If you are working out how to withdraw your child from a Georgia public school, the thing to know before you do anything is the order. Georgia asks you to withdraw first and file second, which is the reverse of what most parents assume, and getting it backwards is the most common way this goes wrong.
Georgia gives you two routes
Route one is a home study program, filed with the Georgia Department of Education. Route two is enrolling in a private school, which involves no declaration at all.
Route one, the common one
Home study program
Declaration of Intent filed with the state, not your district
Within 30 days of starting, then every year by September 1
Attendance records kept monthly
Standardised assessment every three years
Route two
Enrolling in a private school
No Declaration of Intent
No September 1 renewal
The school keeps the records instead of you
A separate path under Georgia law. Whether a particular online program qualifies is worth confirming before you rely on it, so ask a counselor first.
How to withdraw, step by step
Withdraw first, and only then file
Georgia runs in the opposite order to what most parents assume. Withdraw your child from the school before you file anything with the state. Filing first creates a record of a home study program for a student who is still enrolled somewhere else.
Send written notice to the school
Email the principal and the registrar with the effective date, and request the full record in the same message. The school updates its attendance file from that notice, which is what stops absences accruing.
File the Declaration of Intent
Georgia’s declaration goes to the state Department of Education rather than your local superintendent, which catches out families who have moved from another state. It is due within 30 days of establishing the program, and again each year by September 1.
Hand a copy to the school the same day
Not required, strongly advised, and the reason is in the pro tip below.
Collect the records, then start your own
Request the cumulative folder, then begin the monthly attendance record Georgia expects you to keep. Starting it in month one is far easier than reconstructing it in month five.
Eagle pro tip
Give the school a copy of your Declaration of Intent on the day you withdraw, not whenever you get to it. If the school has not seen a declaration within 45 days of a withdrawal, Georgia directs it to refer the family to the Division of Family and Children Services for an assessment. Nothing is wrong, the paperwork is simply missing, and a copy handed over on day one prevents the entire thing. This is the most useful sentence on this page.
Elementary and middle school
For younger students the practical question is pacing rather than credits. Bring recent work samples along with the report card, because a child leaving mid-grade has partial-year progress no report card captures. Our Georgia K-12 online home school program covers the elementary and middle grades and how a student joins part-way through a year.
High school, where the credits matter
For a high school student, withdrawal is really a credit question. Find out how many credits your child has banked and which in-progress courses are lost if they leave mid-semester. Sometimes the right answer is to withdraw at the end of a grading period rather than immediately.
A consistent school-issued transcript can reduce credit-transfer confusion later, though receiving institutions evaluate placement under their own requirements. If you are unsure what your child still needs, how many credits it takes to graduate and the high school grading scale are the two most useful things to read next. Families withdrawing a rising freshman usually want 9th grade online, and adults finishing a diploma they started years ago should read the adult diploma guide instead.
Pull your student transcript first
We will show you exactly where they stand and what comes next. Start with a free transcript review.
Or call (888) 242-4262.
What usually goes wrong
Filing before withdrawing
The order matters in Georgia, and it is the reverse of what most families assume.
Letting the school wait for the paperwork
This is the costly one. See the pro tip above.
Missing the September 1 renewal
The declaration is annual, not once. The renewal is the deadline families forget in year two.
Starting the attendance record late
Georgia expects a monthly record. Reconstructing five months of it from memory is miserable and avoidable.
Moving, or comparing states?
Withdrawal rules are state law, so the procedure changes the moment you cross a line. Georgia files with the state and renews every September. Just south, it is different again: our guide to withdrawing from a Florida public school covers a state that files with the local superintendent instead, and our North Carolina withdrawal guide covers a third variation.
If you would rather talk it through, a counselor can walk you through both Georgia routes and what each asks of you. Call (888) 242-4262 or book a time.