Monthly enrollment reports to every district you draw from, a 5:00 p.m. records clock, and a learning-pod statute that forbids the state from regulating you.
14 cited requirements · 9 dated deadlines · 28 sources · every claim as of , the oldest reading date on this page
In short
Georgia private schools report enrolled residents to each local district monthly, and since 2025 must release a student's complete education record by 5:00 p.m. on the third business day after it is requested — a duty that expressly binds private schools. Home study programs file one declaration of intent a year and keep their own records, including annual progress reports for three years. Learning pods sit outside all of it by statute, even when they charge.
How Georgia classifies a school like yours
This is the fork everything else hangs off. Get it wrong and every deadline below is the wrong set of deadlines.
Private school
Six statutory criteria in § 20-2-690(b), including monthly enrollment reporting to each district you draw residents from, 180 days of at least four and a half hours, and health and safety standards for any building used as a school. No state approval or accreditation is among them.
The Department of Education states that the declaration of intent is the only document a home study program must submit to the state. Test scores and progress reports are kept by the parent, not filed.
A voluntary association of parents grouping their children K-12 to participate in or enhance a remote learning option. The Learning Pod Protection Act works by restraint on government rather than by duty on you: a pod has no recordkeeping duty of any kind.
14 requirements, grouped by what kind of duty they are. Every one links to the statute, rule or agency document it was read in, with the date it was read there.
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.
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.
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 misdemeanour 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.
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 licence, 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.
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.
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.
“Education records” is broad, and “critical records” must be current for 12 months
The defined term reaches enrolment, 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 enrolment. 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.
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.
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.
Georgia Promise pays a maximum of $6,500, through Odyssey, on a quarterly cycle
The official programme 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 programme 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.
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 enrolment 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.
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.
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.
A GSNS cheque 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 cheque arrives, give them 30 calendar days to restrictively endorse it, never deposit without the parent's signature, return unendorsed cheques to GaDOE — and cheques may not leave the school premises. Notify GaDOE immediately on loss of accreditation, and parents immediately on becoming ineligible.
Most of these bind only some schools — read the “applies to” line before putting one in your calendar. Several bind the family rather than the school.
5:00 p.m. on the third business day after the request
Release the student's complete education record to a parent, legal custodian, receiving school, or anyone legally authorized.
Applies to:
Public and private schools alike — “sending school” is defined to include private schools
If it slips:
Statutory violation under the 2025 Act. Where part of the record is not electronic, the same deadline applies to telling the requestor when the rest will be ready.
The school-choice money, and what taking it costs you
Georgia Promise Scholarship (plus the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship)
What it pays
The Promise Scholarship amount for 2026-27 is set by law at a maximum of $6,500 per student, with up to 5% withheld for programme operational expenses.
How the money actually moves
The Georgia Education Savings Authority administers the Promise Scholarship, with Odyssey as the platform provider running the online application and distributing funds through individual student accounts. Initial funding lands at the start of the academic year, with subsequent disbursements quarterly. The Special Needs Scholarship is a different animal entirely: GaDOE issues paper cheques the parent must restrictively endorse, within 30 days, on the school premises.
What a school must be before it can take any
Promise: one full year of operation or a CPA Independent Auditor's Report; accreditation held or in process with an Authority-approved agency, reaching full accreditation within two school years; annual certification and an eight-part compliance form; annual testing and reporting for participating students only; reservation payments capped at $1,000. GSNS: apply by 30 June per location, background-check and photo-ID file for every teacher before initial contact with a GSNS student, quarterly written progress to parents, pre- and post-academic assessments.
Duties commonly assumed to reach private schools in Georgiathat, read in the source, do not. Knowing what you don't have to do is worth as much as the list of what you do.
