How to Homeschool in Georgia

What Georgia homeschool law requires

The whole list for the 2026–2027 school year, from the Georgia Department of Education's own guidance on the home study law:

File the Declaration of Intent (GaDOE) GaDOE's home school page

How to start homeschooling in Georgia

1. File the Declaration of Intent online with the Georgia Department of Education within 30 days of starting (or by fax, mail or email), and again by September 1 each year. Print your copy: it is the official proof of enrollment, and a local school system must have it within 45 days of a withdrawal.
2. Withdraw your child from the public school and give it a copy of the declaration.
3. Plan 180 instructional days of four and a half hours each across the five subjects: reading, English language arts, mathematics, science and social studies. Faith Schooling covers the first three; you add science and social studies. The free Homeschool Rhythm Builder turns the days and hours into a printable plan.
4. Write a progress report in each subject at the end of each year and keep it for three years; nothing is submitted.
5. Arrange a nationally standardized test at least every three years from the end of grade 3, given in consultation with someone trained to administer it, and keep the results. Georgia Milestones is not such a test.

How Faith Schooling covers Georgia's requirements

Georgia asks for 180 days a year of four and a half hours each, 810 hours in all: 36 weeks of five days, or 45 weeks of four.

Three of Georgia's five subjects are the three programs below, each a sequenced textbook with a teaching guide, and their finished pages make the yearly subject reports easy to write: a report in reading, English language arts and mathematics is a page of what was covered and how it went. Science and social studies are yours to choose.

Georgia asks for a yearly progress report in each subject, kept for three years, and the test results every three years. The dated, finished pages of each program are that record, and a HARVEST report is a placement note for the file.

Reading

Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency K–5 reading textbooks in four quarterly volumes a year, with complete teaching guides

English language arts

Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency and Grammar Garden reading in Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency; grammar, writing and composition in Grammar Garden

Mathematics

Building Number Sense K–5 mathematics textbooks; Kindergarten to Grade 2 add practice workbooks and teaching guides

Science and social studies

Your choice Faith Schooling does not publish these subjects; choose what fits your family

Bible

The Apostolic Academy not something Georgia requires; free: Scripture memory, Bible study and printables for the family

The curriculum map Phonics, Decoding, and Early Fluency Grammar Garden Building Number Sense HARVEST placement Homeschool Rhythm Builder

Financial assistance for Georgia homeschoolers

The Georgia Promise Scholarship, run by the Georgia Education Savings Authority, pays up to $6,500 a year for 2026–2027 in quarterly installments toward nonpublic schooling, including home study: required textbooks, curriculum and supplemental materials, tutoring, therapies and transportation to a provider.

It is not open to every family. The student must live in the attendance zone of a public school on the Governor's Office of Student Achievement's list of the lower-performing 25 percent and have been enrolled in a Georgia public school for two consecutive semesters, or be a rising kindergartner. The last application window for 2026–2027 opens November 1 to 30, 2026.

• For the 2026–2027 academic year the scholarship provides up to $6,500 per eligible student, paid in four quarterly installments. Source: Georgia Education Savings Authority, My Georgia Promise, read 9 October 2026.
• An eligible student resides in a Georgia public school attendance zone on the Governor's Office of Student Achievement's list of the 25 percent lower-performing public schools and has been enrolled in a Georgia public school for two consecutive semesters, or is a rising kindergarten student. Source: Georgia Education Savings Authority, My Georgia Promise, read 9 October 2026.
• Funds may pay tuition, fees, required textbooks, curriculum and supplemental materials, tutoring services, services from a physician or licensed therapist, and transportation to a service provider; the program covers nonpublic schooling including private school and home study. Source: Georgia Education Savings Authority, My Georgia Promise, read 9 October 2026.
• The final two student application windows for the 2026–27 academic year are August 1–31 and November 1–30. Source: Georgia Education Savings Authority, My Georgia Promise, read 9 October 2026.

Georgia Promise Scholarship (Georgia Education Savings Authority)

What Georgia does not require, and you should still do

• Place your child before grade 3. Georgia's first test comes at the end of third grade; HARVEST, the free placement check, tells you at the start where your child stands in reading and math and names the grade and quarter to begin.
• Plan the 180 days. The Homeschool Rhythm Builder turns your week into a printable plan, and four and a half hours a day is easier to keep when the day has an order.
• Write the progress reports as you go. A paragraph per subject each quarter, kept with the dated pages, is the three-year record the law asks for, written before you forget.

HARVEST free placement Homeschool Rhythm Builder The Apostolic Academy