You’ve got a plan for high school and you understand the paperwork you need to do…but how do homeschoolers graduate??

Graduation.

Caps & gowns. Pomp & Circumstance. Ceremonial moving of the tassels.

But what does graduation look like for homeschoolers?

Enough is Enough

In most states, you — as the homeschool — set the graduation requirements for your homeschool. (But know your laws!) The number of credits per subject & specific course requirements (such as one science lab or a US history course) is all up to you.

(We consulted several college entrance requirement pages & used those to determine what our homeschoolers needed in order to graduate.)

Typical Graduation Requirements

Okay…but what does that really look like?

Before we get to that, maybe you aren’t sure what even counts as a credit. High school credits are typically defined as 120-180 hours of work. Half-credit courses — often electives or courses like geography or government — are then (you guessed it!) 60-90 hours of work.

I’ll save you grabbing out the calculator you just started to reach for. A full-credit course works out to 3-5 hours of work a week (over 36 weeks) & 1.5-2.5 hours for a half-credit course over those same 36 weeks.

In real life, that looks like a typical high school math book, a single book/course of a level of foreign language, or a single science textbook.

Math — 4 credits
Science — 3 credits (including 1-2 lab classes)
Social Studies — 3 credits
English — 4 credits
Foreign Language — 2-3 credits
Fine Arts — 2 credits
P.E./Health — 2 credits

Other Graduation Requirements for Homeschoolers

Some families require their homeschoolers to volunteer X hours in order to graduate. Or master certain life skills, like budgeting & car care. Others include participation in sports or music as graduation requirements.

Don’t feel like this is a must. Many teens are naturally doing these things as they explore new opportunities & continue things they may have enjoyed for years.

What about a paper diploma?

You don’t need an actual paper diploma in order to get into college — transcripts are enough. Many families don’t ever produce a diploma, in fact. For most situations, transcripts are enough.

If you want to have one, you can order from sites like Homeschool Diploma or go to a site like Canva & use one of their templates. You could print it at home on nice paper or at a printing store for a fraction of the price.

(I decided to order a paper one, just for the rare time when my kiddo might need it & not having one would make it more difficult for her.)

Homeschool Graduation Ceremonies

Let me be real for a moment. Not watching my daughter walk across a stage was hard for me. Our co-op offered this, but she didn’t feel a connection to our co-op, so she didn’t want to do it. That was hard — harder than I anticipated. (We did have something at our church, so we did have a ‘closure’ of sorts.)

If you are not part of a homeschool co-op or group that offers one, you could certainly help create one. Even if it’s just a small group, it’s still a chance to celebrate & have that tradition.

Some families include a sort of ceremony in a graduation party for family & friends.

Many large cities offer a graduation ceremony for any homeschoolers in the area. If you don’t know of one, ask in your local Facebook group or there’s always Google.

Get legal with your state

In some states, there’s nothing you need to do — but you need to know your state laws! In my state, North Carolina, I needed to remove her from our homeschool records through the state.

This part is easy to overlook with the busyness of your kiddo’s senior year — but don’t! Put it on your calendar.