Georgia has NO missing-child school-record flagging duty. A full-text search of the current official OCGA for “missing child” and “missing children” returns 8 hits, all in Title 35 (Missing Children Information Center) and Title 16 — zero in Title 20 — and a combined search for “missing child” with “school record” returns nothing. The operative duty runs to law enforcement only under § 35-3-84, itself amended effective 1 July 2025, so this is current rather than a stale artifact. Seven of the fourteen states researched bind private schools here; Georgia does not, and assuming Arizona's or Ohio's rule applies is the common error.
Form 3300 (vision, hearing, dental and nutrition screening) is a public school requirement. The rule is titled for children entering public schools and the statute speaks only of students entering first grade in the public schools. It does not reach private schools or home study programs.
The annual immunization report to the Department of Public Health under § 20-2-771 is imposed on “facilities,” statutorily defined as public or private child care learning centers or nurseries. A private K-12 school does not owe this report — though it does owe a current Form 3231 certificate of immunization on file for every enrolled child.
The research behind this page recorded what it could not confirm as carefully as what it could. None of the following is a claim that no requirement exists — it is a statement that no primary source for one was read.
Open questions
Whether Georgia's immunization requirements apply to home study programs. The immunization statute and rules contain no mention of home study or homeschooling, the definition of “school” is textually ambiguous as applied, and the state's homeschool guidance does not mention immunization at all. No claim is made either way.
Retention period for private school attendance and enrollment records — the statute creates the records but names no period, and no binding Georgia rule was found.
Retention period for home study standardized test records. The three-year period attaches by its terms only to progress assessment reports.
Private school teacher qualification requirements. Section 20-2-690(b) sets out six criteria and none concerns certification, but other statutes and accrediting bodies were not audited.
Private school safety inspection cadence, inspecting authority, or documentation to retain.
Private school transfer and withdrawal duties beyond the monthly superintendent notification and the § 20-2-670 records clock.
Zoning
Not covered. This research is state statute and administrative rule only, and zoning for a small school is a municipal question — a use classification, an occupancy threshold and a conditional-use process, all set by city ordinance. Rather than extrapolate, we have left it out. Ask your city's planning department which use classification applies to a school of your size in your building.
How to read what is here
Georgia's official OCGA portal has no stable per-section deep link and its document pages are CAPTCHA-gated, so the § 20-2-690, § 20-2-771, § 19-7-5 and § 35-3-84 URLs here point at a commercial publisher of the code text rather than at the state. The mirror the original research used, ga.elaws.us, was returning HTTP 503 across the whole site on 2026-07-28, and law.onecle.com's Georgia section pages now 404 — so both fallbacks the research recorded are gone. The four sections were re-read on the replacement host that day and matched. The § 20-2-670 text was read the same day in the enrolled PDF of HB 268 itself, which is primary. Do not treat a broken or shifting Georgia link as evidence the law changed.
Official OCGA currently carries two versions of § 20-2-690 — one effective until 1 July 2026 and one from it. The four provisions relied on here are identical in both.
GaDOE guidance links rot silently: a live HTTP 200 is not evidence the document is current. GaDOE published an August 2025 homeschool overview at a new address while leaving the superseded October 2024 edition serving 200 at its old URL. Cite the url.gadoe.org shortlinks, which the Department repoints — currently /intqf (overview), /fqql6 (printable declaration of intent) and /1xnob (Dexter Mosely guidance). Re-check editions by downloading and reading the cover date, never by status code.
The machine route for Georgia bill PDFs still works but the recorded recipe needs one correction: legis.ga.gov's /api/legislation/document/{session}/{docId} takes the DOCUMENT id, not the legislation id. For HB 268 that is 238529, not 69929, and passing the legislation id now returns HTTP 500. Send both a browser User-Agent and a Referer header; `pdftotext -layout` then extracts cleanly.
Sources
Every source cited on this page, with the date it was last read. Four hosts used here — codes.findlaw.com, law.justia.com, k12.ncseaa.edu and azed.gov — refuse automated requests but open normally in a browser.
8 states are covered so far, chosen on search demand and school-choice programme size. The other 42are not, and we would rather leave a gap than publish a page we haven't researched.