I’m using Mondays to clear out my mailbox. The topic of this week’s message deals with our free editable high school transcript. Read on for all the deets.
Question: How do I make an “official” transcript for my homeschooler?
Dear Jennifer,
We’ve had a time, trying to get our “home schooled” kids set up for work, or drivers licenses, because the businesses want a school ID that is “legal like a public school ID” or our documents do not have an official seal, etc. Have you ever had this problem? Do you make ID’s for your kids? I used your free printable high school transcript, which is great, but since I didn’t type the copy and there was no official public school seal, they shied away from it.
Help!
Yvonne
Answer: Maybe these tweaks will help
Dear Yvonne,
We haven’t had any trouble of that sort, but my transcripts are typed rather than penned in by hand. See if using this one will help:
Maybe this will help. I converted my original transcript file to this editable PDF. So now you can fill out the form on your computer before printing. That way, it will look more “official.”
To use our free editable high school transcript, follow these simple steps:
- Download our editable transcript file to your computer
- Adjust the display size to 100%
- Fill in the information: name, address, coursework, and grades
- Save your completed form under a different name (that way, you’ll still have the blank master to use for future students)
Going the Extra Mile
We haven’t done so when applying for driver’s permits, but for college admissions, we normally do have the kids’ high school transcripts notarized. You might try that, too, if the DPS or potential employers still shy away from the printed copy of your student’s transcript. It isn’t difficult to do this. If you don’t already know somebody who can notarize the transcript, do a Google search to find a notary public in your area.
This is totally optional, but I also ordered a seal embosser with the name of our homeschool on it, which I used on both transcripts and diplomas. It adds a nice touch, and with the number of children we have, it will see a good amount of use by the time we finish this homeschool journey!
You can get similar seals for about $25 on Amazon, and it can be used over and over again. (I bought extra plates for stamping books from our home library and monograming envelope flaps. They are easily interchangeable, so it’s easy to imprint different seal styles using the same embosser.)
As for student IDs, after 25 years of homeschooling, I finally printed and laminated “official” IDs for the first time last year. (Primarily, so we could use them when buying movie tickets for school-aged children over 12 and not have to pay adult prices for them.)
I designed our IDs myself using Pages on my Mac. They include each student’s name, photo, and school year, plus the logo from our local homeschool support group. If I figure out how to make an editable template for those, I’ll upload that to this site, as well.
In the meantime, if you haven’t already done so, I suggest you read this post. It’s all about making the most of the high school years.
Have your high schoolers read it, too! It explains how they can earn college credit for as much of their coursework as possible. Some of ours used these tips to rack up as many as 60 credit hours before ever graduating high school. That’s a huge savings of both time and money!
Hope all that helps!
You are my favourite person on the planet right now!!! Thank you for blessing all of us with the transcript template.
Well, this is my favorite comment on the blog right now, so I guess that makes us even, Martha! And you’re welcome. ❤️
Thank you so much for this awesome transcript. I will be using this one for both of my high schoolers!
Glad to hear it, Lisa. And I’m happy to share!
Thank you so much Mrs. Flanders! After much researching online this has, by far, been the most simple and explanatory transcript and information I’ve come across. God bless you and your family ❤️
Jessica H.
You’re very welcome, Jessica. I’m so glad you found it helpful!
Just wanted to thank you for the transcript! I couldn’t have done it without you <3
You’re welcome, Sara. I’m so glad you found it helpful!
I’m curious where the seal goes on the transcript? Could you show a sample? Thank you!
I don’t have a picture handy, but mine is just an embossing seal (so it doesn’t cover up anything), and I normally position it in the lower right hand corner. When I need to submit a notarized transcript, my notary puts her stamp and seal in the bottom margin.
Thanks for sharing
You’re welcome. I’m happy to help!
I filled out the editable transcript on my computer, however when I print it its warped with the lines not lining up or the words. I did not hit enter at all or disturb the lines in anyway. Please Help
I don’t know why the file is misbehaving for you. I’ve filled it in here and printed it out no problem. Maybe try saving it to your desktop before filling in the blanks and printing from there? Sometimes when I’ve tried to print other PDFs directly from the download page, it only prints the part displayed on the screen instead of the entire file. Maybe you’re experiencing a similar problem? Let me know if that gets it to work for you!
I just wanted to thank you for the transcript!
You’re very welcome, Terri!
