The Short Answer
O.C.G.A. §20-2-690 governs home study programs in Georgia. File a Declaration of Intent with the Georgia Department of Education by September 1 each year, or within 30 days of starting mid-year. The teaching parent must hold a high school diploma or GED. Teach reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. Provide at least 4.5 hours of instruction per day for a minimum of 180 school days per year. Give a nationally standardized test at least every three years, starting at the end of third grade, administered in consultation with someone trained in giving and reading norm reference tests. Write a progress report each year and keep it for three years. Georgia does not require the scores or the report to be submitted to public educational authorities. No state funding for home study families.
A plain-language summary of the rules, not legal advice. We are not lawyers. Requirements change and summaries go out of date. Confirm anything you plan to act on with the department that oversees home education where you live.
Georgia Home Study at a Glance
| Annual Declaration of Intent | Filed with the Georgia Department of Education by September 1 (or within 30 days of starting) |
|---|---|
| Parent credential | High school diploma or GED required for the teaching parent |
| Required subjects | Reading; language arts; mathematics; social studies; science |
| Daily hours | 4.5 hours minimum per school day |
| Annual school days | 180 days minimum |
| Standardized test | At least every three years from the end of third grade, in consultation with a person trained in norm reference testing |
| Annual progress report | Written by the teaching parent, covering each required subject, kept at least three years |
| Records | Test scores and progress reports are kept by you, not submitted to public educational authorities |
| High school diploma | Parent-issued |
| State funding | No ESA or voucher program for home study families |
Georgia's Home Study Law at a Glance
Georgia's home study statute, O.C.G.A. §20-2-690, has been on the books since 1984, making Georgia one of the earlier states to formally recognize home education as a legal alternative to public and private school. The law gives families a clear compliance path: one annual filing, a defined set of subjects, minimum hours per day, and an assessment every third year. It does not tell you what textbooks to use, which curriculum to buy, how to structure your school day, or how to measure academic performance week by week. The framework exists to confirm that instruction is happening. The content decisions are yours.
Georgia's compulsory school age runs from 6 through 16. Once your child turns 16, they are no longer subject to compulsory attendance law, though most families continue their home study program through a parent-issued high school diploma.
Filing the Declaration of Intent
Each year, file a written Declaration of Intent (DOI) with the Georgia Department of Education. Georgia centralized this filing to the state in 2012, so it does not go to your local superintendent's office. GaDOE forwards a copy to the school system where your program is located. The deadline is September 1 for the upcoming school year. Families starting mid-year must file within 30 days of establishing the program. The DOI is not an application for approval; it is a notice. Nobody approves or denies it, not the state and not your district. Your obligation is to file it with GaDOE. Everything after that is the state's to do.
The DOI asks for the name and age of each child you plan to instruct, the location of your home study program, the name of the local school system your program sits in, and the 12-month period you are treating as your school year. Note two things families get caught by: it asks for age rather than date of birth, and it does not ask for a list of subjects. Georgia does require five subjects, but that obligation lives elsewhere in the law and is not a field on this form. You do not need to attach textbook titles, detailed lesson plans, or a curriculum outline. A brief subject list covering the five required areas is enough. File the DOI through the state's online portal at apps.gadoe.org, which Georgia treats as the preferred method. It is free, it is immediate, and it returns a 36-character confirmation code that serves as your official record of homeschooling in Georgia. Save that code with your school-year records. Mail and fax are still accepted if you would rather file on paper, and certified mail gives you a delivery receipt, though it costs money and takes days to produce a weaker record than the code does.
If you move during the year to a different school district within Georgia, update your Declaration of Intent with the Georgia Department of Education so it shows your new address and district. There is no second filing to make and no new office to find, because the filing goes to the state either way, and GaDOE forwards the copy to whichever system you have moved into. This applies even if you are mid-year. Before you finalize your subject list for the DOI, a free reading assessment helps you understand exactly where your child stands in reading so you can describe your language arts approach with confidence.
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The Teaching Parent Credential
The parent or guardian conducting the instruction must hold a high school diploma, GED, or equivalent. If the teaching parent does not hold a diploma, Georgia law provides an alternative: the child may be taught by another person in the household or by a private tutor who holds at least a high school diploma. The law does not require a college degree, a teaching certificate, or formal training in education. A high school diploma is the only credential the statute specifies. The large majority of Georgia families operating a home study program meet this requirement without any additional steps.
