Welcome back! I hope that my recent posts have helped you in some way or were useful for you to guide new homeschool families or those who just don’t understand Pennsylvania’s home education law. Remember that if you are a returning home educating family in PA you need to have your notarized affidavit and generic academic objectives submitted by AUGUST 1st. That’s coming up. Your affidavit can contain all the names and ages of your children that you are opting to home educate. You will however need an objectives list for each, unless this is contained into your affidavit (I’ve seen this before, but it’s now how I do it, I send an attachment). Also note that many families are opting for the unsworn declaration in lieu of the notarized affidavit. I have examples of both of these forms here. If you are new to home educating in this state, you’ve come to the right place. Please have a look around my blog, but start with reading the actual law text. Then read my articles if you want more information or tips/advice. My blog is a work in progress. I’m always trying to make things easier for you to find what you are looking for. I provide a lot of resources for you and this information is all for free. Remember I’m not a lawyer, I’m a home educating parent just like you. This is my 7th year. I have just graduated my first teenager and I have one teenager to go. Homeschooling high school is not hard. It’s actually not different than the elementary years. In fact, I find it easier. I think I’ve enjoyed home educating more than my children…as in, I have enjoyed everything I’ve learned from their curriculum, and what I learned about my own children and finding ways to make learning fun.
As promised, this article is about the process of making a transcript and sending one off to college for your home educated teen. Making the transcript isn’t hard, I promise you, it is not. You don’t need to pay for a transcript service. You can make a professional looking transcript all on your own. I have provided you with an example in my FREE FORMS page. I put that printable form into a word document format to be easily edited by you, but you will want to export and save your final document into a PDF when you’re ready to send it to a college. I will explain the steps in more detail. The image to your right is exactly what I use for my children and what I sent to college for my graduated teenager. To be honest with you, I wasn’t worried about what was on the transcript or how it was presented, it was only nerve racking because it was a homeschooled transcript, and I wasn’t sure how it would be received. I need to point out that my graduated teen applied to community college which is generally an easier process to begin with. He went this route to save money on his general education classes as opposed to starting out in a 4 year university. He had other choices in his list of colleges. Whatever college your teen is interested in you should look at their admission’s process. If they don’t have it on their website (most do), call and ask.
Now that my oldest is officially graduated from the home education program, I sent off my evaluation letters for both of my children and my notarized affidavit and objectives for my remaining child for the 2023-2024 school year. You will see to the left what the notarization should contain at the bottom of your affidavit. As I explained previously, I opted to go ahead and pay for notarization instead of using the unsworn declaration that many homeschool parents are opting to use this year based on a change in the PA State Laws by the former governor. The Home School Legal Defense group has sent out a statement saying that it is acceptable to fulfill the home education law. I feel like I am better protected by following the home education law as it explicitly states, “the affidavit shall be satisfactory evidence thereof”.
To the right you will see what you MUST add to your unsworn declaration in order for it to be valid. For your consideration, when I went to the notary yesterday, she told me she’s been getting a lot of these affidavits, which means there are many in my district at least that are opting for notarization.
Before I begin, I need to say, I’m not a lawyer. I’m a mom who has been home educating her children since 2017. I’m a mom who has spent a lot of time researching, many things, but today is about the home education law and the PA school code. This needs to be said because many are providing bad advice or incorrect information. It’s your job to inform yourself. I want to help point you in the right direction so I’m going to share, piece by piece, everything I found, and then you get to make an informed decision. I will have some very strong opinions on this topic, remember, I am not a lawyer and not offering any legal advice. I know for a fact that school districts across the state of Pennsylvania have been using bully tactics to scare un-informed parents into submission to supply them with things they are not entitled to have. Up to now, my school district, generally, was not one of them. This year, it changed. I want you to inform yourself of all the law that will be used against you so that you can take a stand knowing you have all the information and knowledge forcing them to show you what they think you don’t know. Do not rely on the Home School Legal Defense organization to come to your aid. They likely will not. They have been disappointing many parents for several years, myself included. It’s not difficult to understand the law texts if you read them like this, it says what it means and means what it says. But, like reading the Bible, people attempt to make their own interpretations to suit their agenda. What’s difficult is finding the ones that matter to your issue. I’m talking all of them and looking at them in conjunction with each other when they cross-reference one another. I’ve done the work and I want to show you and provide you with information to help you be informed and un-afraid. I can’t say anything I will point out to you will help you in your argument. I’m going to face it this year myself. But I’m informed, and I have a plan and I’m not going to be bullied or made afraid. I will take it a step at time, as informed and calmly as possible. I don’t recommend communicating with your school district unless/until they have sent you a certified letter. The law affords you that right. I’ll get to that. That being said, I could not let this go any longer. I will quote the laws, provide links and provide my commentary on what they say. Then you will read the laws, in full context and form your own opinion to make an informed decision on how to proceed now or in the future. Remember this only pertains to Pennsylvania.
