Louisiana Micro-School Graduation Requirements: What You Set and What the State Requires

One of the genuine freedoms of running a Louisiana micro-school is that you set your own graduation requirements. The state does not dictate a specific course list or credit count for nonpublic schools that don't seek state approval. But this freedom comes with a practical problem: if you set requirements that fall short of what TOPS scholarship rules, Louisiana university admissions, or out-of-state college applications require, your students pay the price.

The workable approach is to layer the requirements—start with what the state mandates (minimal), build up to what TOPS requires (specific), and confirm compatibility with where your students plan to go to college.

What Louisiana State Law Actually Requires

For a Nonpublic School Not Seeking State Approval, the state baseline is limited to:

• A 180-day compulsory-attendance threshold
• Attendance record-keeping
• No state-prescribed credit count, GPA minimum, or course sequence

This pathway has no state curriculum oversight or mandatory state testing. A micro-school can set its own graduation requirements, but graduating a student after two years with minimal coursework would harm that student's future options significantly.

For BESE Home Study students, the graduation requirements are also set by the parent, but the annual evidence-of-progress requirement means there is ongoing documentation of progress.

What TOPS Requires for Graduation

If your students plan to pursue TOPS, your micro-school's graduation requirements should align with the current LOSFA TOPS Core Curriculum. A practical summary is:

English — 4 credits:

• English I (grammar, composition)
• English II (composition, literature)
• English III (composition, American literature)
• English IV (composition, British or world literature)

Mathematics — 4 credits:

• Algebra I
• Geometry
• Algebra II
• One higher-level math (Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Statistics, or equivalent)

Science — 4 credits:

• Biology — 1 unit
• Chemistry — 1 unit
• Two additional approved science units (Earth Science, Environmental Science, Physics, Biology II, or equivalent)

Social Studies — 4 credits:

• US History — 1 unit
• Civics or Government — 1 unit
• Two additional approved social-studies units (World History, World Geography, Western Civilization, Economics, or equivalent)

Foreign Language — 2 credits:

• Two years of the same language (Spanish, French, Latin, ASL, etc.)

Fine Arts — 1 credit:

• Fine Arts Survey, performance, studio art, visual art, or an approved equivalent

Total TOPS Core Curriculum: 19 units

A micro-school may set a graduation requirement of 24 total credits, with the TOPS Core Curriculum as the foundation and the remaining 5 credits as electives (physical education, additional sciences, or enrichment courses specific to the pod's focus). Use current LOSFA course-equivalency rules when approving individual courses.

What Louisiana Universities Require

Louisiana public universities use the Board of Regents Core 4 admission curriculum. It includes:

• English: 4 units (same as TOPS)
• Mathematics: 4 units
• Natural science: 4 units
• Social science: 4 units
• Foreign language or speech: 2 units
• Fine arts survey or performance: 1 unit

This overlaps substantially with TOPS, but individual institutions and programs may impose additional requirements. Confirm current requirements with each college.

If your micro-school is TOPS-aligned, it is also aligned with the common Regents Core categories. Building fine arts into your graduation requirements helps satisfy both standards simultaneously.

The GPA Question

Micro-schools set their own GPA scales. A standard four-point scale (A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0, D=1.0) is easy for university admissions offices to interpret, but TOPS applicants also need a LOSFA-compliant Core Curriculum GPA calculation.

Weighted GPA adds complexity without reliable benefit. If a pod founder assigns a 5.0 to AP-equivalent courses, admissions offices may convert it for comparison purposes. LOSFA's current TOPS calculation can award weighted quality points for designated courses, so use the current LOSFA method rather than assuming an unweighted calculation.

Setting Your Diploma Policy

A diploma issued by a nonpublic school is a private document. It carries the weight the micro-school's record-keeping, transcript quality, and course rigor give it. There is no state seal, no registrar validation, no LDOE stamp.

What makes a micro-school diploma credible:

1. A consistent, documented graduation policy stated in writing (in the parent-school agreement or pod policy document) and applied the same way to every student
2. A transcript that accurately documents every course, credit, and grade
3. An ACT score on file—a 20+ composite is the single most portable evidence of academic readiness, and universities treat it as a reliable external validation of a nonpublic school transcript
4. Evidence of rigor: dual enrollment credits, SAT subject tests (discontinued, but AP exams still apply), or a portfolio of academic work

Documenting Graduation

When a student completes your micro-school's graduation requirements, the administrative record should include:

• Final transcript showing all credits earned, cumulative GPA, and graduation date
• A signed diploma or certificate of completion (the micro-school issues this)
• A course completion record showing how each credit was earned (curriculum materials used, hours logged, assessments completed)
• A letter from the school administrator confirming graduation—some colleges and LOSFA may request this

If the student is also registered under BESE Home Study, retain the final annual evidence and approval records and confirm current LOSFA documentation requirements for TOPS purposes.

Aligning Requirements With Your Pod's Academic Philosophy

Micro-schools run the spectrum from rigorous college-prep environments to project-based, mastery-focused models without traditional grades. Both can produce college-ready graduates if the graduation requirements are built deliberately.

A project-based pod does not need letter grades, but it does need a defensible way to translate completed projects into credit hours. If a student spends 120 documented hours on a marine biology project with measurable learning outcomes, that is a Biology credit—even without a textbook chapter and an end-of-unit test. The documentation burden is higher, but the academic claim is defensible.

What is not defensible: undocumented informal learning that cannot be mapped to subject areas, credit hours, or assessable outcomes. Colleges and LOSFA are not hostile to non-traditional education—they are hostile to records they cannot verify.

The Louisiana Micro-School & Pod Kit includes a graduation requirements template, a TOPS Core 4 credit tracking grid, a project-to-credit-hour documentation system, and a diploma template ready for customization with your micro-school's name and branding.

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