Pennsylvania Homeschool Portfolio Template: What PA Law Actually Requires

Every June, Pennsylvania homeschool families scramble to build a binder that will satisfy a private evaluator — and many of them hand over far more than the law demands. The instinct to over-document is understandable. Pennsylvania is classified as a high-regulation state, and the consequences of a failed evaluation (losing the right to homeschool for 12 months) feel severe. But Pennsylvania law is actually precise about what goes in the portfolio. Once you know the statute, you can build a clean, evaluator-ready binder in a fraction of the time most families spend.

What 24 PA C.S. §13-1327.1 Actually Requires in the Portfolio

The Pennsylvania Home Education Program law — sometimes called Act 169 or, after the 2014 revisions, Act 196 — specifies exactly three categories of documentation that must be in the portfolio:

1. A contemporaneous log. This is the most misunderstood element of the whole system. The log must be "made contemporaneously with the instruction" and must "designate by title the reading materials used." That's it. It is a running bibliography of books, workbooks, and educational resources your child used — not a daily lesson planner, not a minute-by-minute time log, not a narrative of what happened each day. If your child read The Cricket in Times Square for reading and worked through Saxon Math 5/4, those go in the log with their titles. The law does not require you to record when, for how long, or in what sequence.

2. Samples of work. The statute requires "samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks or creative materials used or developed by the student." The word "samples" is deliberate. Experienced evaluators typically want three to five samples per required subject — one from the beginning of the year, one from the middle, and one from the end — to demonstrate sustained progress over time. Submitting 400 worksheets does not make your portfolio stronger; it makes the evaluator's job harder and creates a paper trail that exceeds what Pennsylvania law requires.

3. Standardized test results (grades 3, 5, and 8 only). If your child is in one of these three testing grades, the portfolio must include results from a nationally normed standardized achievement test in reading, language arts, and mathematics. This is the only year-specific documentation requirement. Outside of grades 3, 5, and 8, no test scores belong in the portfolio.

The Attendance Record: 180 Days or Hours

Pennsylvania law gives families two options for tracking instructional time: 180 days, or hours — 900 per year at the elementary level (grades K-6) and 990 hours at the secondary level (grades 7-12). The contemporaneous log and work samples demonstrate what was learned; the attendance record demonstrates that the required time occurred.

The most evaluator-friendly format is a simple calendar grid with boxes checked or initialed for each instructional day. It does not need to include the subject taught, the time of day, or the duration of each session. A one-page academic calendar with 180 days marked is sufficient. Some evaluators also accept a written statement from the supervisor attesting that 180 days of instruction occurred.

Required Subjects: The Full Statutory List

Your work samples must cover the legally required subjects. Pennsylvania's subject list is one of the most exhaustive in the country:

Elementary (grades K-6): English (spelling, reading, writing), arithmetic, science, geography, history of the United States and Pennsylvania, civics, safety education (including 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.

One requirement that catches families off guard: fire safety must be covered with "regular and continuous instruction," which evaluators universally interpret as requiring at least one documented entry per year. A single worksheet, a home fire escape plan diagram, or a journaled field trip to a fire station satisfies this requirement — but it must appear in the portfolio.

Pennsylvania law does not require every subject to be taught every single day or every year within a phase, with the exception of fire safety. Over the course of the elementary phase (K-6) or secondary phase (7-12), all subjects should be adequately covered. This gives curriculum flexibility without creating annual compliance traps.

Organizing the Portfolio by Subject, Not by Date

When evaluators describe their preferences, one theme is consistent: organize by subject, not chronologically. A binder with tabs for English, Math, Science, Social Studies, History, Art, Music, Health, Physical Education, and Safety Education lets the evaluator verify each statutory subject quickly. A chronological pile of papers — even if complete — forces the evaluator to do the compliance mapping for you, which creates friction and the impression of disorganization.

For each subject tab, include:

• The relevant entries from your contemporaneous log (book titles and resource names)
• Three to five work samples showing beginning, middle, and end of year
• Any photographs of hands-on projects, field trips, or experiments that document the subject (especially useful for music, art, physical education, and science labs)

What the Evaluator Review Actually Looks Like

Since the 2014 Act 196 changes, the evaluator — not the school district superintendent — is the gatekeeper for Pennsylvania homeschool compliance. The evaluator must meet statutory qualifications: they must be a licensed clinical or school psychologist, a Pennsylvania-certified teacher with at least two years of experience, or a nonpublic school teacher or administrator with at least two years of Pennsylvania teaching experience in the past ten years.

The evaluator conducts an interview with your child and reviews the portfolio. Based on this review, they issue a brief 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 — not the portfolio itself — is what gets submitted to the district by June 30. Your evaluator fees will typically run between $50 and $200 depending on whether they include test proctoring, narrative reporting, or extended consultation.

Critically: the superintendent does not have the right to inspect your portfolio, review your work samples, or demand your child's test scores. If a district administrator makes those requests, they are operating outside the authority granted by Pennsylvania law.

The Most Common Template Mistakes

Tracking too much. Generic homeschool planning apps and national templates often include daily lesson logs, hour-by-hour schedules, and detailed subject breakdowns. Pennsylvania law doesn't require any of that. Using an overly detailed template means you're doing extra work and potentially giving evaluators or district administrators more than they're entitled to see.

Missing required subjects. A template designed for another state or for a generic national audience won't prompt you to document fire safety, Pennsylvania history, or civics as distinct subjects. Pennsylvania-specific templates map directly to 24 PA C.S. §13-1327.1.

Wrong contemporaneous log format. Many families keep detailed daily journals rather than the title-based reading log the statute describes. The log is a bibliography — books, curricula, and materials by name — not a narrative diary.

No structure for standardized testing years. Parents of third, fifth, and eighth graders often realize in April that they need to arrange a neutral third-party proctor for their standardized test. The parent cannot administer the test themselves. Building a testing plan section into your portfolio template for these years prevents last-minute scrambles.

If you want templates built specifically around these statutory requirements — pre-formatted contemporaneous logs, 180-day attendance calendars, subject-tabbed portfolio dividers, and grade-banded work sample frameworks — the Pennsylvania Portfolio & Assessment Templates provide everything structured to the exact requirements of Act 169.

A Note on the Private Tutor Pathway

Pennsylvania offers a second legal pathway: the Private Tutor statute (§13-1327). If the supervisor holds a valid Pennsylvania teaching certificate, this pathway eliminates the affidavit requirement, the evaluator review, and the grade 3/5/8 testing mandate. Families on this pathway still must cover the required subjects and provide 180 days or 900/990 hours of instruction, but they report directly to the district using the tutor certification and criminal history record (PDE-6004) — no portfolio assembly required.

For the vast majority of Pennsylvania homeschool families who do not hold a PA teaching certificate, the Home Education Program pathway and the portfolio it requires are the standard route. Building a clean, statute-aligned portfolio is the annual task — and with the right template structure, it should take hours, not weeks.

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