Pennsylvania Homeschool Record Keeping: Exactly What the Law Requires

Pennsylvania is one of the most documentation-intensive homeschooling states in the country. Families who move here from low-regulation states like New Jersey or Virginia are often genuinely shocked by the statutory paper trail the law requires. But there is good news buried in that complexity: the law specifies exactly what records you must keep, and experienced evaluators consistently advise that families who follow only the legal minimum fare better than those who over-document.

This guide breaks down every required record under 24 PA C.S. §13-1327.1, explains what counts and what does not, and gives you a practical system for building a compliant portfolio without burying yourself in paperwork.

The Three Core Documents Your Portfolio Must Contain

Pennsylvania's home education law defines the portfolio as having three distinct required elements. Everything else is optional — and adding unrequired documentation can actually work against you.

1. The Contemporaneous Log

The statute defines this precisely: a log, made contemporaneously with the instruction, which designates by title the reading materials used. Read that again carefully. The log is a bibliography, not a lesson plan.

What it must include: the titles of books, articles, and reading materials your child engaged with during instruction. That is it. The law does not require you to record the date each book was read, the number of pages covered, or how long the reading session lasted. It does not require lesson objectives, learning outcomes, or comprehension notes.

What it does not require: a daily schedule, a timed breakdown of instructional hours, or documentation of specific activities. Many parents confuse the contemporaneous log with a lesson planner and spend hundreds of hours recording granular daily tasks that the law never asked for.

The "contemporaneous" requirement means the log should be built as you go, not assembled retroactively at the end of the year. In practice, a simple running list of book titles, added weekly or even monthly, satisfies this requirement. Evaluators do not verify the exact date each entry was made.

2. Work Samples

The portfolio must contain "samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials used or developed by the student." The key word is samples — not a complete archive.

Experienced evaluators across Pennsylvania have consistently stated they look for three to five samples per required subject, drawn from three points in the year: early fall, mid-year, and late spring. This progression demonstrates that learning occurred and that progress was sustained.

Subjects with required documentation include everything on the statutory subject list: English (reading, writing, spelling), math, science, geography, history (U.S. and Pennsylvania), civics, health, physical education, safety education (including fire prevention), music, and art. At the secondary level, the list expands to include English composition and literature, social studies, algebra, geometry, and others.

Creative and hands-on learning counts. A photograph of a science project, a map your child drew, an essay, a completed worksheet — all satisfy the "samples" requirement. The statute does not specify a particular format. What the evaluator is assessing is whether the samples collectively tell a coherent story of learning across each required subject area.

3. Standardized Test Results (Grades 3, 5, and 8 Only)

If your child is in grades 3, 5, or 8, the portfolio must include results from a nationally normed standardized achievement test in reading, language arts, and mathematics. The test must be administered by a neutral third party — a parent cannot proctor their own child's test.

Pennsylvania does not require these tests in any other grades. Families of students in grades K–2, 4, 6–7, 9–12 have no testing obligation whatsoever.

There is no minimum acceptable score. The law does not define a score threshold that triggers a compliance challenge. The evaluator reviews the scores as part of the overall portfolio context. More importantly, test scores are never submitted to the school district. The district receives only the evaluator's certification letter. Your child's scores remain in your private portfolio.

The Attendance Record: 180 Days or Hours

Pennsylvania requires a minimum of 180 days of instruction, or alternatively, 900 hours at the elementary level (grades K–6) or 990 hours at the secondary level (grades 7–12). You must maintain a record demonstrating one or the other.

The simplest method is a calendar-based attendance record: a monthly grid where you mark each instructional day. A marked 180-day calendar is immediately legible to an evaluator and takes seconds to verify. You do not need to record what was taught each day — only that instruction occurred.

If you prefer to track by hours, you will need to log daily instructional time. This is more granular and time-consuming to maintain, but it offers more flexibility if your schedule is irregular. A child who homeschools year-round with shorter daily sessions may hit 900 hours well before the calendar year ends.

One important clarification: the law does not define a minimum length for an instructional day. Districts sometimes demand daily timetables or hourly breakdowns per subject, but this is not a legal requirement. Your attendance record only needs to confirm that instruction happened, not how long each subject lasted.

