From Homeschool to Public High School

Thinking of transferring your student from homeschool to public high school? It can be very difficult to have homeschool credits accepted by a public high school. Don’t be surprised if they don’t accept any of your high school credits. They may accept them if the public school is not accredited, but usually it is at the discretion of the principal of the school. Many parents have reached out to us, sharing their frustrations with these schools. Read Robin’s account.

“Two of our four children wanted to attend public school after beginning homeschool high school. Enrolling them into public high school after they had been homeschooled for their freshman and sophomore years (for my son, freshman, sophomore and junior years) presented a unique set of challenges. There were inevitable adjustments they had to make, but both children adapted to the school environment well. Our primary issue that arose was the acceptance (or lack thereof) of the homeschool credits they had accumulated under my teaching.

Our son wanted to attend public school for senior year only. The public school he was compelled to attend would not accept any of our credits–not from our homeschool, nor from the small private school our son had attended for his junior year. This meant my son had effectively lost three years’ worth of educational progress. Despite providing evidence of the rigor of our curriculum in a detailed list of texts and supplemental resources, in addition to documented course descriptions of his homeschool classes–our attempts to reason with the school administration were an exercise in futility– they were perfectly within the scope of their authority to make that decision.

According to state homeschool graduation requirements, my son had enough credits to graduate from our homeschool, so after a semester at the public school, we withdrew him, and he graduated from our homeschool. I included the semester of public-school credits on his homeschool transcript, along with all his other credits. Regardless of the disappointment of not being able to attend and graduate from the public school with his peers, our son had no difficulty gaining acceptance to a university with his homeschool and private school credits. He graduated and is now working as an engineer. Clearly homeschooling did not negatively impact his chances for success in college and career.

On the other hand, when my daughter wanted to attend public school for junior and senior year, we were living in a different city than before. The school in our new city adopted a much more accommodating policy. They agreed to give her credit for most of her homeschool classes and resolved to evaluate other credits after confirming that my daughter demonstrated proficiency in relevant subjects. Therefore, she was able to begin school at the appropriate grade level. This was a tremendous relief, which revealed the stark contrast between the two schools, and their view of our homeschool education. It also provided a venue for our daughter to show her ability to adapt to and excel in a new academic environment–a testament to her determination and our preparation.

Despite the mixed results, I’m thankful that I prepared detailed records for our children. They provided evidence of our children’s academic aptitude, curriculum covered, and extra-curricular activities–-of course–-but beyond the drive to be organized, or prepared for possible college attendance, there were benefits to preparing records that I hadn’t anticipated. At a minimum, transcripts were necessary for job applications and obtaining discounts on car insurance. Beyond that, I found that record preparation was truly a way for me to be proactive about my children’s futures, and any opportunity that might come their way.”

– Robin in Colorado

Here are some ideas for your transcript that might be helpful if you are trying to move from homeschool to public high school:

• Make your transcript look like a small private school as much as possible.
• Mimic the course titles and transcript format of the public school you are trying to enter.
• When you bring in your transcript, I encourage you to bring in test scores as well – in particular, standardized tests (e.g. PSAT, Iowa Basic, CAT test, SAT or ACT, and etc.).
• In the academic areas of math, science, English, or history, you may want to provide tests or writing samples.
• Sometimes I have seen parents be successful when they provided course descriptions to a public school, but like in Robin’s experience, that might not always be the case.

I know of another homeschooler who tried to transfer into a public school with her genius child. They did “accept” her transcript, but they changed it significantly. For example, high school physics with Apologia was changed to 1 credit of “high school science requirement met.” Many of the changes undermined the hard work she and her child did. She was fairly sad about that.

There are no guarantees when you are going from homeschool to public high school; continuing to homeschool might be the best solution. If that is not possible, instead of entering a public high school, consider taking classes at a community college. Community college can be a Rated R environment, but it’s also significantly easier to gain admission there rather than a public high school. While it’s hard to get children into a public high school, remember that it’s much easier to get your child into a university. They are used to seeing students from unaccredited high schools and they are not freaked out by homeschoolers.