Georgia · Record-Keeping Guide

Homeschool Record Keeping in Georgia: The Yearly Report You Write to Yourself

Georgia asks for a September 1 declaration, 180 days of 4.5 hours, a written progress report in every subject each year, and a test every three years. Here's the twist: almost none of it gets turned in. It just has to exist - in your records.

The Georgia framework: declare, teach, write, and keep

Georgia's home study law (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690(c)) asks four things:

File a declaration of intent with the Georgia Department of Education within 30 days of starting your program, then by September 1 each year after.
Teach 180 days a year, at least 4.5 hours a day (for the equivalent of a school day), covering reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science - and keep your own attendance record of it.
Write an annual progress assessment report in each required subject, every year, for each child - and retain each report for at least three years. No one collects it; the law simply requires that it exist.
Test every three years beginning at the end of third grade: a nationally normed standardized test, administered in consultation with someone trained in such tests. The results also stay in your records.

Georgia runs on the honor system - which means it runs on your records After the one-page declaration, nothing is submitted: not attendance, not the progress reports, not the test scores. The compliance question in Georgia is simply "do your records exist?" And the easiest possible way to write a year-end progress report per subject is to have 180 days of one-line notes to summarize.

What a Georgia home study file should hold

The attendance log proving 180 days of 4.5 hours.
This year's progress assessment reports - one per required subject, per child - plus the last three years' worth.
Standardized test results from each three-year checkpoint.
Work samples and book lists - not required by the statute, but they're what turn a progress report from adjectives into evidence, and they're gold for future transcripts.

How The Homeschool Log maps to each requirement

✅ 180 days and 4.5 hours, tallied automatically Set Georgia's targets and the attendance record keeps itself from your daily entries - days counted, minutes summed.

🧾 The annual progress report writes itself Georgia's required artifact - a written assessment of progress in each subject - is precisely what the app generates: per-subject narrative summaries drafted from your own year of entries, ready to review, print, and file. See a sample report →

📗 Reading and samples that enrich the report The book log and photographed work samples give each subject's report specifics - titles, projects, dated growth.

☁️ Three-year retention, no filing cabinet Reports and records live safely in your account, exportable anytime - the three-year shelf takes care of itself.

Make Georgia's annual report a ten-minute job

Log one sentence per subject a day, and the September declaration is the only paperwork you'll think about.

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Why records matter in every state →

Prefer paper for now? Take the free weekly log sheet. 🖨️

Our free one-page weekly log sheet, designed like the app. We'll email it straight to you, with a couple of helpful extras that week - then we leave your inbox in peace.

This guide summarizes O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690(c) in plain language for convenience. It isn't legal advice; verify current requirements with the Georgia Department of Education or a group like HSLDA.