Pennsylvania Homeschool Laws: What the Statute Actually Requires in 2026

Pennsylvania homeschool families operate under one of the most detailed sets of statutory requirements in the country. The law is specific, the compliance cycle is annual, and the consequences of misunderstanding it — truancy charges, loss of homeschool rights for 12 months — are serious enough that getting it right matters. What frustrates most families is not the law itself but the gap between what it says and what school district administrators claim it says. Understanding the actual statute gives you the clarity to push back on illegal demands with confidence.

The Governing Statute: 24 PA C.S. §13-1327.1

Pennsylvania's primary homeschool law is the Home Education Program statute, codified at 24 PA C.S. §13-1327.1. It was substantially revised by Act 196 of 2014 — a change that eliminated the old requirement to submit the entire portfolio to the school district superintendent. Understanding what the law looked like before 2014 explains most of the compliance disputes families encounter today: many district administrators still operate on the pre-2014 model and make demands the current law does not support.

To legally operate under this statute, the supervisor — defined as the parent, guardian, or legal custodian — must hold a high school diploma or its equivalent. This is the only credential requirement for parents who want to homeschool.

The Annual Compliance Cycle

Pennsylvania homeschool law runs on a rigid annual calendar with specific deadlines.

By August 1 each year: File a notarized affidavit (or an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury) with the superintendent of your local school district. This must be done before you begin a new program year and annually thereafter. The affidavit must include:

• The supervisor's name and the student's name and age
• The address and phone number of the home education site
• A statement that instruction will occur in English
• An outline of proposed educational objectives by subject area
• Evidence of current immunizations or a valid exemption (medical, religious, or philosophical)
• Evidence that required health screenings (vision, hearing) have been completed
• A certification that no adult in the home has been convicted of certain criminal offenses within the past five years

One point the statute makes explicit: the educational objectives outline "shall not be utilized by the superintendent in determining if the home education program is out of compliance." The superintendent cannot reject your affidavit because they disagree with your curriculum choices. The objectives are a bureaucratic formality, not a binding curriculum contract.

By June 30 each year: Submit the evaluator's certification letter to the superintendent. This is the only end-of-year document that goes to the district.

Required Instructional Time

Pennsylvania law sets a minimum of 180 days of instruction per year. Families who prefer to track by hours must provide:

• 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 dictate when those days or hours occur, what a school day must look like, or how long any given session must be. District administrators who demand daily timetables, hourly breakdowns, or a schedule that mirrors the public school day are requesting documentation that Pennsylvania law does not require.

Required Subjects

Pennsylvania's mandatory subject list is among the most extensive in the United States, effectively covering the breadth of a traditional public school curriculum:

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, and composition), science, geography, social studies (civics, world history, U.S. and Pennsylvania history), mathematics (general mathematics, algebra, and geometry), art, music, physical education, health, and safety education including regular and continuous instruction in fire prevention.

Fire safety carries a special notation — "regular and continuous instruction" — that evaluators uniformly interpret as requiring at least one documented entry per year. This is the one area where the statute creates a recurring annual obligation rather than a phase-level one. A single lesson, worksheet, or documented home fire drill satisfies this requirement; the documentation simply must exist.

Pennsylvania law does not require every subject to be taught every single day. The Pennsylvania Department of Education's established interpretation is that, over the course of a phase (K-6 or 7-12), all subjects must be adequately covered. This gives families flexibility in structuring unit studies, seasonal curricula, and project-based learning without triggering compliance violations.

The Portfolio Requirements

The portfolio is the documentary record of the home education program. It must contain three elements:

1. A contemporaneous log. The log must be created at the time of instruction (contemporaneously) and must list, by title, the reading materials used. It is a bibliography of educational resources — books, curricula, workbooks — not a daily journal or lesson plan record. The law specifies the format: title-based. Nothing else is required.

2. Work samples. The portfolio must include "samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks or creative materials used or developed by the student." Evaluators typically look for three to five samples per required subject, drawn from the beginning, middle, and end of the academic year, to demonstrate progress over time. The statute says "samples," not an exhaustive archive.

3. Standardized test results (grades 3, 5, and 8 only). In these three testing years, the portfolio must include results from a nationally normed standardized achievement test in reading, language arts, and mathematics. The parent cannot administer the test; a neutral third party must proctor it. Test scores stay in the private portfolio — they are never submitted to the school district.

