Homeschooling in Georgia: Records, Rules & Funding (2026)

Georgia sits in a comfortable middle. It’s not the paperwork-free openness of Texas next door, but it’s nowhere near the strictest states either. There’s a form to file, a day count to hit, and a yearly assessment to run, and once you know those three things, the rest is just keeping tidy notes. If you’re staring at the words “Declaration of Intent” wondering what you’ve gotten into, take a breath. It’s genuinely manageable.

This is general information, not legal advice. Homeschool laws change. Verify current requirements with the Georgia Department of Education or a Georgia homeschool organization before you rely on anything here.

Is homeschooling legal in Georgia? How you start

Yes, homeschooling is fully legal in Georgia, operated under the state’s home study program law. Unlike Texas, Georgia does ask you to formally announce that you’re doing it.

The starting step is the Declaration of Intent:

You file it within 30 days of beginning your home study program, and then annually thereafter, generally by September 1 each year.
It’s submitted to the Georgia Department of Education (in recent years, through an online form on the state’s site; check the current filing method).
It typically asks for the names and ages of the children, the address where the program is based, your local school system, and the 12-month period that will serve as your school year.
There is generally no fee.

One more starting requirement worth knowing: the teaching parent (or a tutor) is generally required to hold at least a high school diploma or GED. Confirm the current standard, but that’s the long-standing bar.

Because a detail like the filing window or the form can change, double-check the current process on the Georgia DOE site before you file. And file on time, since the deadline is one of the few hard dates Georgia gives you.

What Georgia asks of you

Here’s the working list, as of 2026. Hedge all of it against the current statute, but this is the shape families operate under:

Instruction time. Generally at least 4.5 hours of instruction per day, for a minimum of 180 days per year. You set the schedule. The law cares about the totals, not the clock.
Required subjects. Generally reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science.
Declaration of Intent, filed on time as described above.
Annual assessment. Your child is generally assessed each year, and beginning at a certain grade level (commonly cited as third grade and up, at set intervals) you’re expected to have records of it. The assessment is typically either a nationally standardized test or an evaluation by someone holding a bachelor’s degree who is not you.
A progress report / annual narrative. Georgia has historically expected the parent to write an annual progress assessment in each subject and keep it.

Two things surprise people, in a good way. You generally do not submit monthly attendance reports to anyone (Georgia removed that older requirement). You keep the records, you don’t mail them in. And the annual assessment results generally aren’t automatically submitted either, though the superintendent can request them, so you keep them ready.

That distinction, keep it and be ready versus file it, is the whole ballgame in Georgia. Which brings us to records.

What records to keep in Georgia

Georgia’s requirements translate into a short, specific list, and unlike Texas, some of these you genuinely need to hold. A common expectation is to retain records for at least three years, so keep the system boring and consistent. Keep these, ideally as you go:

Your filed Declaration of Intent (and each year’s renewal).
An attendance/day record, enough to show you hit the 180-day, 4.5-hour expectation. A simple running count kept daily beats reconstructing it in May.
The annual assessment record, the standardized test score or the qualified evaluator’s report, with dates, for the years it applies. Keep these where you can find them if the superintendent asks.
Your annual progress reports, the per-subject narrative Georgia expects you to write and retain.
Work samples and a portfolio. Not strictly the same as the required assessment, but the strongest backup you can have, the actual arc of the child’s year in one place.
A grades/transcript record, especially once you reach high school.

Georgia’s pattern is keep it and be ready, not file it monthly. The families who find this easy are the ones who let each ordinary week drop its own record into a folder. A finished worksheet is a work sample, a completed week is 4.5 hours logged five times over.

If you keep those pieces steadily, an assessment year or a superintendent’s request stops being a fire drill. This is the same “capture it once, in the moment” idea we lean on in It’s the Record-Keeping, Isn’t It?. It just matters a bit more in Georgia because the day count and the assessment are real, dated things.

