more than once every four years, and only when the Secretary of State requests it. Failure to file within 30 days of that request forfeits the corporation’s right to transact business in Texas — so keep the registered agent address current, because that is where the request arrives.

Registering before collecting fees or donations

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The Attorney General’s office says that under Texas law most charities and nonprofit organizations are not required to register with the state. Registration applies only to certain law-enforcement-related organizations that solicit by telephone, public-safety organizations and their solicitors, and veterans organizations and their solicitors. A homeschool co-op is unlikely to fall into any of those categories.

What we could not confirm

  • Federal tax exemption (Form 1023 or 1023-EZ) is a separate question and was outside this state review.

We publish this rather than hiding it. A gap is a question for your accountant or attorney, not a suggestion that nothing applies.

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Lone Star Screening: the Texas guide to screening volunteers, sector by sector

Texas has no single law that says “screen every volunteer.” It has sector laws — for public schools, licensed child care, youth camps and state-funded programs — plus rare direct access to state records for some nonprofits. The guide takes each in turn, from the Education Code to the Family Code.

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Background check rules are a separate question

This page covers forming and registering the organization. Whether your volunteers must be screened is governed by a different set of laws, which we maintain separately with its own citations — so the two can never quietly disagree with each other.

Texas volunteer screening requirements

Other states we have researched

Florida Ohio Pennsylvania North Carolina

Only states we have actually read the law for appear here. We would rather cover a handful of states honestly than fifty by extrapolation — if your state is missing, that is why.

Back to the homeschool co-op toolkit

This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Statutes are amended, agencies reinterpret them, and how any of this applies turns on facts specific to your co-op. Verify against the cited source before you file anything, and take structure and exemption questions to an accountant or attorney licensed in Texas.

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