Homeschooling in Pennsylvania – Mason Dixon Homeschoolers Association

From Affidavits to Evaluations:
7 Steps to Complying with the PA Home Education Law

These 7 Steps have been compiled using information found
in the MDHSA Law Guide. Please consult the guide for a more thorough understanding of the PA Home Education Law.

Step 1–Are you eligible to homeschool your children?
The PA Home Education Law, Act 169-1988 states that the parent supervisor of the homeschool must have a high school diploma or its equivalent. (NOTE: Even if requested, you do not have to submit a copy of your diploma or a high school transcript. The affidavit you file when commencing your home education program is deemed as evidence that you have a diploma.) Furthermore, a family may not homeschool if any person over the age of 18 living in the home has been convicted of certain criminal offenses (enumerated in Section 111(e) of the School Code) in the previous 5 years.

Step 2–Complete the paperwork.
The PA Home Education Law requires that when a child reaches compulsory attendance age (child turns 6 on or before September 1) OR when beginning to homeschool a child who had been enrolled in a public school kindergarten OR at the commencement of homeschooling an older child, AND thereafter on August 1 of each year, that a parent or guardian (“supervisor”) submit an affidavit and educational objectives to the local school superintendent.

File these items with your school district:

A notarized affidavit—a printable affidavit is available on our Free Printable Forms page. Sign the affidavit in the presence of a notary.

First time homeschoolers: Submit your affidavit BEFORE beginning to homeschool-any time of the year (See MDHSA Law Guide for withdrawing a student from school mid-year).
Continuing Homeschoolers—Submit to the school district by August 1. (Do NOT miss this deadline!)
Home educating families are only required to provide the name(s) of student(s), age(s), the address and phone number of the home education program, and the name of the supervisor of the home education program on the affidavit. If the school district requests that you provide information about birth dates, grades, Social Security numbers, or any other personal information, politely decline the request and refer them to the PA Home Education Law.

2. A list of objectives for each student—available on our Free Printable Forms page–to be attached to your affidavit. For a detailed explanation of required subjects and written objectives, click here.

Medical records may be filed with the school district or maintained by yourself or your medical provider:

Medical Requirements must be met. To see a medical requirements chart (services broken down by grade level) and for a sample medical exemption letter, please click here. To see a more detailed explanation on these matters, see the MDHSA Law Guide. (Specifically read the following sections of the guide: Filing with the School District, Medical Records and Health Services.)

Step 3–Start to homeschool!
According to the PA Home Education Law, the supervisor must “conduct school” either 180 days for all students OR 900 hours for elementary or 990 hours for secondary students.

If you choose days, there is no required number of hours to constitute a school day. You may “school” any of the 7 days of the week at any time of the day.
Continuing Homeschoolers: You may start July 1 or anytime thereafter IF you have filed your affidavit and objectives for the new school year.
First-time Homeschoolers: As soon as you turn in the paperwork from Step 2 above, you may start to homeschool. No approval is needed; simply begin.

Step 4–Locate an evaluator.
The law designates that at the end of the school year the supervisor must obtain an evaluation of a portfolio of materials from an Evaluator who must also interview the student, review the portfolio, and provide a written evaluation certifying that the student is receiving an appropriate education, defined as “sustained progress in the overall program for the required amount of time.”

One of the best ways to find an evaluator is to ask other homeschoolers about their evaluators. You can also find a listing of MDHSA Diploma Program evaluators here. Many of these also evaluate elementary students and high school students NOT in the MDHSA diploma program.
Call the evaluator EARLY—fall or early winter– to see if he/she has room on his/her schedule for you. Many fill up early. DO NOT WAIT until May or June to locate an evaluator.
Ask her/him how she/he does the evaluation and what the fee is. Almost all evaluators allow the parent to be with the student. If, rarely, one should not allow this, get another evaluator.
The evaluator is only required to determine if the student is making “sustained progress in the overall program.” If you want more from the evaluator, you should discuss that with your evaluator before the evaluation.
Call the evaluator again about February or March to schedule the appointment unless your evaluator made other arrangements with you.