Five Required Subjects
Georgia requires instruction in five subjects: reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. That is the complete list. Georgia does not specify textbooks, instructional approaches, grade-level benchmarks, or testing performance for any of these subjects.
Reading and language arts can be taught through any structured literacy or writing program you choose. Mathematics covers arithmetic through levels matched to your child's current progress, without a grade-level ceiling set by the state. Social studies includes history, geography, economics, and civics, covered through any materials you select. Science covers life sciences, earth science, physical science, or any combination that fits your child's level and interests.
Five subjects gives Georgia families real scheduling flexibility. A standard morning session covering reading and language arts, followed by math, with science and social studies rotating through the afternoon, reaches all five areas in a typical school day without needing a rigid bell schedule. You can also integrate subjects across projects and unit studies; Georgia law does not prescribe a method.
When you are choosing materials for reading and language arts, the level at which you start matters more than the brand name on the cover. A starting level that is too high leads to frustration; one that is too low produces boredom and slow progress. A reading assessment gives you a concrete skill level to work from rather than a grade-level guess.
Daily and Annual Hours
Georgia requires at least 4.5 hours of instruction per day for a minimum of 180 school days per year. The 4.5-hour floor is a daily minimum, not a weekly average. A full school year of 180 days at 4.5 hours per day yields 810 instructional hours. Georgia does not specify how those hours are distributed across subjects or how you must record them.
Most families maintain a simple attendance log that records each school day and notes the subjects covered. This log serves two purposes: it helps you confirm you are meeting the 180-day requirement, and it gives you your own record of the year. Georgia does not require you to submit it. Log entries can be as brief as a date and a subject list; there is no mandated format.
The 180-day requirement is the piece Georgia families most often underestimate. If your family takes long holiday breaks, schedules loosely, or starts late in the fall, you can find yourself running short by spring. Track days from day one of your school year. A simple calendar with each school day checked off is enough to keep you on pace.
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Testing Every Three Years, and the Records You Keep
Georgia asks for an assessment at least once every three years, beginning at the end of third grade, not every year. An earlier version of this page said annually, which had families testing three times more often than the law requires and testing children too young to be covered at all. Georgia names one method: a nationally standardized testing program, administered in consultation with a person trained in the administration and interpretation of norm reference tests. You may give the test yourself, so long as that consultation happens. No school district approves the test or the person giving it, and an earlier version of this page said otherwise, which sent families asking permission from an office that has no part in home study. Georgia also does not offer an outside evaluation as a substitute for the test, which an earlier version of this page wrongly listed as a second option.
The statute is unusually clear about what happens next: records of the tests and scores "shall be retained but shall not be required to be submitted to public educational authorities." You keep them. Georgia does not ask you to send them anywhere, and there is no deadline to produce them, because there is no routine request to answer. A court subpoena is a separate matter, and you may choose to share records yourself when you apply for something. There is a second record Georgia does ask for, and this page used to leave it out. Under §20-2-690(c)(8) the teaching parent writes an annual progress assessment report covering the student's progress in each of the five required subjects, and keeps it for at least three years. That one is yearly, unlike the test. It stays in your files as well.
Georgia does not set a minimum score or a progress threshold. The assessment is required; what it must show is not defined by a numerical standard. Read the scores as information for your own planning rather than as a pass or fail, and let your yearly progress report say what the numbers do not: what the year covered and where the student moved forward.
Arranging the test is usually straightforward. Georgia homeschool support organizations and co-ops run group testing sessions in most parts of the state, and those sessions cover the consultation the statute asks for. If you would rather test at home, several nationally standardized tests are sold directly to parents, and the publisher will tell you what training the person overseeing it needs. Spring works well, while the year's learning is fresh and the results can still shape what you plan next.
Withdrawing from a Georgia Public School
Send written notice to your child's school that you are withdrawing them to enroll in a home study program. The school updates its attendance records. Then file your DOI with the Georgia Department of Education within 30 days. Keep copies of both documents. Nobody has to approve your program before you begin; you file the DOI with GaDOE and start teaching. For the full step-by-step, see our guide to withdrawing from public school in Georgia.
If your child has an IEP, mandatory special education services through the public school end at withdrawal. Georgia does allow districts to make certain voluntary services available to home study students with disabilities, but mandatory IEP services end when the child leaves the public system. Talk with your district's special education coordinator before withdrawing if this applies to your child, so you understand what support changes and what, if anything, the district may continue to offer.
