Graduation high school homeschool is an important way to honor your homeschooler’s accomplishments, so make sure you’re prepared for homeschool for high schoolers graduation. Don’t wait until the last minute for high school graduation and college preparation for your homeschool high school student, including preparing a HS diploma and understanding calculating transcripts for homeschool. Here’s how to graduate your homeschooled student their senior year and set them up for college life or heading out into the world to meet their career goals!
GUIDE TO GRADUATION HIGH SCHOOL HOMESCHOOL (Homeschooling High School and Beyond For Homeschool Graduates)
Part of your homeschool plan for high school should be looking ahead to homeschool high school graduation requirements and what your high school graduate plans to do after graduation. High school homeschool graduations can be daunting, but will be easier with preparation!
Requirements For Graduation High School For Homeschool
How To Graduate a Homeschooler Student:
- Check your high school graduation requirements by state. (What are the specific requirements for your homeschool state? Arkansas homeschool graduation requirements will vary from Florida high school graduation requirements homeschool which will vary from Michigan which will vary from other states. ) Then, set your own graduation requirements.
- Understand the homeschool diploma requirements based on your child’s next steps. Will they be attending college? Are they going to a trade school? Understand if your child has everything they need and have met the diploma credit requirements to move on to their next step in life!
- Understand the requirements for issuing a legal and valid homeschool diploma and credit hours (parent-issued diploma from your homeschool educational institute). You can often look to your State Board of Education credit requirements or even your state homeschool organization.
- Assign grades for all of your homeschool classes and a GPA based on your education records. (Be sure to check with any outside or online high school homeschool classes for grades.)
- Create a homeschool transcript of your child’s high school courses and grades (if applicable).
- Create a homeschool graduate high school diploma. (You can even use a homeschool high school diploma template.)
- If interested, check your credits and verify can you graduate high school early homeschooling.
- Search for homeschool graduation ceremony near me or ask in local groups about a traditional graduation ceremony. Local homeschool groups may have a homeschooler graduation you can participate in!
- Set a homeschool graduation date.
- Have a homeschool graduation ceremony and graduation party for homeschoolers — just like traditional high school graduations!
Plus, your homeschool graduation day should be just as important as if your homeschooler went to conventional public school high school. Graduating high school is a big deal, no matter where your student attended school!
We’ll also talk about homeschooling graduation, high school homeschooling requirements, and how to get high school diploma, so keep scrolling for the all the graduation high school homeschool details for this grade level! We’ll answer all your how do homeschoolers graduate high school questions and make graduating homeschool successful!
Let’s get into more details about how to graduate high school homeschool and homeschool requirements for high school graduation…
Homeschool Graduation Requirements (How Does a Homeschooler Get a Diploma?)
What does a homeschooler need to graduate?
The first thing you need to do is check your state homeschool laws and see if there are specific graduation requirements. You may be surprised to learn that most states do not have specific homeschooling graduation requirements. As the educational institute, homeschooling parents set the requirements for graduation, often based on the student’s plan after high school graduation.
If your student plans to go to college, check the university, college, or community college requirements of one (or more) of the schools of interest to help guide you in the courses needed for admission requirements and credit requirements, or dual college credit (like with online courses).
GRADUATION TIP: Search for high school graduation requirements by state to see your state’s requirements.
How Old Are You When You Graduate High School?
The average age of high school graduates is 18 years old. Depending on when birthdays fall, some graduating high schoolers may be 17 and some may be 19 years old. However, homeschooled students sometimes graduate even earlier from their homeschool journey.
READ THESE HOMESCHOOL TIPS NEXT: CAN HOMESCHOOLERS ATTEND PROM?
What Are You Going to Do After You Graduate?
One of the ways you can plan for homeschool graduation is to ask your high school student’s plan for an after graduation program.
- Are they going from homeschool to college?
- Do they plan for vocational school or trade school?
- Are they a homeschooler going into the military?
- Is your homeschooler getting a job right after home school graduation?
Even having a loose understanding of your homeschooler’s future goals will help you plan for things like course basics required by colleges, credit requirements, and even electives at the high school level.
