Georgia Homeschool Testing Requirements: What Every Family Needs to Know

Most states make homeschool families prove what they are doing every single year. Georgia is not one of them. The state is broadly permissive compared to neighbors like North Carolina or Florida — but permissive does not mean paperwork-free. There are two assessment requirements baked into the law that trip up families who discover them late: a recurring standardized test and an annual written progress report. Missing either does not trigger an immediate government response in most cases, but both create legal exposure and can become serious problems at scholarship applications, college admissions, and high school graduation.

Here is exactly what Georgia requires, when it applies, and how to handle it.

The Legal Foundation

Georgia homeschool law operates under O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690(c). This statute defines what the state calls a "home study program." Families who qualify and comply with this section operate entirely outside the public school system, without routine submission of progress reports, attendance logs, or test scores to the local superintendent; the Declaration of Intent is filed with the Georgia Department of Education.

The law mandates:

• A Declaration of Intent filed with the Georgia Department of Education within 30 days of starting and by September 1 in subsequent years
• A teaching parent or guardian (or tutor) with at least a high school diploma or state-approved high school equivalency (GED)
• Instruction in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science
• At least 180 days of instruction per 12-month period at a minimum of 4.5 hours per day, unless the student is physically unable to comply
• An annual written progress assessment report prepared by the teaching parent or guardian
• A nationally standardized test administered in consultation with an individual trained in the administration and interpretation of norm-referenced tests every three years, beginning at the conclusion of third grade

Progress reports and test results do not need to be submitted to the state; they are kept in the home. The annual progress reports must be retained for at least three years, while attendance logs and other supporting records are prudent to keep as well.

The Standardized Testing Requirement

Georgia requires each home study student to take an appropriate nationally standardized test at least every three years, beginning at the conclusion of third grade, in consultation with an individual trained in the administration and interpretation of norm-referenced tests.

The standard testing cycle for most families falls at the end of grades 3, 6, 9, and 12. The key rule is every three years beginning at the conclusion of third grade, rather than a three-year count from when a family happens to begin.

What Tests Qualify

Georgia does not mandate a specific test. An appropriate nationally standardized achievement test satisfies the requirement. Common options used by Georgia families include:

Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) / Iowa Assessments. One of the most widely used options. Scores are reported against national norms, which gives clear context. Available through testing companies and some co-ops.

Stanford Achievement Test (SAT 10 / Stanford 10). Another nationally normed test. Often available through Christian homeschool organizations and curriculum providers.

CAT/5 (California Achievement Test). Less common but legally valid. Some families use this for its lower cost.

TerraNova. Published by DRC (formerly CTB/McGraw-Hill). Meets the nationally standardized threshold.

No minimum score is required by Georgia law. The requirement is that the test happens and the scores are retained. You do not report scores to the school district.

Who Administers the Test

Georgia's requirement is consultation with an individual trained in the administration and interpretation of norm-referenced tests. The research guidance allows home administration when the publisher's rules are met — for example, a parent with a bachelor's degree for tests such as the ITBS — or use of an integrated online proctoring service or other trained administrator.

Several testing services operate in Georgia and ship test materials to families or host in-person testing days. Georgia Homeschool Tested Days and similar regional events allow families to test in a supervised setting, which some families prefer for legitimacy and easier documentation.

The Annual Progress Report

The standardized testing requirement draws more attention, but the annual written progress assessment is actually the record you are more likely to need — at college applications, scholarship reviews, and any situation where someone wants to understand what your child learned in a given year.

Georgia law requires that this report be prepared by the teaching parent or guardian. The statute does not prescribe a format. But the report needs to exist and needs to reflect the academic year it covers.

A minimal progress report includes:

• Student name, grade level, and academic year
• Subjects covered (at minimum the five mandated subjects)
• A narrative or structured summary of work completed in each subject
• The teaching parent's or guardian's name and signature
• Date of preparation

A stronger progress report — the kind that serves dual purposes of legal compliance and documentation for future use — also includes:

• Curriculum or resources used in each subject
• Sample descriptions of projects, papers, or assessments completed
• Any standardized test scores from that year (if applicable)
• Notable achievements, extracurricular participation, and elective subjects studied

For high school students, the progress report connects directly to transcript-building. What you document in the annual report is the raw material for the transcript that colleges, scholarship programs, and employers will eventually see.

