You decided in January to pull your son out of public school, typed "how to homeschool in California" into a search engine, and got 17 different answers. One page says you need a teaching credential. Another says you don't. A third, from your own school district, suggests that you must notify the district and have your plan approved. By the third contradictory result, you're wondering whether this is even legal. It is, and California is one of the lowest-regulation states in the country for homeschoolers, once you understand which pathway to use. The confusion is real, but it comes from people answering the wrong question.
Why California trips up new homeschoolers
California has four separate legal ways to educate a child at home, and most of the conflicting advice online comes from people describing a different one than the one you want. When one blogger walks through the public-charter route, and the next swears no credential is needed, both can be right about their own pathway and useless for yours, and that mismatch is how you end up with seventeen answers that refuse to agree. The bigger problem is that your first instinct, calling the local school district, sends you straight to the people least equipped to help. District staff are experts in public schools. Private education law is a different body of rules, and districts routinely misstate it, sometimes implying they have an approval authority they don't have. If you remember one thing, remember that the district is not your source of truth here. Before you do anything else, it helps to confirm the basics on can I homeschool my child and to handle the exit cleanly with how to withdraw from public school.
The four legal pathways
The legal foundation sits in two short statutes worth knowing by number. Education Code 48222 excuses a child from public school attendance when a private full-time day school educates her, and Education Code 33190 is the affidavit that registers that school. You do not need a credential to be in that school. The law asks only that the people teaching are "capable of teaching," a standard the state neither tests nor defines narrowly, so a parent without an education degree qualifies. With that frame in mind, here are four ways to do it.
Private School Affidavit (PSA). You run a small private school out of your home and file an annual affidavit with the state under Education Code 33190. No teaching credential, no curriculum approval, no reporting beyond that one yearly form. This is the right path for most families who want maximum independence, and it's what the rest of this guide focuses on.
Private School Satellite Program (PSP), also called an umbrella school. You enroll your child under an existing private school's affidavit, so that the school files for you and keeps the records. You trade some independence for administrative support, community, and sometimes co-op classes, and you usually pay a fee. Good for parents who want scaffolding and a name on the paperwork that isn't their own kitchen table.
Private tutor. You are a California-credentialed teacher who instructs at least three hours a day, 175 days a year. The credential requirement makes this rare; it mostly fits families where a parent already holds a credential and prefers this footing.
Public charter or independent study. Your child stays enrolled in the public system, keeps any IEP services and the per-pupil funding, but lives under public-school rules. Choose this only when keeping an active IEP is the priority, because the freedom you gain from the other paths is exactly what you give up here.
Filing the PSA, step by step
The affidavit lives online at www3.cde.ca.gov/psa, and you file it with the California Department of Education, not your district. The filing window for existing schools is October 1 through 15. New filers, including a family that decided in January to start, can file any time the system is open, which runs from August 1 through June 30. You do not have to wait until fall to begin homeschooling; you start when you start and file when you do.
Save proof that you filed. The system lets you print or save a confirmation, and that page belongs in your records alongside the affidavit itself. California won't mail you a certificate or check in on you, so the confirmation, your attendance register, and your course list are what you would show if anyone ever questioned your status. That question rarely comes, but a two-minute habit of saving the PDF each year spares you a scramble if it does.
The form asks for basic registration facts: your school's name and address, enrollment by grade, the number of teachers, where the records are kept, who keeps them, and the names and addresses of the people running the school. It asks you to confirm a criminal-records check for employees. It does not ask for your curriculum, your lesson plans, or your child's test scores, and filing it does not mean the state has approved, endorsed, or certified your program. The PSA is a registration, not a permission slip.
What California requires you to keep, and what it doesn't
The recordkeeping list is short. You're required to keep an attendance register, your courses of study (the subjects you teach), a list of the textbooks and materials you use, and the names, addresses, and qualifications of anyone teaching. That's the whole obligation, and good homeschool record keeping habits cover it without much effort.
California does not require any of the following, no matter what a district secretary tells you: no portfolio review, no standardized testing, no submitting records to the district, no curriculum pre-approval, no inspection visits, and no annual progress reports to any state or local office. There's also no minimum number of instructional hours or days that a PSA family has to hit, which surprises parents coming from the public system. If you're anxious about whether you're "doing enough," how many hours a day to homeschool walks through what a realistic day looks like when the state isn't setting a number for you.
Three mistakes that cost California families
Treating the school district as the authority. Families call the district for guidance, get told something wrong, and act on it. The district has no say over your private school. File with the state, keep your own records, and take district statements as opinion, not law.
Forgetting to refile every year. The PSA is annual. Filing once does not register you forever. Put October 1 through 15 on the calendar and refile each year you keep homeschooling.
Believing you can't start mid-year. The October window is for schools that already exist. A new family can file any time the system is open, so a January withdrawal does not trap your child in school until next fall. Start, then file.
When an umbrella school is worth it
A PSP carries the administrative weight for you. The school files the affidavit, holds the records, and often adds community: park days, co-op classes, a transcript service for high schoolers, and a person to call when you're unsure. Fees vary, usually a few hundred dollars a year, sometimes more for programs with lots of classes, so confirm current pricing with any program before you enroll.
The PSP is worth it when administrative support and community matter more to you than total independence, or when the idea of being your own school's record-keeper makes you nervous. Parents of high schoolers often lean this way, because a PSP can issue an official transcript and a diploma, which simplifies college applications when you'd rather not build those documents yourself. If you're confident in managing your own paperwork and you value control, the PSA alone is cheaper and more flexible. Plenty of families start in a PSP for a year to learn the ropes, then file their own PSA once they feel steady. Connecting with other families through a co-op or park day also addresses the socialization question that arises the moment you leave a school building.
A one-page decision
Most California families should file a PSA and run their own home-based private school, because it offers the most freedom for the least paperwork. Choose a PSP or umbrella school when you want administrative support and a built-in community more than you want independence. Choose a public charter or independent-study program only when keeping an active IEP and its services is your top priority, since that path puts you back under public-school rules.
The legal frame is light here; the hard part is filtering out bad advice. Start with how to start homeschooling for the wider picture, check California's entry on our states page for the requirements at a glance, and let the loudest voice in the room be the statute, not the district office.
