Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania (CHAP): What It Offers

The Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania — commonly known as CHAP — is one of the oldest and most influential homeschooling organizations in the state. Founded in 1988, CHAP has played a significant role in shaping Pennsylvania homeschool law, connecting families with evaluators, and providing legal guidance to Christians homeschooling under 24 PA C.S. §13-1327.1.

Even if you do not share CHAP's religious orientation, understanding what CHAP offers — and what it doesn't — is useful context for any Pennsylvania homeschooler navigating the state's documentation requirements.

What CHAP Is and Who It Serves

CHAP is explicitly a Christian organization. Its mission, resources, and community are oriented around Christian faith and values. Its membership includes families across a wide range of Christian traditions — evangelical, Catholic, Reformed, and others — united by the goal of educating children according to Biblical principles.

For secular, interfaith, or non-Christian families, CHAP's resources are often still legally accurate but are not designed with your worldview in mind. CHAP uses explicitly Christian framing in its materials, and several of its "Chattin' with CHAP" video guides discuss the spiritual dimension of homeschooling alongside the legal compliance content. Families with different philosophical commitments should know this before relying heavily on CHAP resources as their primary documentation guide.

Pennsylvania's homeschool population has shifted substantially since 2020. The 72% enrollment increase between 2019-2020 and 2024-2025 has brought a large cohort of post-pandemic, secular, and eclectic homeschoolers into the space who may find CHAP's framing less relevant to their situation.

CHAP's Legal and Compliance Resources

Despite its sectarian orientation, CHAP offers legally accurate resources on Pennsylvania's Home Education law. The organization was deeply involved in advocating for the 2014 Act 196 reforms that eliminated the district superintendent's right to review portfolios directly. CHAP's legal team understands 24 PA C.S. §13-1327.1 well.

Free resources available to all:

• Sample affidavits and unsworn declarations formatted for Pennsylvania
• Sample educational objectives by subject area
• Portfolio checklists aligned with Pennsylvania's statutory requirements
• Guidance on the 180-day and 900/990-hour requirements
• Information on the evaluator review process

Member resources (available with annual membership, fee varies):

• Access to CHAP's evaluator directory — a list of certified evaluators who have agreed to work within CHAP's philosophical framework
• Deeper legal guidance through CHAP's staff
• Discounts on the CHAP Convention registration

CHAP's sample affidavits and portfolio checklists are often cited by Pennsylvania homeschoolers as reliable starting points for understanding what the law requires. However, the templates themselves tend toward bare-bones utility — functional but not the aesthetically designed, fillable PDF format that modern homeschool families increasingly prefer.

The CHAP Convention

The CHAP Convention is one of the largest homeschool conventions on the East Coast. Held annually (typically in May, near Harrisburg), the convention features:

• Curriculum vendors from major publishers (Apologia, Sonlight, Classical Conversations, Memoria Press, and dozens more)
• Workshop sessions on legal compliance, portfolio building, evaluator selection, and subject-specific teaching strategies
• Used curriculum fairs
• Student activities and competitions

For families planning to attend, the convention's curriculum hall is one of the most efficient ways to see and evaluate a wide range of homeschool materials in person before purchasing. CHAP also offers an annual convention scholarship program for families with financial need.

Non-CHAP members can attend the convention, though member pricing is significantly lower. Registration fees typically range from $30 to $70 per family depending on membership status and registration timing.

Finding an Evaluator Through CHAP

One of CHAP's most practically useful features is its evaluator network. Pennsylvania requires that home education portfolios be reviewed annually by a qualified evaluator — either a licensed clinical or school psychologist, a Pennsylvania certified teacher with at least two years of relevant experience, or a nonpublic school teacher or administrator with recent Pennsylvania experience.

CHAP maintains a directory of evaluators who have voluntarily listed themselves through the organization. These evaluators are predominantly Christian and are accustomed to reviewing portfolios from faith-based educational approaches — classical education, Charlotte Mason, traditional Christian curriculum programs, and so on.

For families whose educational philosophy is secular or non-Christian, the CHAP evaluator directory is still a useful reference, though you may want to contact evaluators individually to gauge their comfort with diverse pedagogical approaches before hiring. Pennsylvania Homeschoolers (pahomeschoolers.com) also maintains a more philosophically diverse evaluator list.

Evaluator fees in Pennsylvania range from $50 to $200 depending on the evaluator and whether their services include standardized test proctoring or narrative progress reporting. Most evaluators in the CHAP network are toward the lower end of this range.

CHAP vs. Pennsylvania Homeschoolers

The two major state-level homeschooling organizations in Pennsylvania serve overlapping but distinct communities:

CHAP (Christian Homeschool Association of PA): Faith-based, focused on Christian families, strong convention and evaluator network, free resources available to all with membership options.

Pennsylvania Homeschoolers (pahomeschoolers.com): More ecumenical, particularly well-known for the PA Homeschoolers AP Online program and the Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency (PHAA) diploma program, diverse evaluator directory.

Many Pennsylvania homeschooling families connect with both organizations and use resources from each. There is no conflict in pulling a sample affidavit from CHAP's website while using a PA Homeschoolers AP course for high school or seeking PHAA diploma review at graduation.

CHAP and Portfolio Documentation

CHAP's guidance aligns with the key principle every Pennsylvania evaluator enforces: the portfolio is the evidence of an appropriate education, and it must cover all required subjects with genuine work samples and a contemporaneous reading log.

Where CHAP's free templates fall short is in design and completeness. CHAP provides functional but basic Word documents — they do not include auto-calculating GPA worksheets, grade-banded subject frameworks, standardized test comparison guides, or the kind of organized, evaluator-ready format that reduces friction during the June review.

If you want a documentation system that goes beyond CHAP's free resources — fully formatted for Pennsylvania law, aesthetically professional, and covering the complete compliance chain from the August 1 affidavit through the June 30 evaluator certification — the Pennsylvania Portfolio & Assessment Templates was built for exactly that purpose. It works just as well for Christian families using classical or Charlotte Mason approaches as for secular and eclectic homeschoolers.

Summary

CHAP is a legitimate, legally-informed organization with decades of experience supporting Pennsylvania homeschoolers. Its free resources are accurate starting points, its evaluator directory is a practical reference, and its annual convention is one of the best places in the state to evaluate curriculum and connect with the community.

For Christian families whose values align with CHAP's mission, membership and active engagement with the organization can be genuinely valuable. For families outside CHAP's faith community, the free legal resources are useful even if the full membership benefit is less relevant.

Either way, building a compliant Pennsylvania portfolio ultimately comes down to the same statutory requirements for every family: the affidavit, the contemporaneous log, the work samples, the attendance record, and the June 30 evaluator certification.

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