Feature
Your whole year as one reviewer-ready packet
Updated September 2026
Most states ask homeschool families to keep records without ever naming a form to keep them on. That sounds easy until the year someone actually asks. The records review packet takes everything you logged and lays it out as one PDF a reviewer can read start to finish, with your state's own requirement printed on the cover.
What is in the packet
Every page covers the same school year for one student, in the order someone reviewing it would want to see:
- A cover page with the student, the school year, and the requirement your state sets, whether that is a number of days, a number of hours, or nothing at all.
- Attendance and hours measured against that figure, so the first thing a reader sees is where the year landed.
- Subjects taught, with the time recorded against each one.
- The reading list, which is the easiest record to keep and the most convincing one to read.
- Work samples, the photos you took through the year, grouped by subject.
- Test results, where you recorded them.
Why it exists
Four states name the document they want, and Homeschoolio generates each one: Pennsylvania's affidavit and portfolio packet, New York's IHIP and quarterly reports, the Massachusetts education plan, and the Rhode Island approval request. The other 47 jurisdictions ask you to keep records and stop there, which leaves families to invent a format under pressure, usually in June.
The review packet is that format, filled in. It is available in every state, including the four with named filings, because an evaluator meeting, an umbrella school, a district that asks to see your records, or your own file at the end of a year all want the same thing.
Built from records you already kept
Nothing about the packet asks you to prepare for it. It reads the days you logged, the subjects you recorded, the books you added to the reading log, the work-sample photos you captured, and the test scores you entered, then assembles them. The families who find it easiest are simply the ones who logged as the year happened, which is the same habit that makes attendance and hours accurate.
When you would reach for it
- An evaluator or teacher review, where handing over one clean document beats handing over a binder.
- A district request to see records, in the states that reserve the right to ask.
- An umbrella or cover school that wants an end-of-year summary from its member families.
- Moving to a new state, where the year you completed elsewhere still needs to be shown somewhere.
- Your own records, closed out one year at a time instead of left as a pile.
How Homeschoolio helps
The review packet is part of Homeschoolio Premium. Generate it from Records for any student and any school year, share or print the PDF, and keep a copy with your files. Free record-keeping still covers unlimited logging, attendance and hours, the reading log, test scores, work-sample photos, and full PDF and CSV export, so the underlying records are yours whether or not you ever generate a packet.
Common questions
What is a homeschool records review packet?
It is a single PDF that presents a full school year of records in the order a reviewer reads them: a cover page naming the student, the school year, and what your state asks for, then attendance and hours, the subjects taught, the reading list, work samples, and any test results. It is the document you hand over when someone asks to see what a year of homeschooling actually looked like.
Which states can use the review packet?
All of them. Four states have a named filing that Homeschoolio generates instead or in addition (Pennsylvania's affidavit and portfolio, New York's IHIP and quarterly reports, the Massachusetts education plan, and the Rhode Island approval request). The review packet exists for the other 47 jurisdictions, which ask for records without naming a form, and it is available in every state including those four.
Is the review packet the same as a portfolio?
They overlap. A portfolio is the collection of evidence itself, and in states like Pennsylvania it has a legally defined shape. The review packet is a presentation of that evidence for a specific school year, arranged so someone can read it start to finish. In Pennsylvania, Homeschoolio generates the statutory portfolio packet as well.
Do I have to assemble anything to build it?
No. The packet is built from records you already kept: the days you logged, the subjects you recorded, the books on your reading list, the work-sample photos you took, and the test scores you entered. If you have been logging through the year, the packet is one tap at the end of it.
Is the review packet free?
No, it is part of Homeschoolio Premium, at $44.99 a year with a 14-day free trial or $7.99 a month. The free tier still generates an attendance and hours record, a letter of intent, and the year-in-review keepsake, and free PDF and CSV export of every record never expires.