Homeschool Requirements in Pennsylvania: Affidavit, Portfolio, Evaluator

Pennsylvania needs a notarized affidavit filed with your school district by August 1, a portfolio kept across the year, standardized testing in grades 3, 5 and 8, and a certified evaluator’s written certification submitted by June 30. Elementary students need 180 days or 900 hours, secondary students 990 hours. The single most misunderstood part: you do not send the portfolio to the district. You send one page from an evaluator saying an appropriate education is occurring. The portfolio is for the evaluator, not the superintendent.

Checked against 24 P.S. § 13-1327.1 (the Home Education Program section of the Pennsylvania Public School Code) and Pennsylvania Department of Education guidance as at 18 August 2026. Districts administer this, and some ask for more than the statute requires. What the statute says is what you owe.

Pennsylvania at a glance

What you actually file, and when

Pennsylvania has exactly two filing dates a year. Everything else is record-keeping you hold yourself.

1. August 1: the affidavit. A notarized affidavit, or an unsworn declaration, filed with the superintendent of your school district of residence. Due before you begin a home education program for the first time, and annually thereafter by August 1.
2. June 30: the evaluator’s certification. A written certification from a qualified evaluator stating that an appropriate education is occurring, provided by you to the superintendent.

That is the whole reporting obligation. No quarterly reports, no monthly check-ins, no attendance filings. Pennsylvania front-loads the paperwork into one August document and one June document, and leaves the middle of the year alone. Compared with New York’s five deadlines, it is a lighter calendar and a heavier annual review.

What goes in the affidavit

• the name, address and telephone number of the supervisor of the home education program,
• the name and age of each child in the program,
• an outline of proposed educational objectives by subject area,
• evidence of immunization, or a medical, religious or philosophical exemption, and evidence of the health and medical services required for the child’s age or grade,
• a certification that the program will comply with 24 P.S. § 13-1327.1,
• a certification that the supervisor, all adults living in the home, and any persons having legal custody have not been convicted of certain criminal offenses within the past five years.

The objectives outline is the part people agonize over and it is the part that matters least. It is a short statement per subject of what you intend to cover. It is not a curriculum, it is not binding in the way a New York IHIP is, and no one grades it. Keep it to a page.

The supervisor requirement, and who it excludes

The program must be supervised by a parent, guardian or person having legal custody who holds a high school diploma or its equivalent. That is the only credential Pennsylvania asks for, and it is a real bar in a way most states’ rules are not: a parent without a diploma or GED cannot supervise a home education program under this section and needs a different legal route, such as a private tutor arrangement or an approved umbrella program.

The supervisor does not have to be the person doing all the teaching. Co-ops, tutors, online classes and another parent can all deliver instruction. The supervisor is the person legally responsible for the program.

Subjects and hours

Elementary: a minimum of 180 days of instruction, or 900 hours, in the school year. Note the “or”: Pennsylvania lets you satisfy the requirement either way, so a family running longer days across fewer weeks and a family running a conventional 180-day calendar are both compliant. Required subjects at the elementary level are English (including spelling, reading and writing), arithmetic, science, geography, history of the United States and Pennsylvania, civics, safety education, health and physiology, physical education, music and art.

Secondary: 990 hours in the school year. Required subjects are English, science, geography, social studies, mathematics, art, music, physical education, health and safety education, with economics, biology, chemistry, foreign languages and trigonometry among the subjects that may be included.

For a student working toward a home education diploma, the statute also sets cumulative graduation requirements: four years of English, three of mathematics, three of science, three of social studies, and two of arts and humanities. That is a four-year plan, not a single-year one, and it is worth writing down in grade 9 rather than reconstructing it in grade 12.

The portfolio: what it contains and who sees it

This is the section that causes the most unnecessary anxiety in Pennsylvania, so take the structure literally. The portfolio must contain:

• a log, which designates by title the reading materials used,
• samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks or creative materials used or developed by the student,
• standardized test results for grades 3, 5 and 8.

And then the part that changes how you should think about all of it: the portfolio goes to your evaluator, not to the school district. What the superintendent receives is the evaluator’s certification. Districts occasionally ask for the portfolio anyway. The statute does not require you to hand it over, and a polite reference to the certification requirement usually settles it.

Practically, that means the portfolio’s audience is one person who has agreed to review it and who you have chosen. Build it for readability, not for volume. A reading log kept weekly, a folder of dated samples per subject with perhaps a dozen pieces each, and the test results is a complete portfolio. Three binders of every worksheet the child ever completed is not a better portfolio, it is a worse one, because the evaluator has to find the evidence inside it.

Standardized testing in grades 3, 5 and 8

Testing is required in three years only: grades 3, 5 and 8, in reading/language arts and mathematics. Not annually, and not in high school.

