Pennsylvania Homeschool Requirements Checklist: Everything You Must File

Pennsylvania is one of the most heavily regulated homeschool states in the country. Under 24 PA C.S. §13-1327.1, the Commonwealth imposes a layered compliance cycle that runs from August through June 30 every single year. For parents new to the system — and even veterans who've been doing it for years — keeping every requirement straight is genuinely difficult.

This checklist breaks down every legal obligation you have as a Pennsylvania home education supervisor, in the order they occur throughout the year.

Before You Begin: Supervisor Eligibility

Before filing anything, confirm you meet the statutory definition of a home education supervisor. Pennsylvania law requires the supervisor to be the child's parent, guardian, or legal custodian, and — critically — they must hold a high school diploma or its equivalent.

If you don't hold a diploma or GED, you cannot operate a home education program under §13-1327.1. The alternative is the Private Tutor provision (§13-1327), which requires a valid Pennsylvania teaching certificate but carries far fewer documentation obligations.

Requirement 1: Notarized Affidavit (Due by August 1)

Every year, before instruction begins, you must file a notarized affidavit with the superintendent of the school district in which you reside. The affidavit is due by August 1 for returning families, and prior to the start of instruction for first-year families.

The affidavit must include:

• The name of the supervisor and the name and age of each student
• The address and telephone number of the home education site
• A statement that instruction will be provided in the English language
• An outline of proposed educational objectives by subject area (note: the district cannot use this outline to determine whether your program is out of compliance — it is a bureaucratic formality, not a binding curriculum contract)
• Evidence of immunization or a valid medical, religious, or philosophical exemption
• Evidence of required health and medical services (vision and hearing screenings per Article XIV of the School Code)
• A certification that no adult residing in the home has been convicted of specified criminal offenses within the past five years

The affidavit must be notarized or submitted as an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury. Many families use templates from CHAP, Ask Pauline, or PDE's own website as a starting point. The key is that every required element is present — superintendents who reject affidavits for missing fields are acting within their authority.

Important: Districts cannot require you to use a specific affidavit form, and they cannot demand documents beyond those listed above. If your district asks for a birth certificate, your high school diploma, or detailed medical records beyond basic immunization compliance, that is an unauthorized overstep.

Requirement 2: Mandatory Subjects (Year-Round)

Pennsylvania mandates one of the most exhaustive subject lists in the nation. The required subjects depend on grade level:

Elementary (Grades K–6): English (spelling, reading, writing), arithmetic, science, geography, history of the United States and Pennsylvania, civics, safety education including regular and continuous instruction in fire prevention, health and physiology, physical education, music, and art.

Secondary (Grades 7–12): English (language, literature, speech, composition), science, geography, social studies (civics, world history, U.S. and PA history), mathematics (general math, algebra, geometry), art, music, physical education, health, and safety education including fire prevention.

Not every subject needs to be taught every single day, or even every year, as long as the subjects are adequately covered over the course of the elementary or secondary phase. Fire safety is an exception — it requires "regular and continuous instruction," which most evaluators interpret as at least one documented entry per year.

Requirement 3: Instructional Time (Year-Round)

You must provide a minimum of 180 days of instruction. Alternatively, you can track by hours:

• 900 hours per year at the elementary level (grades K–6)
• 990 hours per year at the secondary level (grades 7–12)

The law does not specify what counts as a "day" or require you to break down hours subject by subject. A 180-day attendance calendar or a log noting the total instructional days is the standard way to document this.

Requirement 4: The Contemporaneous Log (Year-Round)

This is where many families run into trouble. Pennsylvania law requires a "contemporaneous log" that designates reading materials by title. The log must be made at the time of instruction — not assembled retroactively at the end of the year.

What the log is not: a daily lesson plan, a minute-by-minute activity journal, or a record of every worksheet completed. It is essentially a running bibliography of what books, curricula, websites, and resources your child used during the year.

Organizing your log by subject makes it far easier to present to an evaluator. Keep a simple running list throughout the year and you'll avoid the February panic of trying to reconstruct six months of reading from memory.