Step 5–Create a Portfolio, required by law to be maintained and taken to an evaluator.
A portfolio can be a box, a loose-leaf notebook divided by subject area, a stack of individual folders, or whatever organizational method you choose that your student will bring with him/her to the evaluation. These items must be in the portfolio:

Samples: “of writings, worksheets, workbooks or creative materials used or developed by the student” as stated in the law. Sometimes students like to put pictures of activities, brochures of field trips or artwork in their portfolios and then keep them as a keep-sake album, but this is NOT required by law. The samples of the child’s work are to show “sustained progress in the overall educational program.” Putting in a sample of work from the beginning, middle, and end of the year for each subject will show sustained progress since the child will obviously be doing more difficult work as the year progresses. It is best to choose samples and put them in your child’s “portfolio” during the school year rather than wait until the end of the year to assemble it.
Log: Consisting of two parts.
1) Attendance Calendar Log to show that your child was “in school” for 180 days or 900/990 hours to show the evaluator. There are dated and undated attendance calendars/logs on our Free Printable Forms page you may use. You may also just write 1-180 on notebook paper and check off each number or use a calendar of your own.
2) Log “made contemporaneously with instruction which designates by title the reading materials used”. This log is simply a list of textbooks and every book used in homeschooling, including books your children read for “school” or “for fun” in bed at night or any other time. While it is easy to keep a notebook or paper on your fridge handy for jotting down any new books that you have added to your school, it is also prudent to keep a digital copy stored on the cloud as well so that you won’t have to try and recreate your booklist should the original be lost. (You may, but are not required to, include in this list other resources used such as videos, games, discussions, field trips, audio tapes.)
Achievement tests results: Achievement testing is required in 3rd,5th and 8th grades. See our Standardized Tests page for PDE approved achievement tests. Have your student(s) take the achievement test early enough to get the results back before the evaluation. Some evaluators start evaluating in April since some families have completed their school year by then.

Step 6–The Evaluation
As stated previously, the evaluator must interview the student, review the portfolio, and provide a written evaluation certifying that the student is receiving an appropriate education, defined as “sustained progress in the overall program for the required amount of time.”

Please meet with your evaluator early enough that he or she can type up the evaluation and get it to you in time to be received by the school district by June 30.
You must take your child AND the portfolio (samples, attendance log, book log, and, if applicable, achievement test results) to the evaluator.
The evaluation USUALLY takes about an hour, some are longer. A good evaluator will try to make you and your child feel comfortable.
The evaluator will look through the portfolio with your child and chat about your child’s year.
Many parents and students enjoy the evaluation and look forward to it. An evaluator usually tries to praise the child (and the parent!) for excellent work. Many evaluators will give suggestions if they feel the parent is receptive.
The evaluator must provide you an evaluation letter; some provide it the same day, others mail it to you later. Discuss how this is done before you go!
Some evaluators write long evaluations, some write short ones. This is between you and the evaluator.
If your student is in a PA diploma program or is getting a PA parent issued diploma, an evaluator will need to make sure the high school student is completing graduation requirements according to the homeschool law and/or the diploma program you are using.

Step 7–Submit the evaluation to the school district.
Evaluations MUST be submitted to the school district by June 30. DO NOT IGNORE THIS. If you turn in your evaluation late, YOU ARE OUT OF COMPLIANCE with the homeschool law. You could put your right to homeschool in jeopardy!

Submit a copy of only the evaluation (no portfolio) to the school district by June 30. Make a copy of the evaluation for the school district. DO NOT GIVE THEM THE ORIGINAL OR YOUR ONLY COPY! Keep a copy of your own in a safe place, especially if you have high school students.
If you take the evaluation to the school district, ask for it to be dated and signed by the person receiving it and a copy provided to you before you leave.
You may also mail it, return receipt requested, so that you have proof that the school district received it.
When you submit the evaluation to the school district, it is a good idea to include the affidavit and objectives for the next year; so that you are all set to start homeschooling again July 1 or whenever you are ready. This is especially helpful if your child will be doing educational activities over the summer (museum trips, visits to historical sites, music or sports camps, etc.) that you would like to count toward your school days.
If you do not turn in your affidavit and objectives with your evaluation, you must submit the affidavit and objectives by August 1. Once, again DO NOT MISS THIS DEADLINE or you will be out of compliance with the homeschool law.

If you have problems with your school district, contact MDHSA for help: office@masondixonhomeschoolers.org.

From Affidavits to Evaluations: 7 Steps to Complying with the PA Home Education Law

From Affidavits to Evaluations:
7 Steps to Complying with the PA Home Education Law