Graduation question--looking ahead

[2lilsweetfoxes]

If you homeschool your child independently, not through a charter, public-school-at-home, or a private home-based academy, how do you go about getting him/her the high school diploma or does the child have to take the GED? Or will I need to send her to school for the last year or so? I've heard of people paying through the nose for private schools only for the kid to have to get a GED because the school wasn't accredited to give diplomas.

(I'm trying to look ahead while sorting my options. I'd like to start homeschooling my daughter next year. She'll be "third grade". And my other daughter in about 5 years)

[SagMom]

It depends on what state you live in. Where I am, I could award a diploma to my kids--I haven't found a need to yet, but it's legal.

Some kids do take the GED. Others sign up with a cover school for the high school years. (Clonlara comes to mind, but there are others.)

You might also consider IF your child would need the certificate at all--there are colleges that don't require it, and personally, I can't remember ever being asked for proof of MY high school graduation.

[Madame Pomfrey]

Ditto on SagMom's point of checking your state laws. You can do that at the A to Z Home's Cool website. Another place to check is the university your child is interested in attending (if they want to go to college). Each has different requirements.

Most universities that we have researched for my 9th grade son don't want a portfolio as much as a sort of summary of what you did - called a "transcript." we keep track of what books we're using and toss his papers and reports in a box to keep. Some homeschoolers are asked for the Table of Contents of books they have used.

The university will assess his transcript along with SAT or ACT scores. He was told to be sure to take standardized tests throughout high school so that the university isn't just relying on one score - ACT Explore test is a good one to start with in 9th grade as it is administered at home. Then we're doing an Iowa this Spring at a local school, followed by the PSAT, ACT, and SAT over the next two years.

We'll issue a diploma ourselves, but it will mostly be ceremonial.

With thoughts and prayers for Haiti today,

Lucie Smoker

[Lillian J]

None of the four year colleges my son applied to asked for a diploma - they just asked for a graduation date, which is one we just chose on the basis of when he stopped listing himself as a high school student when taking community college classes and started listing himself as a college student taking them for credit. None of them asked for any test results other than the SAT. Our own "high school transcript" consisted of just a fairly general one page letter I wrote that described things he'd studied during his teen years, but he also had a transcript from the community college that gave grades for some classes he'd taken there. But the colleges he applied to were small private liberal arts colleges - various state universities or more competitive colleges would have stricter requirements. - Lillian

[ocelotmom]

Another way around the high school diploma issue is to go to community college instead of straight to a 4 year university. If you complete the transfer requirements at a community college, then you can just use that to apply to a 4 year college without the high school diploma or lack thereof being an issue.