High School, Transcripts, and Diplomas in Georgia
Georgia does not set graduation requirements or diploma standards for home study programs. You set your own graduation criteria, issue the diploma when the student meets them, and create the transcript that documents the coursework completed. A parent-issued diploma and transcript are standard for Georgia home study graduates, and Georgia's public colleges have a published policy for them: the University System of Georgia's Board of Regents allows applicants from non-accredited homeschools to demonstrate graduation and completion of the required curriculum in an alternative way. That is firmer ground than most states offer. Employers and licensing boards each set their own rules, which Georgia's home study law does not govern, so ask rather than assume there.
Georgia public universities and the University System of Georgia are experienced reviewing home study transcripts. Most institutions ask for ACT or SAT scores from home study applicants in addition to the parent-issued transcript. Check each school's admissions page for their specific documentation requirements. Some selective programs ask for course descriptions alongside the transcript; prepare those in advance if your student plans to apply to competitive programs.
Home study students in Georgia may take part in dual enrollment through the Move On When Ready program, which allows high school students to take college courses at Georgia institutions at no cost. Eligibility and enrollment procedures for home study students differ by institution; contact the admissions office of the specific college early to confirm what documentation they require. Dual enrollment is worth exploring for students who are ready for college-level work, since it adds both rigor and college credit to the high school years at no expense to the family. For the full step-by-step, including how to qualify for the HOPE Scholarship as a home study student, see our guide to homeschooling high school in Georgia.
For building a complete four-year high school plan, including how to set credit requirements, track courses, and prepare a transcript that reads clearly to admissions offices, the guide walks through the full process step by step.
No State Funding for Georgia Home Study Families
Georgia does not have a broad education savings account or voucher program for home study families. The Promise Scholarship (SB 233), worth up to $6,500, can fund home study, but only for students who have spent two consecutive semesters in a Georgia public school (or are rising kindergartners) and are zoned to a bottom-25% performing school -- most established home study families do not qualify. For how the Promise Scholarship applies to home study, see our Georgia homeschool funding guide. All curriculum, materials, assessment, and other educational costs are the family's responsibility for families who do not qualify. Georgia's Special Needs Scholarship provides funds for students with disabilities to attend private schools and does not apply to families teaching their children at home.
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A Note from Homeschool Teacher Guide: What This Really Means for You
Georgia gives you a clean compliance checklist and stays out of your way. File the DOI in August before your school year starts, plan for 4.5 hours of instruction each school day, schedule the assessment in the years you owe one, which is every third year from the end of third grade, and keep a simple attendance log. The five-subject requirement is easy to meet with almost any structured curriculum. The part Georgia families underestimate is the 180-day minimum; it sounds standard, but if your family takes long breaks, schedules loosely, or starts late and finishes early, you can fall short. Track school days from day one and you will have no problem. Georgia's home study law is one of the more reasonable frameworks in the South, and it has not changed much in 40 years. That kind of stability is worth something.
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☕ Buy us a coffee ($5)Frequently Asked Questions
What do we need to include in the Georgia Declaration of Intent?
The name and age of each child you plan to instruct, the location of your home study program, the name of the local school system your program sits in, and the 12-month period you are treating as your school year. It does not ask for dates of birth or for a list of subjects. File it with the Georgia Department of Education by September 1 each year, or within 30 days of starting if you begin mid-year.
What subjects does Georgia require for home study?
O.C.G.A. §20-2-690 requires instruction in five subjects: reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. Georgia does not specify textbooks, publishers, or curriculum programs for any of these subjects.
How many hours per day does Georgia require for homeschooling?
At least 4.5 hours of instruction per day for a minimum of 180 school days per year. Georgia does not specify how those hours are distributed across subjects or require that you track them by subject.
Who can conduct the assessment in Georgia, and how often is it required?
A nationally standardized test, administered in consultation with a person trained in giving and interpreting norm reference tests. You may give it yourself on that basis, and no district approval is involved. It is required at least every three years, starting at the end of third grade, not annually. You keep the scores; Georgia does not require them to be submitted to public educational authorities. Separately, you write a progress report each year and keep that for three years.
Does Georgia offer any funding for home study families?
No. Georgia does not have an education savings account or voucher program for families operating a home study program under §20-2-690. Georgia's Special Needs Scholarship is for students with disabilities attending private schools and does not apply to home study families.