Homeschool Diplomas and Transcripts in Georgia

Georgia law does not regulate homeschool diplomas or transcripts. A Georgia homeschool graduate may receive a diploma issued by the parent under the home study program, and this diploma is legally valid in Georgia for employment and most purposes.

The substantive question is not legal validity but institutional recognition. Colleges, universities, and scholarship programs — including Georgia's own HOPE and Zell Miller scholarships — apply their own criteria when evaluating homeschool applicants. Those criteria are not set by the state of Georgia; they are set by each institution or program.

For a homeschool transcript to function effectively, it needs to do the work that an institutional transcript does automatically:

Course names and credit hours. List every high school course with a title that communicates content clearly (not "Science" but "Biology with Lab," not "Math" but "Algebra II"). Credit hours should follow the Carnegie Unit convention: one credit for approximately 120–180 hours of study.

Grades and GPA. Include a grading scale so reviewers understand what an "A" or a "B" means in your system. Calculate a cumulative GPA on a standard 4.0 scale and note whether grades are weighted or unweighted.

Standardized test scores. Include SAT or ACT scores where available. For unaccredited home study graduates, the HOPE Scholarship pathway requires a score at or above the 75th percentile nationally on a single SAT or ACT administration (historically around 1160 SAT or 24 ACT); Zell Miller requires 1200 SAT or 26 ACT.

External validation. Dual enrollment grades from Georgia's technical colleges or universities carry significant weight because they come from accredited institutions. AP exam scores (3, 4, or 5) communicate college-level mastery in a verifiable way.

Cumulative records. The transcript should reflect all four years of high school — not just senior year — with year-by-year course listings.

Georgia has approximately 89,510 homeschooled students as of the 2024–2025 academic year, representing a 45% increase over the prior decade. The state's college admissions infrastructure is increasingly familiar with homeschool applicants. A well-constructed transcript and a record of annual progress reports put a Georgia homeschool graduate on equal footing with traditionally schooled students.

What Happens If You Miss a Testing Year

Georgia does not have an enforcement mechanism that automatically triggers when a family misses the three-year standardized test. There is no state database tracking which homeschool families have tested and which have not.

The risk is practical rather than immediate. If a family is ever audited — typically triggered by a complaint or a situation involving truancy concerns — missing testing documentation creates legal vulnerability. The family cannot demonstrate compliance with the statute.

More commonly, the consequence appears at scholarship applications. The Georgia HOPE Scholarship application process can prompt requests for documentation, and a family that has not maintained annual progress reports and testing records may be unable to produce what is needed.

The straightforward approach: put testing on a calendar, follow the three-year cycle beginning at the end of third grade, keep scores in a dedicated file, and write the annual progress report each year at the same time you would complete similar paperwork.

What to Keep and Where to Keep It

Georgia law specifically requires annual progress reports to be retained for at least three years. It does not state a statutory retention period for attendance logs or standardized test results. A practical standard is to keep all homeschool records until the student's youngest sibling (if applicable) has completed homeschooling, or until the student is well into college, whichever is later. For high school records specifically, maintain them indefinitely — transcript questions can arise years after graduation.

Organize records by academic year. Each year's file should contain the annual progress report, any standardized test results from that year, course materials or syllabi, and samples of significant work. High school files should also include the running transcript, updated each semester.

A digital backup of everything is worth maintaining. Original documents are ideal, but a well-organized PDF archive stored securely offsite eliminates the risk of losing records to fire, flood, or a move.

The Georgia Portfolio and Assessment Templates provide ready-made documents for Georgia's annual progress report requirement, the three-year standardized testing log, and a high school transcript template built around the documentation Georgia colleges and the HOPE Scholarship program expect. Everything is pre-formatted to Georgia's statutory requirements so you are not building from scratch.

See more Georgia guides →