Pennsylvania's approved tests include the California Achievement Test (CAT), Iowa Test of Basic Skills, Stanford Achievement Test, Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement, MAP Growth, and several others on the PDE's current approved list.

The Evaluator: The Gatekeeper Who Actually Matters

Since Act 196 of 2014, the private evaluator — not the school district — is the entity with authority over your portfolio. By June 30, the evaluator must issue a certification letter to the superintendent stating that "an appropriate home education program is being conducted" and the student has made "sustained progress in the overall program." That letter is the only thing submitted to the district. The district has no right to see the portfolio, the work samples, or the test scores.

Evaluators must meet statutory qualifications: they must be a licensed clinical or school psychologist, a Pennsylvania-certified teacher with at least two years of teaching experience in the relevant grade band, or a nonpublic school teacher or administrator with at least two years of Pennsylvania teaching experience in the past ten years. The evaluator cannot be the supervisor or the supervisor's spouse.

Evaluator fees operate in a free market, typically ranging from $50 to $200. Finding an evaluator whose educational philosophy aligns with your approach matters. Evaluators known for working with unschoolers, secular families, or neurodivergent students exist in every region of Pennsylvania — parent networks and homeschool co-ops are the best source of referrals.

What Districts Can and Cannot Demand

This is where most compliance disputes originate. The post-2014 law is clear:

Districts can legitimately: Accept or acknowledge the notarized affidavit, verify that required health documentation is included, and receive the evaluator's certification letter by June 30.

Districts cannot legally demand: Your child's test scores, the physical portfolio or any of its contents, your high school diploma, your child's birth certificate, a district-approved evaluator list, or documentation of how many hours you taught each day. Demands for these documents are unlawful. A 72% increase in Pennsylvania homeschool enrollment since 2019-2020 means district offices are processing far more affidavits than they ever did before, and administrative overreach in high-enrollment suburbs like Philadelphia's collar counties is well-documented.

When a district makes an unlawful demand, Pennsylvania law provides a process: the district must send any formal compliance challenge via certified mail, giving the supervisor 30 days to submit the evaluator's certification. If documentation remains contested, the matter goes to an impartial hearing examiner — who cannot be an employee of the local district.

The Private Tutor Alternative

Pennsylvania offers a second pathway under 24 P.S. §13-1327. If the supervisor holds a valid Pennsylvania teaching certificate, they can operate as a "properly qualified private tutor." This eliminates the notarized affidavit, the mandatory evaluator review, and the standardized testing requirement in grades 3, 5, and 8. Instead, the tutor files their PA certification and a criminal history record (PDE-6004) with the superintendent.

The 180-day or 900/990-hour instruction requirement still applies, as do the mandatory subjects. But the oversight burden is substantially reduced. For families where a parent holds a PA teaching certificate, this pathway is worth considering.

High School, Diplomas, and Post-Secondary Access

Act 196 of 2014 established that the supervisor of a Pennsylvania home education program can issue a state-recognized high school diploma directly. The diploma must be printed on a standardized PDE form (PDE-6008) and signed by both the supervisor and the student's 12th-grade evaluator. Pennsylvania's Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) recognizes this supervisor-issued diploma for PA State Grant and scholarship eligibility.

Pennsylvania law also guarantees homeschooled students access to public school resources. Act 59 of 2005 requires districts to allow homeschooled students to participate in interscholastic athletics and extracurricular activities. Act 55 of 2022 expanded this to include co-curricular activities, academic courses (up to 25% of the school day), and Career and Technical Education programs.

For parents managing the portfolio requirements and preparing for high school transitions, the Pennsylvania Portfolio & Assessment Templates provide pre-structured forms built specifically around 24 PA C.S. §13-1327.1 — contemporaneous logs, 180-day attendance calendars, grade-banded work sample frameworks, and transcript templates designed to the graduation credit requirements Pennsylvania law establishes for grades 9-12.

The 72% Enrollment Increase and What It Means

Pennsylvania now has over 44,000 students enrolled in home education programs — a 72% increase from the 2019-2020 school year. That growth has made this regulatory environment more visible, more politically active, and more contested. It has also produced a larger base of experienced homeschool parents, active co-ops, and community resources across every region of the state. The practical result for new families: you are not navigating this alone, and the statutory clarity that Act 196 of 2014 established remains firmly in place.

See more United States homeschool guides →