Best Free Printable Homeschool Attendance Sheet

Looking for your own free printable homeschool attendance sheet?

Well, I’ve got some good news, Homeschool Mamma!

I just sat down in exasperation to make my own attendance form and I am all too happy to share it with you.

The one I started the year with is just not working for us.

It was supposed to be this easy-to-use, one-sheet miracle. I printed one out for each of my kids and slid it into their portfolios at the beginning of the year. 

Wait, Why Is An Attendance Tracker Even Needed?

I know, right? Why am I keeping track of attendance for my homeschool students?

As a new homeschooler, I had no idea how good I had it. I was homeschooling in a state that had very minimal homeschool requirements.

All I had to do was submit my “letter of intent” each year to the school district with a list of the subject areas I would be teaching. At the end of the year, I just had to show “proof of progress” through a portfolio, standardized test, or homeschool evaluator. 

Easy peasy!

We moved to a different state right before our 6th year of homeschooling started and I had quite the shock. Suddenly I had to submit a notarized affidavit, objectives, and get a “receipt of submission.”

I have required subjects to teach, required standardized testing for certain years, a homeschool portfolio must be submitted to an evaluator, AND I must present an attendance chart that shows 180 days were completed by the end of the school year.

So it’s been a little different this year. 

Why My First Attendance Sheet Wasn’t Working

I printed off a free attendance sheet that came highly recommended.

It was one sheet. It could be used year after year. And it was free. 

Done, right? Nope.

Pulling these printable sheets out of three different binders every day is kind of time-consuming…and I just plain forget.

I ended up recording attendance in batches – every couple of weeks. But this attendance sheet had no structure to tell you when the weekends were. It was just a long column of boxes for the days of the month.

I was constantly having to go back and forth with a calendar to remind me of holidays, trips, tournament weekends, family visiting, field trips, co-op events and other things that would affect our attendance.

I want to keep accurate records, so it was quite time-consuming to constantly be cross-referencing.

It only took me 3 months of the homeschool year to remember that I make homeschool printables for a living. Couldn’t I come up with an easy way for keeping homeschool records?

Wait, What about an Online Tool On A Mobile Device For Attendance?

I did briefly look into some homeschool apps for an easy-to-use homeschool attendance tracking sheet.

I wasn’t very successful.

The reviews were all over the place, and I found that the best options were definitely not free.

I was worried about the free apps being glitchy or having issues with printing the attendance spreadsheets at the end of the year.

When it came down to it, I just felt more comfortable using a paper copy that I knew I could keep track of in a binder.

How To Use My Improved Printable Homeschool Attendance Sheet

The above image is a blank version of my year-long attendance sheet template. It hits all the major goals!

It is all one page.

It is undated so that you can use it year after year.

It is in an attendance calendar style, so it is very easy to see the structure of the month with weekends. All you have to do is fill in the dates for each month.

I know that can sound laborious, but you can do it one month at a time. No big deal.

The attendance log also has an easy-to-use key to mark certain dates.

P = Student Present

S = Student Sick

F = Field Trip

N = No School 

If you don’t need all that, you can also just place a check mark on the days that you did home school. 

Next to each month, there is a blank to write the year. This is helpful for year-round schooling that might not follow a traditional schedule. You could also use that space to record how many days were completed that month. 

That way you’re not constantly counting and recounting to see how many days you’ve completed so far.

Lastly, there is space to easily record the name, grade, birthday, and the total number of days completed.

****It is so simple that older children and high school students could even be responsible for filling in their record of attendance as part of their daily schedule!

What Days Count As A School Day?

Well, that really depends on what your state says in its homeschool requirements. 

****If you have no idea what your state homeschool requirements are click here to check them out.

I live in Pennsylvania, and my state just says that we need to complete 180 school days.

There are no requirements for how long the day is or what has to be taught each day.

*Technically* all educational activities could be considered a school day for us. Church and VBS would be considered religious education with crafts and music.

Cooking or baking with my children would be considered Food & Nutrition or life skills.

Reading aloud to them is literature.

Playdates and sports events could be marked as P.E.

Conversations in the minivan could fall into so many categories – history, current events, philosophy, ethics, music, and so on. 

There is also no need to mark half days and things like that. 

I do not mark these sorts of things as school days, but I could if I wanted to,  Knowing that gives me a lot of peace about meeting this part of our year-end homeschool requirements.

****Again check the language of your state’s requirements and check-in with the homeschool moms near you too.

Should I Keep Track of Attendance Even If My State Doesn’t Require It?

Great question!

There is so much stress for homeschool moms in this area. I have heard of many parents doing all kinds of things – just in case.

For example, keeping workbooks, projects, and tests for years, just in case they *might* need to show them to somebody.

If it makes you feel better to have an attendance sheet to add to your student records, then by all means, do it!

There is no harm, and it would be a small amount of effort on your part. 

Something that might give you more peace of mind though is a membership with HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association). It is a very small amount of money per month, and it guarantees that you can call a lawyer 365 days a year to defend your rights as a homeschool parent. 

This gives me much more peace of mind than keeping mountains of records that the state doesn’t actually require.

Click Here To Download Your Printable Homeschool Attendance Record!

The above link will take you directly to a student attendance sheet in an instant download pdf file.

I know you’ll find it to be the perfect tool to keep track of your child’s attendance!

If you’re still looking for more homeschool record keeping printables, be sure to check out my free homeschool planner below!

It includes a reading log, space for lesson plans, field trip planning pages, and loads of extra homeschool printables. 

Enjoy and Happy Homeschooling!

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