Are you homeschooling high school? Does the thought of homeschool high school recordkeeping have you discouraged? It doesn’t have to be a torturous task.
You can do this, and this post can help.
What Records Do I Need to Keep for Homeschooling High School?
Check Your State Requirements
The first thing you need to do is find your state homeschool law.
What are your requirements? Make sure you have a plan in place to comply with those state regulations.
What Are Your Student’s Post High School Plans?
The second thing you need to do is discuss future learning options with your student. What does your student want to do after high school?
Each college or university has varying requirements for homeschooled students. You will need to map out what records are required by the institutes your student is interested in, and make sure you have a system for keeping those pertinent records.
My oldest son didn’t know if he would go on to study at a liberal arts school, so I decided to keep a variety of records for him.
Why Is Homeschool High School Record Keeping Important?
Keeping a detailed record of all the work that is being done by your high school student will help provide a college with the information they need to determine if your student is a potential candidate for their school. I even had to submit a transcript for Elijah when he applied for dual enrollment courses.
If your student isn’t going to college, it is still a good idea to track courses and grades because your student may eventually change their mind and need an official transcript.
It will be easy-peasy to create a transcript if you’ve kept good records.
Necessary Homeschool High School Records
This is just my opinion, but if you can only send your student out into the world with one piece of paper, I would recommend it be an official high school transcript.
The transcript is usually a one-page overview of your student’s entire high school experience. It is different than a diploma. A university that is enrolling your student will not care about a diploma; they want to see the snapshot: What classes did your student take? What grades did your student receive in those classes?
Track your student’s grades and add them to your student’s transcript at the end of each semester or year.
I have forms to help you with these two important tasks.
If your state requires you to track attendance, you can find a form for that below.
Optional Homeschool High School Records
If you want to have all of your ducks in a row, and know that you know that you KNOW that you are keeping records of all of the things, then you may want to complete these records for your homeschool high school student:
- Homeschool High School Reading List
- Homeschool High School Volunteer Record Log
- Homeschool High School Course Description Form
I’ve only heard of a few universities who require course descriptions with a college application. To learn more about writing course descriptions, read The Guide to High School Course Descriptions for Homeschoolers.
How to Keep Records for Homeschool High School
Homeschool high school record keeping does not have to be a nightmare. Or a box with a billion scrap papers, scribbles, and things flying everywhere.
I kept one binder with everything in it. I did not keep student work in the binder. I only kept records.
I used dividers for different sections:
- Attendance
- Grades
- Course Descriptions
- Exam Scores (ACT, PSAT, SAT, and CLEP Tests)
- College Transcripts (from dual enrollment courses)
Your divider titles will likely be different than mine. Use what works and makes sense for you and your student.
You can do this!
I hope I’ve answered your questions in this post: what homeschool high school records you need to keep, why you need to keep them, and how to keep them.
If you have more questions, please drop me a comment.
Happy Recordkeeping!
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