Starting and running a small school in Georgia

What the statute requires

• Enrolled residents go to each district within 30 days, then at the end of each school month

  Section 20-2-690(b)(5) requires a private school to give each local district superintendent the name, age and residence of every resident of that district enrolled — within 30 days of the school year starting, and then, at the end of each school month, the enrollments and terminations during the preceding month. A school drawing from four districts owes four reports, monthly. The enrollment records must show when attendance was suspended and on what grounds, and may not be used for any purpose other than providing necessary enrollment information, except with parent permission, under court subpoena, or for attendance verification by the Department of Driver Services.

  O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690(b)(5) · last read 28 July 2026

• Charging money does not turn a Georgia learning pod into a regulated entity

  The Learning Pod Protection Act says outright that “payment for services by parents of children who participate in a learning pod does not alter this definition.” Pods are exempt from staff ratios, staff certifications, background checks, minimum instructional space, day-care regulation, and state or local building and fire codes. No agency may require a pod to register or otherwise report its existence, or conduct a site inspection that would not have happened but for the pod. Any rule that does touch pods must be justified by clear and convincing evidence that it is narrowly tailored and does not single out educational gatherings while leaving recreational ones alone. Still applicable: civil rights law, insurance, the physical health and safety of students, and laws preventing unlawful conduct.

  O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690(f)(2)–(8) · last read 20 July 2026

• Georgia is the one state here where telling the person in charge DOES discharge the abuse-reporting duty

  Section 19-7-5(c)(2) says an employee or volunteer “shall notify the person in charge… and the person so notified shall report,” and one who does so “shall be deemed to have fully complied.” The duty and the misdemeanor then sit with the person in charge, who may not alter the information. Deadline is immediate but no later than 24 hours. “School” is defined to include private schools, so teachers and administrators are covered by category; other staff and co-op volunteers come in as “child service organization personnel.” A parent homeschooling only their own children is not a mandated reporter.

  Where this is unsettled: Do not apply another state's rule here, and do not apply Georgia's elsewhere. In Florida the same act — telling your principal instead of reporting — is a felony.

  O.C.G.A. § 19-7-5(c)(1), (c)(2), (e)(2), (h) — verified as of OCGA Release 73 (2019) · last read 20 July 2026

What you file, and with whom

• File the declaration of intent ONLINE, or your child cannot get a driver's permit

  The Department requires “a copy of the Declaration of Intent with the 36-character parent signature” for a driving permit, a driver's license, or a Youth Work Permit. That 36-character signature is generated by the online submission — the printable form has only an ink signature line. The filing method, chosen years earlier, decides whether a family can produce the document the Department of Driver Services asks for. Keep the emailed copy; replacements are requested from homeschool@doe.k12.ga.us.

  Georgia DOE, “Georgia Home School” (Aug. 2025), p. 6; online form at apps.gadoe.org · last read 20 July 2026

• The declaration of intent has four elements, and the fourth is the one people leave off

  Students' names and ages, the program's address, the local school system it sits in, and the 12-month school year. The local school system is the element most often omitted, and the Department's own guidance warns that a form “missing information cannot be processed.” A rejected declaration is not a filed declaration — which matters because a family withdrawing from a Georgia public school should expect the district to need proof of enrollment within 45 days.

  O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690(c)(2); Georgia DOE, “Georgia Home School” (Aug. 2025) · last read 20 July 2026

What you have to keep

How this part is kept in Pearspark: attendance is a register per school year, immunizations are tracked against the list your state sets, enrollment and withdrawal dates sit on the student record, and each student's permanent records stay retrievable by the family and by a receiving school even if the school closes. How records work.

• 5:00 p.m. on the third business day — and “sending school” expressly includes private schools

  HB 268 (2025 Ga. Act 17) repealed and re-enacted § 20-2-670 entirely. Subsection (f)(1): “each sending school in this state shall immediately release a student's complete education record to any parent, legal custodian, receiving school, or another person or entity legally authorized to receive such records upon request by such requestor and under no circumstances later than 5:00 P.M. on the third business day following the date of such request.” Subsection (a)(13) defines “sending school” as “a local education agency or a public or private school which maintains education records of a particular student and is responsible for releasing such records to a requestor.” Where part of the record is not electronic, send the electronic portion within the window and notify the requestor by the same deadline when the rest will be ready.

  O.C.G.A. § 20-2-670(a)(13), (f)(1)–(2), as enacted by HB 268 (2025 Ga. Act 17, eff. 28 Apr. 2025) · last read 28 July 2026

• “Education records” is broad, and “critical records” must be current for 12 months

  The defined term reaches enrollment, attendance, schedules, transcripts, grades, discipline, student financial information, health records, special education records and psychological evaluations, and expressly includes the student's critical records. Within that, critical records must be current and complete for at least the most recent 12 months of enrollment. There is no retention period in the Act — a full-text search for “retain”, “retention” and “destroy” returns nothing, so the 12-month currency standard is the only durational rule.