HOMESCHOOL GRADUATION TIP: If you have a college-bound student, it’s a good idea to start early looking at the college applications for your colleges of interest and talking to admissions officers. The sooner you start researching the application process, the more time you have to meet all the requirements and keep the correct records for your student’s homeschool education.
How do homeschoolers get high school transcripts?
Your homeschool high school transcripts are issued by the parents, as the issuing educational institute, or any umbrella school or affiliate. A high school transcript for homeschooling can model that same format as a public school transcript (by using a transcript template) or can be different and more like a CV format and can still be submitted to college admissions and scholarships.
READ MORE ABOUT HOMESCHOOL TRANSCRIPTS (how to grade homeschool high school and more about Carnegie unit, total number of credits hours, etc.)
If you are homeschooled do you get a diploma?
How do homeschoolers get a high school diploma or high school certificate? In the case of homeschooling, the educational institute is made up of the parents who are homeschooling the child, so they issue the homeschool diploma. The homeschooling parent(s) print and sign an official high school diploma template that includes all of the same information as found on a diploma from a traditional conventional or public school and that’s how homeschoolers get a diploma high school.
The homeschooled high school students diploma is a piece of paper that serves as the student’s official completion documentation of high school requirements (completion of high school classes) and may be submitted to employers / for a work permit, businesses, colleges, military, or any other time the graduate needs to present a high school diploma.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOMESCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMAS
TIP: Search for a diploma maker online to get a graduation homeschool diploma template or check the HSLDA diploma.
How To Get A Copy of High School Diploma
Wondering how to get a copy of your high school diploma? Homeschoolers will look to their parents as the granting institute for a graduate’s diploma. Additionally, a homeschooler will provide a copy of their home-issued diploma to any college or job that requests the official document (much the same as the public school district does!). This is a legal diploma to signify the completion of a high school education for your child’s education.
Homeschool Standardized Testing and Credit Hours
What test do homeschoolers take to graduate?
In the majority of states, there are no homeschool graduation requirements, including standardized graduation test requirements. However, check with your homeschool state for specific laws and requirements. After that, check with the university or college your student is interested in for admission test requirements. Many will require ACT or SAT tests as part of admission requirements, although many colleges are changing their testing requirements.
How many credits do you need to graduate high school homeschool?
You may be wondering how many credits to graduate high school. Homeschool high school credit requirements will vary by state and can be from 26 high school credits all the way down to 13 required credits, so check your state laws. Although many states won’t have specific homeschool credit requirements, homeschool credits are also based on what your student’s goals are at the end of high school and after homeschool graduation. Check with colleges and universities of choice and note their admission credit requirements and how many credits are needed to graduate high school and continue to college (in addition to checking state law).
CHECK: National Center for Education for High School Credit Requirements By State*
*this is for conventional school (public school requirements by state for public school students or private school students) and not homeschool requirements. However, some homeschool families like to use public school high school credits as a guide. You can also check your local school district, which your homeschool family can use as a guide.
LEARN ABOUT Calculating Homeschool Credits
THESE WILL ALSO HELP FOR HOME SCHOOL GRADUATION AND HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES QUESTIONS:
How do homeschoolers keep high school records?
High school homeschool record keeping is actually a very important part of homeschooling. As the homeschooler’s educational institute, homeschooling parents are the ones who issue a home school diploma that will be used for jobs, college admission, scholarships and more. In order to do this, it’s important to be organized in homeschool high school record keeping.
What records do I need to keep for homeschooling?
The type of records that you need to keep for homeschooling will vary based on state laws and regulations and also what your child plans on doing after high school.
In general homeschoolers keep school records like:
- Student’s name (full name / legal name)
- Attendance
- Lesson plans
- Courses (subjects) and descriptions
- Report cards/grades or progress reports
- Samples of school work
- Student’s transcript: transcripts by grades / grade point average
- Standardized test scores (if applicable)
- College entrance test scores
- Immunization records
- Volunteer work
You can keep track of homeschool information with a homeschool planner or software. This is will help compile a valid record of the completion of your student!
How Do You Graduate Homeschool?
