Louisiana Homeschool TOPS LOSFA Codes: ACT Code 1595 and High School Code 969999

Two specific codes determine whether Louisiana's Office of Student Financial Assistance (LOSFA) ever links your child's ACT or CLT results to their TOPS application as a home study student. Get them right and the process runs smoothly. Enter the wrong code — or leave one blank — and you're filing paperwork corrections during senior year while competing for scholarship deadlines.

The two codes are not interchangeable, they serve different purposes, and both matter. Here's exactly what each one does.

Why Codes Matter for Home Study Students

Public school students are automatically matched to their school's CEEB code, which ties ACT score reports to a specific institution on file with LOSFA. Because BESE-Approved Home Study students don't attend a recognized school building, there is no automatic institutional identifier. LOSFA needs a way to know two things: that your student's scores should be routed to home study eligibility review, and that your student is associated with the Louisiana home study system rather than an out-of-state or unregistered program.

The two codes handle exactly those two functions.

Code 1595: The ACT Reporting Code for LOSFA

When your student registers for the ACT, the registration form asks which organizations should receive the score report. Students receive a certain number of free score sends as part of the test fee; additional sends cost extra.

Code 1595 is LOSFA's ACT institutional code. Sending scores to code 1595 routes the report directly to the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance, which administers TOPS. This is the equivalent of a public school student's scores being sent to their school district's scholarship office.

If you skip this step, LOSFA may not receive the ACT results automatically. You can always request an additional score send from ACT after the fact, but it costs money, takes time, and introduces the possibility of delays that compound badly if you're already close to the TOPS application deadline.

The practical takeaway: include code 1595 in the list of score recipients when your student registers for or retakes the ACT. It takes thirty seconds and costs nothing if you're within the included send allotment.

Code 969999: The Home Study High School Code

Code 969999 is a different type of code entirely. It is the CEEB (College Entrance Examination Board) code that LOSFA and the College Board use to identify Louisiana BESE-Approved Home Study students as an institution. Public schools each have a unique CEEB code; 969999 is the shared identifier for all Louisiana home study students operating under BESE approval.

There are two places this code appears:

On ACT registration: Your student will be asked to enter their high school's code. For BESE-Approved Home Study students, 969999 is the correct answer. This tells the ACT system that the student is from the Louisiana home study program, which allows score routing to work correctly with LOSFA's records.

On college applications: When your student applies to LSU, UL Lafayette, Tulane, or other institutions and the application asks for a high school code, 969999 is the home study identifier. Some universities use the Common App, others use their own system, but the code is the same. It signals to admissions that the student is a home study graduate rather than a transfer from an unaccredited foreign program, which matters for how their application is processed.

The Difference Between the Two

Using 969999 alone does not ensure LOSFA receives the scores — that's what 1595 does. Using 1595 alone without 969999 can create a mismatch where LOSFA receives scores but cannot match them to a valid home study classification. Both codes should appear on the same registration.

What About CLT Scores?

Act 347 of the 2025 Louisiana legislative session opened TOPS eligibility to students taking the Classic Learning Test (CLT) as an alternative to the ACT. The CLT is administered by the Classic Learning Test organization and scored on a different scale than the ACT — a CLT composite of 96 corresponds approximately to an ACT composite of 27, though the two tests assess somewhat different content.

For CLT score reporting to LOSFA, the process is handled differently than ACT because CLT uses its own institutional reporting system rather than the College Board infrastructure. CLT score reports for TOPS purposes should be sent directly through the CLT score-send feature to LOSFA. The organization code for LOSFA through the CLT system is separate from the ACT code 1595 — check directly with LOSFA or the CLT organization for the current CLT reporting code, as this process is newer and the specific identifier has been updated since Act 347 took effect.

The home study high school code 969999 still applies when your student lists their school on a college application, regardless of whether they took the ACT or CLT for TOPS qualification purposes.

The NPNSA Code Situation

If your family is registered as a Nonpublic School Not Seeking State Approval (NPNSA) rather than BESE-Approved Home Study, these codes do not help you. NPNSA students are categorically ineligible for TOPS under Louisiana law — no code, no ACT score, and no documentation will change that. Code 969999 is specifically for BESE-Approved Home Study students.

This distinction catches families off guard. Many parents who chose NPNSA because it required less paperwork discover during their student's junior year that the entire TOPS pathway was closed the whole time. Louisiana law does not allow retroactive reclassification of prior years' enrollment.

If your student is currently in NPNSA and has not yet completed 10th grade, you can still switch to BESE-Approved Home Study. The TOPS clock begins from the date of BESE approval — prior NPNSA years simply will not count. The 11th and 12th grade BESE enrollment requirement must be met, and documentation should start immediately upon switching.

When to Enter These Codes

The timeline for using the codes looks like this:

When your student registers for the ACT (any grade, any attempt): Include 969999 as the high school code and 1595 as a score recipient. Do this for every ACT sitting, not just the first one. LOSFA uses the highest qualifying score, so each retake should be sent correctly.

When TOPS applications open (typically spring of senior year): LOSFA will use the ACT scores already on file. If you entered both codes correctly, the score linkage should be in place. Review the LOSFA account to confirm the score is visible before the application deadline.

When your student applies to colleges: Use 969999 as the high school identifier on each application. Some applications will accept it in the standard school code field; others may require selecting "homeschool" as the school type and entering the code in a supplemental field.

After graduation — documentation submission: The codes are only part of the process. LOSFA also requires manual submission of BESE approval documentation by January 15th following the year of graduation. The codes enable automatic score routing, but the BESE approval paperwork is a separate, manual step that does not happen automatically.

Getting the Documentation Behind the Codes Right

Entering 1595 and 969999 correctly is relatively quick — it's a few fields on a registration form. What takes time and attention is the underlying documentation those codes point LOSFA toward: the annual BESE renewal packets, the 180-day attendance records, the subject coverage logs, and the transcript that shows what curriculum was used across 9th through 12th grade.

If your BESE approval paperwork has gaps — incomplete renewal applications, missing subject documentation, or an attendance log that doesn't clearly cover 180 instructional days — those codes won't rescue the TOPS application. LOSFA verifies the BESE status behind the code, and if the underlying records are incomplete, the application stalls.

The Louisiana Portfolio & Assessment Templates include the BESE renewal cover sheet, the 180-day attendance log, the subject evidence tracker, and the TOPS scholarship documentation checklist organized around the exact records LOSFA reviews when verifying home study status. If you're preparing your student's BESE files now, that's where the documentation framework lives.

Frequently Asked Questions

What if my student already took the ACT without entering code 1595?

You can request a score send retroactively through ACT's website. There is a fee per send. Go to act.org, log into your student's account, and add LOSFA (code 1595) as an additional recipient. The score report typically arrives within a few weeks.

Do we need both codes every time, or just once?

Every ACT registration should include both codes. LOSFA tracks the highest qualifying score, but each individual score report needs to be correctly attributed to home study status. Entering the codes only on the first attempt and skipping them on retakes creates a records gap.

Is 969999 the same as the code for homeschoolers in other states?

No. Each state — and each home study program within a state — has its own CEEB identifier. Code 969999 is specific to Louisiana BESE-Approved Home Study students. Students in Texas, Florida, or other states use entirely different codes for their respective programs.

Can I call LOSFA directly to verify the codes are in their system?

Yes. LOSFA's contact line for TOPS inquiries handles exactly these questions. If your student is approaching their junior year, it is worth calling to confirm that their scores are properly linked to their home study status in the LOSFA system before the TOPS application window opens.

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