  O.C.G.A. § 20-2-670(a)(1), as enacted by HB 268 (2025 Ga. Act 17) · last read 28 July 2026

• A private-school-to-private-school records dispute goes to the chief privacy officer, not the RESA

  The normal route for a records dispute is a written notice to the RESA student affairs officer of the RESA in which the sending school is located. Where both schools are private, the regional office stands down entirely and the parties are referred to the Department of Education's chief privacy officer. Sending the notice to the wrong body costs days against a three-business-day clock.

  O.C.G.A. § 20-2-670(g), as enacted by HB 268 (2025 Ga. Act 17) · last read 28 July 2026

• Home study progress reports are kept three years — one of the few explicit periods in any of these states

  Section 20-2-690(c)(8) requires an annual individualized assessment of academic progress in each of reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science, retained by the parent for at least three years and submitted to no agency. The separate triennial standardized test from the end of third grade (§ 20-2-690(c)(7)) says records “shall be retained” but names no period — the three years attaches by its terms only to progress reports, and was not extended to test records.

  O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690(c)(7)–(8) · last read 20 July 2026

School-choice program conditions

• Georgia Promise pays a maximum of $6,500, through Odyssey, on a quarterly cycle

  The official program site states the 2026-27 scholarship amount is set by law at a maximum of $6,500, with up to 5% withheld for operational expenses. The Georgia Education Savings Authority administers the program and Odyssey is the platform provider handling the online application and fund distribution through individual student accounts. Application periods for 2026-27 run 1–28 February and 1–31 October; initial funding lands at the start of the academic year with subsequent disbursements quarterly.

  Georgia Promise Scholarship, official program site · last read 28 July 2026

• The Promise annual report is due 1 August, and a withdrawal within 7 business days

  The 1 August report — first due in 2026 — carries aggregate attendance rates, course-completion rates for eligible core and CTAE courses, the dates of enrollment for each participating student in the prior year, and funds received per student. A second annual report on on-time graduation rates begins 1 August 2029. You must test every participating student each school year and report the test name, scores, raw data, percentile, plus grade, gender, race, socioeconomic status and English-language proficiency. Testing and reporting apply only to participating students, not your whole roll.

  Ga. Promise Scholarship Program Regulations §§ 10.6–10.8, 10.10–10.14, 10.19 (GSFC, eff. 18 Nov. 2024, amended 8 Aug. 2025) · last read 20 July 2026

• Promise: full accreditation within two school years, or you are removed

  Fiscal soundness means either one full year of operation or a CPA Independent Auditor's Report on a GAAP basis. Accreditation must be held or in process with an Authority-approved agency (ACSI, Cognia/SACS, GAC, GACS, GISA, GAPSAC, SAIS); an in-process school files an agency letterhead letter and must reach full accreditation within two school years or be removed. Each year you certify continued accreditation and compliance and complete the Authority's compliance form — eight attestations covering location, fiscal soundness, civil rights, health and safety codes, § 20-2-690, accreditation, testing, and no differential tuition. A reservation payment may not exceed $1,000 and must be returned to the Authority if the student does not attend.

  Ga. Promise Scholarship Program Regulations §§ 8.1.1–8.1.6, 9.6, 10.20, 16.3 · last read 20 July 2026

• The Special Needs Scholarship background check is the strictest duty here — and Promise has none at all

  Before a teacher is assigned to a GSNS student you must complete a criminal background check and maintain a copy of that teacher's government-issued photo ID together with the completed check, dated to show it was finished before initial student contact, showing legal name, valid SSN and date of birth. You must also maintain documentation of the background-check process itself and written protocols for post-hire criminal history. Teachers need a bachelor's degree or three years' education or health experience, and you give parents their credentials in writing annually. This exists only under GSNS: the Promise Scholarship regulations contain no background-check requirement at all.

  O.C.G.A. § 20-2-2115(a)(7); GaDOE GSNS Private School Responsibilities, Criterion 7 and Responsibility 8 · last read 20 July 2026

• A GSNS check may not leave the school premises, and may not be deposited without the parent's signature

  Apply to GaDOE by 30 June of the preceding school year, with a separate application per location. Give parents quarterly written descriptions of academic progress, administer valid and reliable pre- and post-academic assessments, and report results in writing to both parents and GaDOE. On payment: notify parents in writing when each check arrives, give them 30 calendar days to restrictively endorse it, never deposit without the parent's signature, return unendorsed checks to GaDOE — and checks may not leave the school premises. Notify GaDOE immediately on loss of accreditation, and parents immediately on becoming ineligible.

  O.C.G.A. § 20-2-2115(a)(6), (e)–(f); GaDOE GSNS Private School Responsibilities 1–16 · last read 20 July 2026