How do homeschoolers graduate early?
Some homeschoolers graduate early so they can move on to other paths (college, jobs, etc.).
How to graduate early from high school homeschool:
- Signing up for dual enrollment homeschool programs / college
- Increasing course load
- Condensing lessons
- Testing for credit / testing out of
- Using accelerated curriculum homeschool programs
- Going to year-round homeschool
- Searching out online high schools that allow you to graduate early
Can you have homeschool graduation with honors?
Homeschool graduation honors are tricky because you may be required to justify the honors credits in detail. Check your state’s homeschool laws and regulations to see if specific policies outline honors requirements.
As one example, the Indiana Department of Education classifies public school honors in this way:
“Schools may designate a course as ―Honors or PreAP when the course content is significantly more rigorous than the state approved course. Honors-level courses must be standards-based, have defined criteria for student admission to the course as well as clear expectations of student outcomes, and include a culminating honors project that reflects understanding of the Honors course content. The course description should reflect the honors nature of the course and course titles should include an ‘H’ or the word ―Honors or PreAP in the title.”
If you homeschool in Indiana, you are not required to follow this for honors or AP (Advanced Placement) courses. But, you may choose to use this as a guideline on how to designate homeschool honors courses.
Even with all that said, if you want to have a gold cord graduation for homeschoolers, you can! Remember, you can have a graduation ceremony that honors or highlight’s your graduate’s achievements over the years without calling it “honors.”
High School Graduation Cords and Stoles Meaning
What do the cords for high school graduation mean?
Graduation high school cords are the rope-like cords that you see some graduates wearing around their necks. Graduation cords usually signify specific academic achievements for high GPA and academic excellence from high school honor societies. For example, if the student achieves the National Latin Honor Society honor, that graduation cord will be purple and gold.
What do the stoles mean at high school graduation?
High school graduation stoles, also called decorative vestments or sashes, are worn for a variety of reasons — from academic achievement to social clubs to membership in a professional organization. They are awarded and placed around the student at the time the diploma is awarded.
How To Get Graduation Cords High School Homeschool
You can award your homeschooler graduate any cord or stole that is appropriate based on their studies or activities. If the student is a member of an outside organization (outside of your homeschool), be sure to check with the organization about if, how, and when they award stoles or cords.
Can you get scholarships if you’re homeschooled?
Yes, your homeschooler can get a homeschool scholarship just like public schools or private schools and are often eligible for the same college scholarships as other students. There are many organizations that allow for homeschool students to apply for scholarships as long as they are meeting the application requirements or the any qualifying test requirements (like PSAT or NMSQT scores).
Do homeschoolers have a graduation ceremony?
Yes, homeschoolers have a graduation ceremony, too! Some areas have homeschool associations, co-ops, or groups that sponsor homeschool graduation ceremonies. In other areas, homeschool parents may decide to have a private homeschool graduation ceremony for their graduate. Either way, the celebrations include can include sending out homeschool graduation announcements, a graduation speech, graduation tassel side switch, and even the traditional graduation music.
Whether or not your graduate homeschool student wants to participate in a graduation ceremony is completely up to your family and not required.
A party for graduating from homeschool is just a way that some family celebrate the end of the high school years! So go crazy with your homeschool graduation ideas if you want!
When Is High School Graduation?
Traditional high school graduations take place generally in May or June. However, for homeschool graduation, you can decide to hold your high school graduation ceremony at any time that is convenient for your family.
We hope this helped answer your can you graduate high school by being homeschooled questions. Let us know if you have more homeschool grad questions!
NEXT STEP: NEED MORE HIGH SCHOOL RESOURCES? Check out how to homeschool your high school student AND ALSO How to write an opinion essay in high school
YOU’LL ALSO HAVE FUN WITH: Last Day Of Homeschool Ideas: Creative End of Year Celebrations
WE HOPE WE’VE HELPED WITH YOUR GRADUATION HIGH SCHOOL HOMESCHOOL QUESTIONS!
STARTING HOME SCHOOL? CHECK OUT OUR HOW TO HOMESCHOOL GUIDE
