California asks for very little. California is a light-touch state. There is something to file, and it is short. Below is exactly what, by when, and where it comes from in the code.

What you file, and by when

Depends on option. Most common: file the Private School Affidavit (PSA / "R-4" online form) with the CA Dept. of Education annually between October 1 and October 15, establishing the home as a private school (Ed. Code 33190). Enrolling in a Private School Satellite Program (PSP) shifts the PSA duty to the PSP. Public-school/charter independent study requires district enrollment paperwork instead. The private-tutor option (Ed. Code 48224) requires NO filing at all. Note: PSA filers with fewer than 6 students are exempt from some directory-publication elements but still file.

Days or hours

No statutory day/hour count for the PSA (home private school) route, the school must simply be a "full-time day school"; length of the school year/day is set by the private school itself. CDE guidance treats a public-school-comparable calendar (roughly 175-180 days) as prudent but it is not a codified homeschool mandate. The private-tutor option DOES have a hard rule: at least 3 hours/day, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., for 175 days per school year (Ed. Code 48224).

Subjects you must cover

Instruction must be in English (Ed. Code 30, 48222) and cover "the several branches of study required to be taught in the public schools." Grades 1-6 (Ed. Code 51210): English, mathematics, social sciences, science, visual and performing arts, health, physical education. Grades 7-12 (Ed. Code 51220): English, social sciences, world language, physical education, science, mathematics, visual and performing arts, applied arts, career technical education. No curriculum approval and no teacher credential required (credential required only for the 48224 private-tutor option).

Records you keep

Required for the PSA route: an attendance register recording every absence of a half-day or more (Ed. Code 48222); courses of study offered; names and qualifications of faculty ("persons capable of teaching"); the affidavit information itself. Records must be kept at the school (home) address stated on the affidavit and are subject to inspection by the school-attendance supervisor. Common practice/CDE guidance is to retain for at least 3 years. No records are filed with the state beyond the affidavit.

Testing or evaluation

None. California requires no standardized testing, no portfolio review, and no evaluation of homeschooled students under the PSA or private-tutor options. (Public charter/district independent study students do take state assessments as enrolled public-school students.)

Diplomas and transcripts

A home-based private school is a private school: the parent/administrator issues its own transcript and diploma, and California does not accredit, approve, or validate them. No state-issued homeschool diploma exists. UC/CSU admission generally goes through the alternate/examination path (SAT/ACT, AP, community-college coursework) rather than an approved a-g course list, since a-g approval requires an approved school. The CHSPE (age 16 or completion of 10th grade) is a state-issued certificate legally equivalent to a diploma and is the standard workaround for employment/military/financial-aid purposes; the GED is available at 18 (or 17 with conditions). Keep detailed course descriptions and credit hours in the transcript. New for 2026: the Safe Learning Environments Act (SB 848), effective July 1, 2026, extends child-abuse-prevention policy, training, mandated-reporter, and hiring-vetting duties to private schools, PSPs and multi-family co-ops should analyze applicability; single-family home private schools with only the parents' own children are widely read as out of scope, but this is new and untested.

Where this comes from

Statute: Cal. Educ. Code 33190 (private school affidavit); 48222 (private school exemption, attendance register, English); 48224 (private tutor: credential, 3 hrs/day, 175 days); 51210 and 51220 (required subjects); 51745 et seq. (independent study); 48412 (CHSPE)

Source: https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ps/

Last reviewed: July 2026 · our confidence in this entry: high

Homeschool law changes, and a page like this goes stale without announcing it. Check the statute above against your own reading before a filing deadline. If we are out of date, we would rather hear it from you than have you find out at the district office.

Keeping the records is the other half of this. Our Records System has the editable transcript with the GPA already wired, 131 course descriptions, and this same statute-cited summary for all fifty states and DC. Thirty-nine dollars, one household, however many children you have.