Funding for Georgia homeschoolers

Georgia has an education-savings-account program, the Georgia Promise Scholarship, created by state legislation (SB 233) and active in recent cycles. But I have to be straight with you about who it actually helps, because the headline and the fine print diverge sharply for homeschoolers.

The program provides a capped annual amount per eligible student (a figure in the several-thousand-dollar range has been cited for recent cycles) for approved education expenses, and home study is an allowed use.
But eligibility for existing homeschoolers is narrow. In recent cycles, a student generally needed prior enrollment in a Georgia public school for a set period (or to be a rising kindergartner) and residence in the attendance zone of a public school on the state’s lowest-performing list. In practice, most families already homeschooling, who never attended a low-performing public school, do not qualify.
Application windows are narrow and dated, and both the amounts and rules can change year to year.

So the honest read for 2026: the Georgia Promise Scholarship exists and technically allows home study, but the eligibility path is tight enough that many independent homeschoolers won’t clear it. Don’t count on it until you’ve confirmed your family qualifies for the current cycle, and verify the amount, window, and rules at the official source.

For how ESAs and approved-vendor marketplaces work in general, see our funding and ESA guide, and treat the Georgia-specific numbers as something to re-verify every year.

How Kithle helps Georgia families

Georgia is a state where good records genuinely pay off, because a few of them are expected, the day count, the assessment, the annual progress reports, and any of them can be requested.

Kithle helps you keep and organize the records Georgia asks for, without turning it into a second job:

Instruction-day and attendance tracking, so the 180-day, 4.5-hour expectation is a running total, not a spring reconstruction.
Assessment tracking, a place to store each year’s test score or evaluator report with its date, ready if the superintendent asks. (Kithle is not an evaluator and doesn’t replace one. When you need a qualified evaluator, you still hire that person. Kithle just organizes what they hand back.)
Portfolios, work samples, and report cards that build from the everyday work.
Progress records you can shape into the annual per-subject assessment Georgia expects.

Kithle is curriculum-neutral. Track worksheets it generates, or bring your own curriculum and use it purely for the reporting. It never claims to make your homeschool “compliant.” That determination is always yours, made against the current Georgia rules. See how the pieces fit in how Kithle works, and if you’re brand new, our first-year starter guide walks through the calm version of getting set up.

FAQ

Do I have to file a Declaration of Intent in Georgia every year? Generally yes: within 30 days of starting, and then annually (commonly by September 1) to the Georgia Department of Education. There’s usually no fee. Confirm the current filing window and method at the state source, and file on time.

Does Georgia require a certified evaluator? Not a certified teacher specifically. Georgia’s annual assessment can generally be met with either a nationally standardized test or an evaluation by someone holding a bachelor’s degree who isn’t the parent. Verify the current standard, since assessment rules are the kind of detail that gets tweaked.

Do I have to send Georgia my attendance and test results? Generally you keep them rather than submit them. Georgia removed the old monthly reporting requirement. But the superintendent can request records, and many families retain them for at least three years. Keep them organized and ready.

How many days do I have to homeschool in Georgia? Generally at least 180 days a year, with roughly 4.5 hours of instruction per day. You set the calendar. The law looks at the totals, so a running day count is the record to keep.

Can homeschoolers get the Georgia Promise Scholarship? Sometimes, but eligibility is narrow. Recent cycles required prior public-school enrollment (or rising kindergarten) and residence zoned to a low-performing school, which excludes many existing homeschoolers. Verify your eligibility and the current amount and window at the official program before counting on it.

The honest bottom line

Georgia gives you three things to actually do: file the Declaration on time, hit the days, run the yearly assessment. Then it mostly asks you to keep the records rather than mail them. That’s very doable if you set up a light rhythm early instead of a spring panic.

File on time, verify the assessment and funding specifics at the state source each year, and let the ordinary weeks build the record so an assessment year or a request is a non-event. Kithle is opening early access at kithle.com, built to keep the records Georgia asks for ready, so you can spend the time teaching instead of tracking.