High School Diploma
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Question: What do you have to do to obtain a high school diploma when you homeschool? I have a friend who is homeschooling and she keeps her own records, so what does she need to do, her older daughter just turned 16 and we were wondering about getting a diploma and what do we need to do.
Answer: Since home schooling is legal in all states, it is perfectly in order for each home school to issue its own diploma. So, you decide where you will obtain the document itself, what your requirements will be to issue that document, and when and how you will do it. There are several places that sell individual diplomas to homeschoolers to which you can add names and dates. You can also design your own diploma. You can have a personalized commencement ceremony or participate in one sponsored by a home school support group or organization if there is one in your area.
We suggest that you learn what the public school requirements are in your state and not go below them because that just raises unnecessary questions in people's minds about what you are doing. Those requirements are expressed in numbers of units divided over subject areas. The subject areas are partly core subjects (English, math, science, social sciences, and foreign language) and partly electives. Most families prefer to exceed them because they include Bible as a core, and they want their students to be generally well-prepared.
The units used, called carnegie units, are figured as 120 clock hours of instruction per single, whole unit. You must decide how to define "instruction" (Be consistent and don't set standards too low). For core subjects the units are either whole or half, but not less. For electives, they could go down to one quarter of a unit. For vocational or fine arts subjects, the standards are often twice the amount of time. Those subjects contain a high degree of active performance of a task or development of a skill. For example, a core course in math would be worth 1 unit if the student worked on the course for at least 120 hours. In the institutional setting, "homework" is not counted, but just class time with a teacher. Again, you as a home schooler have the right to define "instruction". An example of a vocational elective would be something like this: If your family is remodeling a house, and your high schooler is helping with the project in a substantial way, he could be given academic credit as an elective course called "Construction I." If he worked 240 hours doing that, he would have 1 elective unit. If he worked 120 hours, then "Construction I" would be a half unit course.
Each family does need to keep records as to what was studied when and with what materials so that both the student and the parents are confident that the units of study making up your program have real value. If you are frivolous in giving credits where they were not earned, your children will sense that their education was weak. The transcript is the written record of the course names, their values in units of credit, and the grades that were earned. It would also show outside activities, awards, and test results (both achievement and college board exams). It is an official statement in summary form of what your child did in high school. Some colleges may ask for portfolios in addition to a transcript. That is a representative sample of actual work the student did.
If you need more information on this topic, consider the following links:
1. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d01/dt153.asp ~ This document gives a summary of the graduation requirements of every state in the union.
2. http://www.homeschooldiploma.com/ ~ This is a private, small business that has an excellent website answering some basic questions and providing help. We cannot vouch for the way that they do business, but they show some excellent thoughts.
3. http://www.hslda.org/highschool/diploma.asp ~ Home School Legal Defense has been actively answering questions related to high school diplomas for many years, and they have an excellent resource here for you.