Chatham County · the Georgia coast
Savannah Online High School
Accredited grades nine through twelve. A Georgia diploma takes twenty-three units, whoever teaches them. What enrolling changes is who holds the record.
What a Savannah online high school is
An accredited online school serving Savannah, Georgia, and an online high school teaching ninth through twelfth grade and issuing its own diploma. Teachers own the courses, the work is self paced rather than held to a class bell, and enrollment opens in any month. Georgia’s requirement does not change: twenty-three units, in a set breakdown.
The two questions behind every Savannah first call
Families searching for a high school online in Savannah are usually asking one of two things. Either can my student finish, or does the work already done still count. Both are answered by the same table, so the table comes first and everything else follows from it.
- It is a school, not courseware. See how online high school works.
- The diploma is issued by the school. Whether an online diploma is real is a fair question and has a plain answer.
- Savannah sits in Chatham County on the Georgia coast and is served by one county-wide district, so a high school diploma in Savannah answers to one set of rules.
- It belongs to our Georgia online high school program, alongside the rest of the state.
The twenty-three units a Georgia diploma requires
Georgia sets this, not the school. The State Board rule lists a minimum of twenty-three units and names the areas they come from. Any accredited Georgia high school, online or not, works from this same list, which is why a Savannah high school diploma and a diploma earned online answer to identical arithmetic.
| Area | Units | What tends to sit here |
|---|---|---|
| English and language arts | 4 | One each year, ninth through twelfth |
| Mathematics | 4 | The sequence a student is already partway through |
| Science | 4 | Including the lab courses |
| Social studies | 3 | United States and world history, government, economics |
| CTAE, modern language or Latin, or fine arts | 3 | Any mix of the three, which is the flexible band |
| Health and physical education | 1 | A single unit covering both |
| Electives | 4 | Where real work that fits nowhere else lands |
| Total required | 23 | The number every plan is built backward from |
Why the search term does not change the answer
Whether you searched for a high school diploma near Savannah or a Savannah GA high school diploma, the requirement is the one above. A Savannah Georgia high school diploma clears exactly the same bar as one earned anywhere else in the state.
Sources: Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 160-4-2-.48 and the rule as published by the Georgia Department of Education, both checked 11 September 2026. A fuller walkthrough sits in our guide to how many credits it takes to graduate.
A plan is not a guess about pacing. It is twenty-three minus what is already earned.
What one unit actually means
The same rule defines a unit as a minimum of 150 clock hours of instruction, or 135 on an approved block schedule. That floor matters to anyone weighing a self paced online high school in Savannah, because the hours have to be there however the weeks are arranged around them. Course by course, that is what the high school course list is built to clear.
How credits transfer into a Savannah online high school
Before anything is quoted, the transcript is read against that list, course by course. Families are surprised in both directions, which is the reason it happens first rather than after an enrollment.
Savannah courses that fit nowhere on the list
Work that does not map cleanly is not discarded. Electives are four of the twenty-three, and that band is where a course from a specialty program, a summer session or a year in another state usually lands. Students arriving mid-year should read what a mid-year transfer involves first.
Accredited online high schools, and what accreditation buys
What the word actually does
Accreditation is not a badge on a page. It is what allows a school to hold a record on a family’s behalf and to issue a diploma that a college registrar, an employer or the next school will accept without argument. That mechanism is the whole difference between a virtual classroom and a school of record.
- Who teaches: a teacher of record, not a parent acting as one. Accreditation explained covers what that requires.
- Who holds the transcript: the school, for as long as it is needed afterward.
- What it costs: there is a straight answer on tuition, and payment options are listed rather than quoted on a call.
- How it compares: online school against homeschool against public school, side by side.
The four things Savannah families actually weigh
Families comparing accredited online high schools in Savannah, or weighing online high school programs in Savannah against the district, usually end up on those four things and nothing else. High school online classes in Savannah are the delivery; the four above are the decision.
What Chatham County families are already used to
Chatham County is served by one county-wide district rather than a patchwork of them. Savannah-Chatham County Public School System reports 35,744 students across 56 schools in the federal data, and it runs Choice programs and specialty schools alongside the neighborhood ones.
- 35,744 students in one county-wide system, not a patchwork of districts.
- 56 schools, including Choice and specialty programs alongside the neighborhood ones.
- One application habit most families here already have.
Choosing a school is not new in Chatham County
So the school a child attends here is already partly an application rather than only an address. Most families in this county have made a school choice before, and often more than once. An accredited online high school in Savannah Georgia is that same decision made a different way.
District figures from the NCES Common Core of Data district detail for 2024 to 2025, and the district’s own site at sccpss.com. Both checked 11 September 2026.
The declaration of intent, if you teach at home
What Georgia asks of a home study program
This is the other route and a genuinely different set of duties. Georgia’s home study statute is specific, and a parent carries every one of them for as long as the program runs.
| Notice | A declaration of intent to the superintendent of the local school district, within 30 days of starting and by September 1 every year after. It names each child and their age, where the program is, and which 12 months count as that program’s school year. Georgia takes it online. |
|---|---|
| Who teaches | The parent or guardian must hold at least a high school diploma or a state-approved HSE diploma. Georgia asks nothing further of the teacher. |
| Time | Instruction equivalent to 180 school days in each 12 months, each day at least four and a half hours. |
| Subjects | Reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science, at a minimum. |
| Testing | A nationally standardized test at least every three years, beginning at the end of third grade. The results stay with the family; Georgia does not collect them. |
| Records | A written progress report each year, subject by subject, kept by the parent for at least three years. |
| Statute | O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690(c). |
The declaration of intent is due within 30 days of starting, and again by September 1 every year you continue. Late is late under the statute; it does not bar you from the route.
