Homeschool record keeping exists for two audiences: your state education agency, and you. The second one matters more day to day.
This section holds the forms families use to track attendance and outside activities. They are templates, not legal documents, and they are built to be printed and filled in by hand.
What records are usually kept
- Attendance. Days of instruction, often counted against a state minimum.
- Coursework and hours. What was studied and for how long.
- Outside activities. Co-ops, lessons, volunteering, sports, and field trips.
- Work samples. Dated examples showing progress across the year.
The constraint to understand first
Homeschool requirements are set by states, and they differ substantially. Some states require nothing. Others require attendance counts, standardised testing, portfolio review, or notice of intent filed on a schedule.
Nothing in this section tells you what your state requires, and none of it is legal advice. Check your own state education agency before you rely on any form, and keep what they ask for even if it duplicates what you keep for yourself.
The practical argument for records is separate from the legal one. A year is long, memory is unreliable, and a dated page beats a recollection when you are deciding whether something is working.
Forms in this section
Use the attendance forms for day counts and the external activities forms for everything that happens outside the house. Planning tools are in time management, and the section index is in homeschooling.