Log each school day as you go: hours, subjects and the books you read. The log is set up for your state's rules, keeps a running total against what the state asks for, and prints filled in or blank. One log for each of your children.
A free parent account comes with a Home class. Add your children as students and see every project they make and every lesson they finish. See what they can make, by age.
Make a free parent accountFrom our state guides, each written from that state's statutes and dated. Open your state's guide for the citations and everything else it requires.
| State | What to keep | |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Arizona sets no day or hour count for homeschools and requires no attendance log. Keep your date-stamped affidavit and a copy of the proof of age you filed; a record of the five required subjects is optional but helps with transcripts. | Log · Guide |
| California | An attendance register that shows every absence of a half day or more. It is required by statute and is the record most often wrongly called optional. | Log · Guide |
| Florida | A log of educational activities made as you go, naming reading materials by title, plus work samples. Keep it two years; the district may ask to see it on 15 days' notice. | Log · Guide |
| Georgia | Instruction equal to 180 days at 4.5 hours a day. Georgia never collects it, but you attest to it every year on the Declaration of Intent. | Log · Guide |
| Illinois | Illinois sets no number of days or hours and requires no records. Keep a simple log of which of the six required subject areas you taught and when, plus your withdrawal letter, so you can show your child is being taught if a truant officer asks or your child re-enrolls. | Log · Guide |
| Michigan | Michigan sets no day or hour count and no law requires home school records. Keep a simple log of your organized program in the nine required subjects, with progress notes and work samples, in case a district asks or your child returns to school. | Log · Guide |
| Missouri | An hours ledger for a school year that runs July 1 to June 30: 1,000 hours, 600 of them core, and 400 of those core hours at your regular home school location. | Log · Guide |
| New York | Attendance records, produced if the district asks, and an hours total for each quarterly report: 900 hours a year in grades 1 to 6, 990 in grades 7 to 12. | Log · Guide |
| North Carolina | Annual attendance records for each student, for a school that runs on a regular schedule at least nine calendar months a year. A daily register is the easiest way to show it. | Log · Guide |
| Ohio | Ohio sets no day or hour count and requires no attendance log. Keep copies of each yearly notice and every superintendent acknowledgment letter, plus a simple record of teaching the six required subjects in case anyone asks. | Log · Guide |
| Pennsylvania | A log made as you go that names reading materials by title, for your evaluator. Instruction is 180 days, or 900 hours at the elementary level and 990 at the secondary level: either one, not both. | Log · Guide |
| Tennessee | For the independent pathway: attendance kept all year and submitted to the district at the end of it, at 4 hours a day for 180 days. Church-related and umbrella schools keep their own records. | Log · Guide |
| Texas | Nothing, by law. The driver license verification form asks you to attest to attendance over the prior 80 school days, which is much easier with a simple daily record. | Log · Guide |
| Virginia | Nothing specified by statute: Virginia sets no days, hours or record rules. A log still helps with the evaluator letter or a return to school. | Log · Guide |
| Washington | Washington asks for instruction equal to an annual average of 1,000 hours for grades 1 through 12, with no daily minimum and no day count, but no statute requires a log. Keep each year's declaration of intent and the annual test or written assessment, which the law makes part of your child's permanent records. | Log · Guide |
Reference information reviewed August 2026 against primary sources (statutes, NCAA and Common App published requirements). This is general information, not legal advice; requirements change, so verify anything load-bearing for your family against your state's current law.
It depends on the state. California requires an attendance register, Missouri an hours ledger, New York attendance records and quarterly hour totals, North Carolina annual attendance records, and Tennessee independent home schools submit attendance at the end of each year. Pennsylvania and Florida require a log that names reading materials by title. Texas, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Arizona require no log at all, and Washington asks for an annual average of 1,000 hours without requiring a log.
Yes. Print a blank log for your state and fill it in by hand. What the states that ask for a log care about is that it is kept as you go, not reconstructed at the end of the year.
Usually it counts as instruction, but check your state guide. Missouri is the case to watch: co-op days count toward the 1,000 and the 600 core hours, but not toward the 400 core hours that must happen at your home school location.
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