Where those duties go when a student enrolls in a school
They do not get shorter. They change hands, which is the mechanism behind an accredited school of record and the reason the two routes are not interchangeable.
If you are teaching at home yourself in Savannah: Georgia wants a declaration of intent filed with your local school superintendent within 30 days of starting, and again by September 1 each year you continue. It lists each child and their age, the address of the program, and the 12 months you are calling that program’s school year. You keep the testing and the yearly progress reports; the state does not collect them.
If your child enrolls in a school instead: that is the other route. The declaration, the 180 days, the four and a half hours and the third-grade testing cycle are duties of a home study program, and a school holds the record in their place. If you have already filed for this year, say so on the first call and a counselor will tell you what is left to do.
Enrolling in a Savannah online high school
Three things happen, in this order, and none of them cost anything to begin.
One: the transcript is read
Send what you have, partial years included. A counselor reads it against the twenty-three and tells you the remaining number before any plan is discussed. Grade level sets the starting point: ninth grade online, tenth grade online, eleventh grade online or twelfth grade online.
Two: the plan is built backward from that number
Which courses, in what order, roughly how long. A student arriving with seventeen units is planning six, not four years. Younger siblings are a separate conversation, through middle school online, which runs sixth grade online, seventh grade courses online and eighth grade courses online.
Three: the record moves
The school becomes the school of record, holds the transcript and issues the diploma. For families who had filed a declaration of intent, that duty ends when enrollment begins.
- What to send: the transcript, partial years included, and any course descriptions you have.
- What comes back: the remaining unit count, in writing, before anything is quoted.
- What it costs to ask: nothing. The reading happens before enrollment, not after.
Ask for the remaining number first. Everything else is a consequence of it.
Where Savannah sits in the Georgia program
This page sits beside the page for Atlanta families and the page for the Augusta area. For kindergarten through twelfth on the home study route, start at the K-12 online home school program. Everything begins at the online school home page.
Questions Savannah families ask about online high school
Three things that settle most of it
The four below come up on nearly every first call from Chatham County. Three things settle most of the rest:
- The requirement is the state’s twenty-three units, not ours.
- The remaining number is knowable before you enroll, not after.
- The school holds the record once a student is enrolled, and issues the diploma.
What does it cost?
Tuition depends on grade level and program track, and both monthly plans and pay-in-full options exist. Start at the tuition page; a counselor gives you the actual figure on the first call, which carries no charge.
Do I still file a declaration of intent if my child enrolls with you?
No. The declaration, the 180 days and the every-three-years testing belong to Georgia’s home study route under O.C.G.A. § 20-2-690(c). Enrolling in a school is the other route, and the school holds the record instead. If you have already filed for this school year, say so on the first call and a counselor will tell you what, if anything, is left to do.
We missed September 1. Is it too late to change anything?
The September 1 date belongs to the home study declaration, not to enrolling in a school. Enrollment here is rolling and tied to no district calendar, so a family that missed the date is not waiting until next fall to make a decision.
What happens to my child’s IEP or 504 plan?
An IEP or 504 plan belongs to the district that wrote it and does not travel off that district’s roll. What does travel is the federal right under IDEA to request a no-cost evaluation from your local district, enrolled there or not. Put that request in writing to the district serving Savannah. Tell a counselor what the plan provided before you enroll.
How many credits does my student already have, and how many are left?
The one question a general answer cannot settle. Send whatever the last school filed, even a photograph, and a counselor gives you both numbers before any assignment is set.
Will a diploma from an online school be taken seriously?
It is issued by an accredited school on that school’s own requirements, and admissions offices and employers treat it as one. It is not a GED.
Can my student transfer back to public school later?
Credits earned here travel on an accredited transcript, read like any transferring student’s record. Acceptance is always the receiving district’s call, so email the district you might return to and ask in writing how they treat credits from an accredited private school. Savannah families should check which district their address falls in first.
Can we start partway through the year?
Yes. Enrollment is rolling and not tied to any district calendar, so a student begins on a real week. Mid-year starts are ordinary here.
Do credits my student already earned in Chatham County count?
They are read against Georgia’s 23 units before anything is quoted, course by course, and what genuinely matches is carried across. That is a transcript review, and it happens before enrollment rather than after, because the answer changes what the remaining plan looks like. Credits that do not map to a required area become electives, which is a real category on that list and not a consolation.
My student is in a Choice or specialty program. Is leaving it complicated?
Administratively it is a withdrawal like any other. What is worth thinking about is the part of that program you were there for. If it was a course sequence, say so during the transcript review, because the elective and CTAE bands on the 23 are where that work usually lands.
Can a student finish in less than four years?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on how many of the 23 units are already earned rather than on pacing. A student who arrives with 17 needs 6. Self paced means the remaining work is not held to a class calendar, not that the requirement shrinks.
Is this the same as the Savannah homeschool page?
No, and they are not interchangeable. This is grades nine through twelve as an enrolled school of record that issues the diploma. The K-12 online homeschool page covers kindergarten through twelve on the home study route, where the family keeps the declaration and the records.
Where to read further
More of them at length in the full question guide. Student athletes have their own considerations, covered under online high school for athletes.
High School of America is an accredited online school issuing its own diploma. Call (888) 242-4262 to have a transcript read, request information, or see what it costs.
Other Georgia cities: Augusta · Atlanta · all Georgia