You may use the statewide PSSA assessments or one of the nationally normed standardized tests on the Department of Education’s approved list, which includes the California Achievement Test, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the Stanford Achievement Test and others. There is one hard constraint worth planning around: the test may not be administered by the child’s parent or guardian. You need a qualified test administrator, which in practice means a co-op, a testing service, a certified teacher or an online proctored option. Arrange this in the fall of a testing year, not the spring, because administrators book out.

There is no minimum score in the statute. The results go in the portfolio and inform the evaluator’s judgment. Pennsylvania does not have a percentile threshold of the kind New York applies.

The evaluator: the most important decision you make

Pennsylvania is unusual in outsourcing the annual judgment to a private individual you select and pay. The evaluator must be one of:

• a licensed clinical or school psychologist,
• a teacher certified by the Commonwealth, with at least two years of experience grading in the relevant subject areas,
• a nonpublic school teacher or administrator, with the same two years of grading experience.

The evaluator must be an independent third party. A parent who happens to be a certified teacher cannot evaluate their own child.

The evaluation itself is an interview with the student, a review of the portfolio, and the evaluator’s judgment that an appropriate education is occurring, meaning instruction in the required subjects for the required time. The certification is what goes to the district by June 30.

Choose the evaluator in the fall, not in June. Two reasons. The good ones fill up, and more importantly, an evaluator who has told you in October what they expect to see is an evaluator whose expectations you can actually meet. Families who treat the evaluator as a year-end examiner get a stressful June. Families who treat them as an advisor they check in with get a useful one.

If something goes wrong

Two distinct processes, and they are worth telling apart because they are triggered by different things.

Missing the June 30 certification. The district sends a notice by certified mail requiring the documentation within 10 days. If it still does not arrive, the matter goes to a formal hearing. The fix here is administrative and fast: send the certification.

The district believes the program is not appropriate. The superintendent sends a certified letter requiring certification that an appropriate education is occurring, generally within 30 days. If the matter is not resolved, the school board provides a hearing before a duly qualified and impartial hearing examiner, held within 30 days. Possible outcomes include probation, increased reporting requirements, or loss of the right to conduct a home education program for up to one year.

Note the shape of this. Pennsylvania does not empower a superintendent to end a home education program by decision. It requires a hearing before an impartial examiner. That is a meaningful protection, and it is one reason keeping a genuine portfolio matters more than keeping a large one: the portfolio is your evidence at exactly the moment evidence counts.

The diploma, which Pennsylvania handles unusually well

Unlike New York, where a district cannot issue a diploma to a home-instructed student, Pennsylvania recognizes a home education diploma awarded by the supervisor (or by an approved diploma-granting organization). Where the graduation requirements are met and the student’s twelfth grade evaluator certifies that the requirements have been satisfied, that diploma carries all the rights and privileges the Commonwealth affords a conventional one.

This changes the shape of high school planning. The four years of English, three of math, three of science, three of social studies and two of arts and humanities are not a suggestion, they are the diploma. Track them from grade 9 in a single document.

Records and evidence: what to keep

1. The reading log, by title, kept weekly. Reconstructing a year of titles in June is the single most common Pennsylvania regret.
2. Dated work samples per subject. A dozen strong pieces per subject beats everything you have. Date them as you file them.
3. An hours or days record. Even though 180 days is an alternative to 900 hours, keep whichever you are relying on, consistently.
4. Test results for grades 3, 5 and 8, filed in the portfolio for the relevant year.
5. Copies of the affidavit and certification, with proof of the filing date.

Materials that name the standard they cover make the portfolio close to self-assembling: the log entry, the work sample and the subject-area evidence are the same artifact. Sprout Lessons builds standards-aligned lessons for grades K–12, so what you teach on Tuesday is what the evaluator reads in June. Try it free.

Pennsylvania compared with New York

Families moving between the two are often surprised, because the regimes are demanding in opposite places.

If you are coming from New York, see the New York requirements in full. For choosing what to actually teach, start with homeschool curriculum in the USA. If a child is behind in one area rather than across the board, catching up after falling behind and helping with math at home without a tutor cover the diagnosis and the daily practice. And if you want the work to hang off something your child already cares about, interests as a gateway to the curriculum is the method.

The honest summary

Pennsylvania has a reputation as a high-regulation state and the reputation is half right. The filing burden is light: two documents a year. The oversight burden is real but concentrated in one relationship, with an evaluator you choose. Get the affidavit in by August 1, keep the reading log weekly, book the grade 3, 5 and 8 tester in the fall, and pick your evaluator early enough that they can tell you what they want to see. Do those four things and June is uneventful.

Sprout Lessons builds standards-aligned lessons for grades K–12, so the material you teach and the portfolio you build are the same work. Start free.

This guide summarizes 24 P.S. § 13-1327.1 and Pennsylvania Department of Education guidance as at 18 August 2026. It is general information, not legal advice. Requirements are administered by your school district and can change: confirm current rules with your district or the Pennsylvania Department of Education before filing.

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