Requirement 5: Work Samples (Year-Round, Compiled at Year End)

Your portfolio must contain samples of writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials produced by the student. Evaluators universally prefer three to five samples per required subject, drawn from the beginning, middle, and end of the academic year to demonstrate sustained progress.

The word "samples" is not "everything." Over-compliance — handing an evaluator a binder of 400 worksheets — actually works against you. It signals disorganization, creates precedents for future reviews, and occasionally triggers requests for additional explanation. Provide the minimum necessary evidence of progress, deliberately chosen.

Work samples can include physical worksheets, printed essays, photographs of projects, art pieces, science lab documentation, or digital files printed for inclusion.

Requirement 6: Standardized Testing (Grades 3, 5, and 8 Only)

Pennsylvania requires nationally normed standardized achievement tests in reading, language arts, and mathematics for students in grades 3, 5, and 8 only. Testing in other grades is not required.

Key rules:

• The parent or guardian cannot administer the test — a neutral third-party proctor is required
• Families may have their child take the state PSSA at the local public school, but most use alternative approved assessments
• Test scores are retained in the portfolio and are never submitted to the school district
• There is no minimum passing score required by law — the evaluator uses scores holistically as part of the overall portfolio review

Approved tests include the California Achievement Test (CAT), Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Stanford Achievement Test, MAP Growth, Terra Nova, Woodcock-Johnson (III and IV), WIAT-III, and several others maintained on the PDE's current list.

Requirement 7: Annual Evaluator Review (Due by June 30)

By June 30 of each year, the supervisor must obtain a written evaluation from a qualified evaluator and submit a certification letter to the school district superintendent.

Who qualifies as an evaluator?

• A licensed clinical or school psychologist
• A Pennsylvania-certified teacher with at least two years of experience teaching the required subjects at the appropriate level (elementary or secondary)
• A nonpublic school teacher or administrator with at least two years of Pennsylvania teaching experience within the past ten years

The evaluator cannot be the supervisor or the supervisor's spouse.

During the review, the evaluator will interview the student and review the portfolio. The certification letter they submit to the superintendent must explicitly state that, based on the interview and portfolio review, "an appropriate home education program is being conducted" and the student has demonstrated "sustained progress in the overall program."

This letter is the only document the district receives. Under Act 196 (passed in 2014), the district superintendent does not review your portfolio. Any district that demands to inspect your binder, test scores, or work samples directly is acting outside the law.

Evaluator fees are market-based and typically range from $50 to $200 depending on the evaluator's qualifications and whether they proctor standardized tests.

High School: Additional Requirements for Graduation

If you are supervising a student in grades 9–12, graduation from a Pennsylvania home education program carries additional requirements:

• Students must complete minimum credit equivalents: 4 years of English, 3 years of mathematics, 3 years of science, 3 years of social studies, and 2 years of arts/humanities
• The supervisor-issued diploma must be printed on PDE Form 6008 and signed by both the supervisor and the student's 12th-grade evaluator
• The PA Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) recognizes this supervisor-issued diploma for PA State Grant eligibility

Year-End Assembly Checklist

Before your evaluator visit, run through this final checklist:

• [ ] Contemporaneous reading log is up to date and organized by subject
• [ ] Attendance record (calendar or day count) shows 180 days or requisite hours
• [ ] 3–5 work samples are present for every legally mandated subject, from beginning, middle, and end of year
• [ ] Fire safety instruction is documented at least once
• [ ] Standardized test results are included (grades 3, 5, and 8 only)
• [ ] Student is prepared for the interview portion of the evaluation

Making Compliance Manageable

Pennsylvania's requirements are real, but they are navigable — especially when you have the right tools in place from the start of the year. The families who struggle most are those who try to reconstruct their documentation in late May, working backward across nine months of records they never organized in real time.

The Pennsylvania Homeschool Portfolio & Assessment Templates were built specifically to address this: fillable PDFs for your reading log, 180-day attendance grid, subject-organized work sample dividers, standardized test selection guide, and a high school transcript template that calculates GPAs automatically. Every form explicitly cites the statute it fulfills so that evaluators and superintendents can see exactly which legal requirement each document satisfies.

Starting your year with the right documentation infrastructure — not scrambling to create it in June — is the difference between a smooth evaluator visit and an anxious one.

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