Contributors: Shannon Bower, Ashley Lawson, Peggy Ployhar, and Jessica Lovett

Your homeschooler is getting ready to start high school! You know what that means… Right, making a transcript. Transcripts are monumentally important!

Don’t be intimidated by the thought of creating a homeschool transcript for your student. A transcript is basically a list of courses and other credit-worthy activities your student completed in high school.

Never fear, THSC is here to help you create a professional, functional, and official transcript for your student.

Homeschooling high school students may seem daunting, but once you learn these simple hints for good record-keeping and review the ways to compose a winning transcript, you’ll see it’s really no more complicated than homeschooling elementary and middle school students.

What Is A Homeschool Transcript?

1. Transcripts are typically one-page overviews of your student’s accomplishments during high school. No matter what your student hopes to do in life, ensure that they have a tailored high school transcript, as these are used in college admissions, apprenticeships, and military admissions.
2. Prospective students are typically required to submit an original copy of their high school transcript when applying for admission to higher-level educational institutions.

Does it have to be notarized to be official?

1. Occasionally, upon enrolling in classes at a university, community college or trade school, a homeschool graduate will be asked to provide a notarized, original transcript.
2. In order to obtain this, the student’s parent(s) must sign the transcript in the presence of a notary public who will then notarize the signature.
3. Other colleges might require a homeschool affidavit that homeschool students must request from the college, complete and return.
4. Even though notarizing your homeschool transcript or diploma is not required by the state, it is a way to certify that you (the parent) officially prepared your student’s school records.
5. For notarized copies of the original transcript, there must be a note on the copy somewhere saying that it is an exact copy of the original, and the notary witnessed that exact copy being signed.
6. Verify with the college, university or technical school whether they require an original transcript or if they will accept a digital copy of the notarized copy of the original transcript, as some will not.

What exactly is supposed to be in a transcript?

1. Title and “Official High School Transcript”
   • Use your homeschool name (we recommend that you don’t name your homeschool for reasons listed in this article but something like “Smith Homeschool” instead).
2. Use your homeschool name (we recommend that you don’t name your homeschool for reasons listed in this article).
3. Student information: name, birthday, address and gender. Social security number is optional.
4. If you don’t want to put your student’s number on the transcript, include a statement such as, “Social security number: will provide upon acceptance.”
5. High school courses taken
6. Parent’s official signature
7. High school graduation date
8. Remember to use a consistent grading scale throughout
9. Optionally, you may include a course description page along with your high school transcript. This way, colleges and employers can see exactly what each course name on your student’s transcript entailed.

Do all homeschooled students have to have a transcript?

Transcripts are important and can be required for:

1. Higher education
2. Employment
3. Military service
4. Scholarship committees
5. Trade schools
6. Apprenticeship programs
7. Auto insurance good student driver discounts.

What is the best way to keep records for a high school transcript?

1. Starting on the student’s transcript immediately when they begin taking courses can be useful.
2. One strategy is to create a computer folder with 2 documents:
   1. A Microsoft Word document where you list a description of courses taken and the year the course is taken.
   2. A homeschool transcript template in Excel (THSC provides this to members).
3. After the student finishes a course, it is recommended to immediately notate this in your transcript document and course description document.
4. Keep track of all of your student’s test scores.
5. It’s also a good idea to keep track of your student’s recognitions, certificates or awards.
6. This is much easier and less time consuming than trying to remember all the courses a student has taken over the last four years and trying to locate paper records during the student’s senior year.

Additional inclusions for your homeschool high school transcript:

1. See the TEA’s recommended high school credits at our High School and Beyond article.
2. Typically a year-long high school course counts as one credit and a semester-length course counts as half a credit.
3. Extracurricular activities, like music lessons, or community service can also be notated on the transcript.

What about college credit or dual credit courses?

1. Whether dual credit classes or credit-by-exam, college classes can count as both high school and college credit.
2. When listing a college course on your high school transcript, use the title of the course from the college and the course number, along with the grade received from the college and the number of credits that the college awarded.
3. A three-hour to five-hour-credit college course will convert to one credit on your student’s high school transcript.
4. Typically a college course will be one semester, but because it is more challenging than a high school course, even a one-semester dual credit or college course may count as one high school credit.
5. Typically a college course will be one semester, but because it is more challenging than a high school course, even a one-semester dual credit or college course may count as one high school credit.
6. For credit by exam, one CLEP test or DSST test that is worth a three-credit-hour college course can be counted as one high school credit.

What about the TEA (Texas Education Agency) requirements?

1. The TEA states: “The TEA does not regulate, index, monitor, approve, register, or accredit the programs available to parents who choose to homeschool.”
2. Most original diplomas are now transferred electronically or directly from high schools to colleges or companies, and students should not handle official diplomas.
3. The TEA does not require public school students to get their transcripts notarized, and homeschool students are no exception.

How do I calculate grades for our homeschool transcript?

1. Each course on your student’s transcript must have a grade (whether from semesters or final grades). Make sure that you are realistic with your grading—don’t give your student 100s on all subjects in the transcript form.
2. At the beginning of each academic year, determine how much weight the assignments, tests, quizzes, and projects will contribute to your student’s final grade for that course. Then write down your grading strategy, inform your student, and then stay consistent.
3. You will also want to include a GPA for your student, because colleges rely on this for admissions. This can be done with THSC’s template for members or by using a free online GPA calculator.

What about extracurricular activities and community service?

1. Participating in (and documenting) non-academic pursuits can be a rewarding experience that transforms your student’s credits into an outstanding transcript.
2. Even activities such as playing an instrument or helping at your church’s vacation Bible school can count as community service on a transcript.
3. Extracurricular exploration brings a plethora of benefits along with those grades for the transcript.

Do colleges accept homeschool transcripts?

1. Colleges should accept homeschool transcripts.
2. THSC is experienced with helping members get student transcripts accepted (should an issue arise).
3. Read more about THSC’s ongoing efforts to keep colleges and universities from discriminating against homeschooled students in this article.

How to start making a transcript?

1. Access THSC’s ready-made homeschool transcript template through THSC member benefits.
2. THSC offers two template versions (by year or by subject) that you can fill in.
3. These are downloaded as spreadsheet homeschool transcript templates in Excel.
4. Both versions even calculate your student’s GPA automatically for you.

Whether you’ve been using a free homeschool program or using a private-school-at-home model, your high school student definitely needs a transcript.

Hopefully you as a homeschooling parent now feel more equipped and qualified to create a professional transcript for your student!

THSC believes that parents should be empowered to raise and educate the next generation of leaders. As a THSC member, we support your family to do just that!

Join THSC today and immediately start taking advantage of your member benefits.