Homeschooling in Pennsylvania

The affidavit starts the program. In your first year you can begin at any point in the school year, as soon as you submit the affidavit and its attachments; without them, a home education program does not legally exist, and days or hours count only from the filing date. To school year round, file as early as July 1. The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) treats a child who leaves public school for homeschooling as a transfer, not a dropout.

PDE posts sample affidavits and unsworn declarations, and you may use your district's form or write your own with every required item. The superintendent may ask you to show that you live in the district.

Moving within the state

Before moving to another Pennsylvania district, request a letter of transfer from your current superintendent by registered mail 30 days ahead. The superintendent issues it within 30 days if your affidavit is on file and the last evaluation found an appropriate education, and you file it with the new superintendent.

Before you go, ask the school for copies of report cards, test scores, and any special education evaluations.

Since Act 196 of 2014, the district collects only the affidavit and the evaluation; the portfolio goes to your evaluator. The outline of objectives you file is a plan, and it cannot be used to judge whether an appropriate education took place.

An appropriate education means instruction in the required subjects for the required time, with sustained progress in the overall program. In practice that means your child is on track to finish the required courses for the elementary (K to 6) or secondary (7 to 12) level.

Because the district no longer tracks courses, PDE suggests asking each year's evaluator to sign a detailed list of the courses reviewed. That list helps three people later:

• The 12th grade evaluator, who must confirm all graduation courses before signing a diploma
• A school deciding on credits, as described under returning
• A college reading your child's transcript

The grade 3, 5, and 8 tests have no opt-out, and failing or refusing to test is out of compliance. The results go in the portfolio, not to the district. If your child covers grade material faster, the test is due in the year the grade 5 work, for example, is done.

Choosing a test

Your district must let your child take the statewide test at the school building your child would attend, or with another arrangement you agree on, at no cost. Instead, you can pay for one of the nationally normed tests PDE approves, including the California Achievement Test, Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Measures of Academic Progress, Stanford Achievement Test, TerraNova, and Woodcock-Johnson. You pay for that test and its administration, and no supervisor, parent, or guardian of the child may give it. PDE recommends a trained evaluator as the test giver.

Every school district must find and evaluate children with disabilities who live in it, homeschooled children included (34 CFR 300.111). If you ask in writing, your district must evaluate your child at no charge and explain the results.

If your child has been identified as needing special education (gifted alone does not count), your program must address the child's specific needs and be approved in writing by a Pennsylvania-certified special education teacher, a licensed clinical psychologist, or a certified school psychologist. That approval goes with each affidavit. You need no special training yourself.

Districts and intermediate units are not required to serve homeschooled students. If both sides agree, services are provided in a public school or a licensed private school, never at home, and they are distinct from the free appropriate public education an enrolled student receives. If you revoke consent for special education in writing, the approval requirement ends and the district provides no services.

State law sets the minimum courses for a home education graduation in grades 9 to 12: four years of English, three of mathematics, three of science, three of social studies, and two of arts and humanities. PDE adds that coursework should cover the state standards in health, physical education, and electives as well.

Diploma options

• Supervisor-issued diploma: you award it on PDE's form, co-signed by the evaluator whose 12th grade evaluation went to the district.
• Diploma-granting organization: a PDE-recognized association awards it and keeps your child's record.
• Commonwealth Secondary School Diploma: available by passing a high school equivalency test or completing 30 college credits, for a student without another state-recognized diploma.

The first two require a senior-year affidavit and evaluation, and they carry the same legal rights as any Pennsylvania diploma. Keep the original safe; only the 12th grade evaluator may sign a replacement.

Homeschooled 16- and 17-year-olds get work permits from the school district and may work during school hours, within limits of 8 hours a day, 44 hours a week, and 6 days in a row.

Every district that enrolls secondary students must have at least one dual credit agreement with a college approved to operate in Pennsylvania, and since the 2023-24 school year homeschooled and privately tutored students may take part in those agreements (24 P.S. 15-1525). If your district runs a concurrent enrollment program with a college, it must let homeschooled students participate.

A supervisor-issued or organization diploma has the same legal rights and privileges as a diploma from any Pennsylvania school. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) also accepts the Commonwealth Secondary School Diploma. Each college still sets its own admission requirements.

Homeschool dual enrollment in Pennsylvania

Your district must let your child take part in its extracurricular activities, including interscholastic, varsity, and intramural sports, clubs, musical groups, and theater (24 P.S. 13-1327.1(f.1)). Your child must meet the same eligibility and tryout criteria as enrolled students, or their equivalent, and follow the rules of the activity's governing organization, such as the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA).

If a sport requires a physical that the district offers its students, your child can get it too, and the district must publish the dates. The law does not cover the senior prom or commencement; those are local decisions.

Homeschool sports eligibility in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has no homeschool tax credit, deduction, education savings account, or voucher. You pay for curriculum, the evaluator, and any alternative test.

Some help comes through the district. It must lend you, free, copies of its planned courses, textbooks, and other curriculum materials for your child's age and grade. The statewide tests cost nothing. Concurrent college enrollment through the district is a reimbursable cost under 24 P.S. 16-1602-B.

Homeschool tax breaks and funding in Pennsylvania

The school your child enrolls in decides the grade and which home education credits to accept under its own written policy. No law or regulation requires it to accept any. Because the district has not seen your portfolios since 2014, it may ask for them or for an evaluation that lists the completed courses.

PDE describes the range of local practice:

• Accepting all credits, with elective credit for courses the school does not offer
• Accepting only credits for courses the school also offers
• Placing a younger child in the grade you assigned
• Letting a student test for credit
• Accepting no credits

A student who enrolls in high school must complete all of that district's graduation requirements, which may go beyond the home education requirements.

A district raises a concern by certified mail. If your evaluation is late, you have 10 days from receiving the letter to send it. If the superintendent reasonably believes, with stated reasons, that an appropriate education is not occurring or that another part of the law is not met, you have 30 days to send an evaluator's certification. Without it, the school board holds a hearing within 30 days before an impartial examiner, who decides within 15 days.

A hearing concerns one child. The outcome can be a remedial plan you and the superintendent agree on, or no home education for that child for up to 12 months. You or the superintendent may appeal to the Secretary of Education, the Commonwealth Court, or the court of common pleas, and home education continues during the appeal. A homeschooled child is not truant for learning outside public school hours.