What You Do Not Have to Keep

Understanding what the law does not require is as valuable as knowing what it does. Pennsylvania superintendents and district administrators sometimes request documentation the law never authorized. Knowing your rights protects you.

You do not have to provide:

• A copy of your curriculum
• Lesson plans or daily learning objectives
• Your high school diploma (to prove your own qualification to homeschool)
• Your child's birth certificate
• Medical records beyond the immunization and health services documentation already submitted with your affidavit
• Raw test scores or any portion of the portfolio to the school district directly

Since Act 196 of 2014, the school district superintendent is not permitted to review your portfolio. The portfolio goes only to your private evaluator. The superintendent receives a brief certification letter from that evaluator. If a district demands to inspect your portfolio, lesson plans, or test scores, that demand is unauthorized.

Organizing the Portfolio: Subject-Based Structure

The most evaluator-friendly portfolio organization is by subject, not chronologically. An evaluator who needs to verify that fire safety instruction occurred should be able to open a labeled tab and find it immediately — not search through a chronological stack of papers hoping it surfaces somewhere.

A practical binder structure looks like this:

• Tab 1: Affidavit and Educational Objectives — Your notarized affidavit or unsworn declaration, filed with the district at the start of the year.
• Tab 2: Attendance Record — Your 180-day calendar or hours log.
• Tab 3: Contemporaneous Reading Log — Running list of book and resource titles.
• Tab 4: English — Writing samples, reading response entries, spelling work.
• Tab 5: Mathematics — Worksheets, problem sets, or project-based math samples.
• Tab 6: Science — Lab notes, project photos, nature journal pages.
• Tab 7: Social Studies — History, geography, civics samples.
• Tab 8: Health and Safety — Fire safety documentation, health education samples.
• Tab 9: Arts — Music and visual art samples or photos.
• Tab 10: Physical Education — Brief documentation (activity log, participation notes).
• Tab 11: Standardized Testing — Test results if applicable (grades 3, 5, 8 only).

Each subject tab needs only three to five samples, clearly representing beginning, middle, and end of year. The entire compliant portfolio for one year typically fits in a single 1.5-inch binder.

Digital Record Keeping Options

Many Pennsylvania families now maintain portfolios digitally using Google Drive, Seesaw, or dedicated portfolio apps. Digital organization works well for evaluators who are comfortable reviewing folders on a laptop or tablet. The advantage is that photos of hands-on learning, art projects, and science experiments are easy to incorporate without printing.

If you use digital tools, organize your folders to mirror the subject-based binder structure described above. Export a final PDF or print a physical copy before your evaluator visit, since not all evaluators work from screens.

Common Record-Keeping Mistakes

Over-documenting: The most frequent mistake PA homeschoolers make is keeping every worksheet, every test, every daily note — then including it all in the portfolio. A binder with 400 pages of daily work doesn't demonstrate more educational quality; it signals to an evaluator that you don't understand what the law actually requires, and it makes their review far more time-consuming.

Under-documenting fire safety: This is the most commonly missed subject. The statute requires "regular and continuous" instruction in fire prevention. Evaluators universally interpret this as requiring at least one documented entry per year. A worksheet on fire escape planning, a note about a fire safety discussion, or a visit to a fire station all satisfy this. Make sure it's in the portfolio every year.

Missing reading log entries: Parents who fall behind on the contemporaneous log mid-year face real scrambling in May. The easiest fix is a running Google Doc or a simple notebook where you add book titles as they come up — weekly, never more than a month at a time.

Building a Portfolio That Passes Every Year

Pennsylvania's annual evaluation deadline is June 30. Building records consistently throughout the year is far less stressful than assembling a portfolio in a May panic. The families who find the process easiest are those who spend five minutes at the end of each week: add book titles to the reading log, photograph a piece of student work, and mark the attendance calendar.

By May, those families already have a complete portfolio. They spend evaluation day presenting an organized, confident record of a year well spent — not apologizing for missing documentation.

Our Pennsylvania Portfolio and Assessment Templates include a structured 180-day attendance grid, a fillable contemporaneous reading log, subject-divided work sample pages, and a portfolio assembly checklist aligned to 24 PA C.S. §13-1327.1. Every form is designed to keep you at the legal minimum — protecting your privacy while ensuring your evaluator can certify your program quickly and without friction.

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