If you haven’t checked out this entire blog, I wanted to direct you to a few resources contained here. I have a link to free forms that you can, and should use for your homeschool record keeping. You can take a look and use them or get an idea of how to create your own. I have not only renamed this area but I have updated all the forms I created. There you can find a free transcript, affidavit, evaluation letters, reading materials log, an attendance record (not required), and a simple report card if you choose to use one (if I use one it’s sole purpose is for keeping a record in their academic record). I have also included forms from other places (of which many I can’t recall from where or I’d link the source) for your generic objectives that are required to be included with your affidavit and alternate affidavit, as well as the PDE diploma and immunization record (if you wish to use it). Your 12th grade evaluator needs to sign the PDE diploma. The Pennsylvania Department of Education has approved this diploma to be the “acceptable” parent-issued diploma. My suggestion is to print it, get it signed and in the event a college or some other entity requires a copy of their diploma you’ll have it. This does not mean you can’t make and issue your own and provide your graduate with that one for them to keep, but they should keep the PDE one as well.
Below are screenshots of some of the items mentioned. Visit the Free Forms page to download them.
Below is what the home education law states about the diploma:
(d.1) (1) Notwithstanding any provision of this act or any other law or regulation to the contrary, a high school diploma awarded by a supervisor or an approved diploma-granting organization shall be considered as having all the rights and privileges afforded by the Commonwealth, a Commonwealth agency, including, but not limited to, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, a political subdivision, a local agency and an authority or instrumentality of the Commonwealth or a political subdivision to a high school diploma awarded under this act, subject to subparagraphs (i) and (ii): (i) In the case of a diploma awarded by a supervisor the following shall apply: (A) The student receiving the diploma shall have completed all the requirements in subsection (d) while enrolled in a home education program that is in compliance with this section. (B) The diploma shall be awarded to the student on a standardized form to be developed by the department and which shall be made available on the department’s publicly accessible Internet website. (C) The diploma shall be signed by the student’s twelfth grade evaluator in confirmation of the student’s suitability for graduation. (ii) In the case of a diploma awarded by an approved diploma granting organization the following shall apply: (A) The student receiving the diploma shall have completed all the requirements in subsection (d) while enrolled in a home education program that is in compliance with this section. (B) The diploma shall be awarded to the student on a standardized form to be developed by the organization. (2) The department shall establish eligibility criteria and an application process for approving diploma-granting organizations to award high school diplomas to students enrolled in home education programs. The department shall maintain a list of approved diploma-granting organizations and post the list on the department’s publicly accessible Internet website.
You can do a search on topics such as curriculum, transcripts, reviews, portfolio, etc and find articles I’ve written since I began the blog in 2017. Please always make sure to follow the latest article for the most up to date information. There is a drop down list for you to select months/years of articles made as well as a tag block for you to click directly onto the topic of interest. Keep in mind that the blog may look different on different devices. You can always view the blog on your browser in desktop mode. I will be working on making the blog easier to navigate so keep an eye out for those changes. I plan to keep the blog current for as long as I have a child that I am homeschooling in the state of Pennsylvania. After that time remains to be seen. Rest assured though that I still have one remaining teenager with 2 more years highschool to go, so updates will continue, Lord willing. Everything I offer here is free to use, however as I am the content creator of the articles, I do retain the copyright to the articles I post. Please do share with others anything you find helpful but always supply the link to this blog. I receive no compensation for the information I have shared. My blog is only to help others navigate home education in the state of PA and perhaps my reviews can be helpful for anyone. Please do check out the other resources I have supplied for you in the Resources section of this blog.
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