Field guide · Confirm with the authority before you file
Homeschooling in Georgia
Declaration of Intent to Utilize a Home Study Program, within 30 days of starting a home study program, then by September 1 every year after. The full list is below. No one routinely reviews what you teach. Also kept, and shown only if asked: nationally standardized test; annual progress assessment report.
Notify, level 2 of 4
What Georgia actually asks of a family teaching their own children. Written plainly, and honest where the answer is that nobody asks for anything.
You tell
Georgia Department of Education
(online, or by fax, mail or email)
By
Within 30 days of starting, then September 1 each year
Within 30 days of starting, and by 1 September every year after
Who reviews it
No one
No one routinely. GaDOE holds the declaration; the test and reports stay with the family.
If you skip it
Failing to file the declaration exposes the family to the compulsory-attendance law. If your child is enrolled in a public school and misses 30 consecutive days, the school must refer the matter to the Division of Family and Children Services, and to the student affairs officer of the regional educational service agency, when you have not told the school of the withdrawal or of the enrollment in a home study program, or when the child was withdrawn without a declaration on file (O.C.G.A. 20-2-785, as amended in 2025). The Division's assessment is limited to whether the withdrawal was to avoid educating the child, and showing a copy of your filed declaration ends it.
Who is in charge
Georgia Department of Education
Who reviews your child is set out at the top of this page, in the authority's own terms.
The year
What you must file
September 1You file
Declaration of Intent to Utilize a Home Study Program
Within 30 days of starting, and by 1 September every year after
Goes to: Georgia Department of Education (online, or by fax, mail or email)
You can file online, by fax to 770-344-4623, by mail to Georgia Department of Education - Homeschool Division, 1562 Twin Towers East, 205 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive, Atlanta, GA 30334, or by email to homeschool@doe.k12.ga.us. The department sends a copy to your local school system. This is the only document you are required to submit to the Georgia Department of Education. Keep a copy: it is the proof of home study enrollment for a driver's permit or license, a work permit, and anyone else who asks for proof of enrollment.
No fixed dateYou keep
Nationally standardized test
n/a
How often: every 3 years from the end of grade 3
Goes to: KEPT BY THE PARENT, not submitted
Administered in consultation with a person trained in administering and interpreting norm-referenced tests.
No fixed dateYou keep
Annual progress assessment report
n/a
Goes to: KEPT BY THE PARENT for three years, not submitted
One written report per subject per year.
No fixed dateYou file
Notice to the public school when you withdraw your child
When you take a child out of a Georgia public school to start home study
How often: once, on withdrawal
Goes to: The public school your child is leaving
Tell the school that you are withdrawing your child and that your child is enrolled, or will enroll, in a home study program. Under O.C.G.A. 20-2-785, as amended in 2025, a child enrolled in a public school who misses 30 consecutive days is referred to the Division of Family and Children Services if the parent has not told the school of the withdrawal or of the home study enrollment, or if the child was withdrawn without a Declaration of Intent on file. A copy of your filed declaration ends that assessment.
No fixed dateYou file
Notice to join public school activities, with the latest annual progress assessment report
Only if your child in grades 6 to 12 will join extracurricular or interscholastic activities at your local public school: at least 30 calendar days before the first school day of the semester in which your child takes the required course
How often: when your child will take part
Goes to: The principal of your local public school and the superintendent of your school system
Under the Dexter Mosely Act (O.C.G.A. § 20-2-319.6), a home study student in grades 6 to 12 may take part in extracurricular and interscholastic activities at the public school the child would attend. The parent gives written notice naming the activities, a copy of the child's most recent annual progress assessment report, and the home study instructor's written statement that the child has a passing grade in each home study course, is making satisfactory progress and meets the activity's requirements. The child must also enroll in and attempt one qualifying course through the school system in each semester of taking part. A child withdrawn from a public school to home study cannot take part for 12 months from the date of the declaration of intent.
The words a reviewer uses
'Progress' in each subject, in the parent's own written report.
The part the paperwork does not cover
Filing on time is the easy half. The harder half is the year in between: showing what your child actually learned, in words the reviewer recognises, without turning your home into a school.
That is what this tool is for. You say what your child did, in a sentence. It maps that to the published standards we hold for Georgia, which today are English (249 of 383), Mathematics (474 of 574), Science (288 of 604) and Social Studies (65 of 1631). Those figures count the topics we carry for ages 5 to 12 that cite one of Georgia's published standards. Physical Education and Arts are not in the app for Georgia yet. A moment in any of those subjects is kept on the general map for your child's age and named that way in the record, so the record never cites Georgia's curriculum where we hold none of it. Then it builds the record you can hand over the day someone asks. See how it works.
Sources
- Checked 11 Aug 2026
- Checked 5 Oct 2026
- Checked 19 Aug 2026
- Checked 5 Oct 2026
- Checked 9 Oct 2026
- Checked 6 Oct 2026
- Checked 9 Oct 2026
Sources last checked on 2026-10-09: Georgia House Bill 530 (2019), signed: declaration of intent deadline (O.C.G.A. 20-2-690(c)(1)) and referral after withdrawal (O.C.G.A. 20-2-785). That is the date we checked, not the date the rule last changed.
Check it yourself: the source we used.
Guidance, not legal advice. Rules change and districts vary: confirm with the authority named above before you file.