Thank you so much for writing this post, it has definitely helped get our oldest into college 🙂 However, while we did educate our oldest in a way that was easily transferable into credits and courses, I am not sure how to do that with my second oldest, who will be attending the community college as long as we can provide an official transcript. After our oldest left for college, we decided to change the way we homeschooled. We focused on a path that was dedicated to God instead of academics, and we didn’t homeschool our second oldest in a way that was subject-based. Instead, we chose to teach her Christian morals and values that would help her throughout life. The problem I have right now is that I can’t really put together a transcript as I didn’t teach her common subjects such as Math and English. I contacted the community college and they were unhelpful about it, and just told us to provide them a transcript by March or else she would no longer be able to go to college in the fall. I know that your situation isn’t the same as ours, but I am at ends here. Do you have any ideas on how we would be able to provide a transcript?
I am SO SORRY for the delayed response, Emily. I thought I had already answered you. I got a slew of questions in quick succession from homeschooling readers about filling out high school transcripts, and yours slipped through the cracks. I just emailed you some information that may be helpful, including ideas on awarding credit for life experience and non-traditional education. If you know longer need any of that information, just delete.
Your transcript is PERFECT. I need more lines for courses, tho. I really want to use your ediable template. Is there any way to add more lines?
I’ve had requests for several tweaks that I plan to incorporate in an updated file soon. Will make a note to add more lines when I do. ?
Hi,
When I have the transcript notarized, what is the notary notarizing? I hope that makes sense.
When I take a form camp medical form to a notary, they are notarizing my signature basically
stating that I’m the person who signed the form. So what is being notarized on the transcript?
If it’s my signature, why would the college care or is it just another way of making the form more
legitimate.
Thanks for your help.
Yes, Sharon. Your question makes perfect sense. And it is indeed your signature that the notary is notarizing. I wouldn’t bother with this step if it were just for appearance sake; the colleges my kids have attended required an “official high school transcript.” When I emailed the digital file to them, they requested I have my student deliver a notarized hard copy, so that is what we’ve done ever since.
Hi, thank you so much for making this template and making it editable! Is there a way to change the heading from High School Academic Transcript to Official High School Transcript? I was unable to change that part of the transcript but I love the transcript, just need it to say official.
Yes, Lana. I will try to do that and post the updated file soon!
Hello,
Is the Homeschool Academic Transcript template you share here on this page, considered an “official high school transcript?”
I am just wondering because it doesn’t say “Official” on it. I have seen other transcripts with the word ‘official” on them, so I wanted to know if it literally had to be that specific. I really like your template, so I would like to use it, I’m just not sure if it is considered “Official”. Please get back to me. Thanks.
Kelly Purcell
Jacksonville, Fl 2021
Sorry for the delayed response, Kelly. I’ve sent 9 to college using this transcript, and none of the schools ever questioned it. I did have to send a notarized copy, though. Nevertheless, I’ve gotten several requests to add “official” to the title… so maybe other schools require it. So I will tweak the original and post an updated file soon.
I am trying to work with this template and the information I type is really low and can’t be seen. Is there something I am doing wrong?
I don’t know. I downloaded it myself and tested it again, and it all looks fine. If you are able to check the parameters on your font size and color, you may be able to make adjustments there to ensure the type is visible. Also, make certain you aren’t hitting the return button before you start to type, as that would bump the text down a line where it couldn’t be seen.
Readers? Has anyone else had trouble using this template? Did you find a solution or work-around to it? Whether you did or you didn’t, please chime in and tell me. I’d like to know how widespread this problem is.
I just used it and it lined up and printed just fine. I didn’t have to change anything in my settings. Thanks for sharing this!
Deborah
So glad to hear it, Deborah. Thanks for letting me know!
Hello,
I am looking to make a transcript for my daughter and I am finding it to be
very overwhelming and confusing. I have been homeschooling my daughter since she was in 2nd grade.
She is now graduating homeschool and looking into colleges…
I am finding it very difficult to create a transcript for her for college.
I live in Ohio and I am not sure how many credits she needs to get into college,
I am having trouble understanding GPA and all that.
I just happened to run across your website and you seem like the only person who would understand my struggle.
If you have any information to help me at all it would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so so much.
May.
Hi, May
I know it can be a little overwhelming the first time around, but maybe I can simplify it a little for you. I’ll try to break down the process I use in awarding credit to my high schoolers. Then hopefully you can adapt those ideas to your own situation. Every student is different, and requirements for each state differ slightly as well.
Here are a couple of links for what Texas public schools require of their graduates to make them competitive for college. Ohio may not do things exactly the same way, but it will probably be close. You can begin here, or Google search “high school graduation requirements in Ohio” to search for a similar document for your home state.
➡️ tea.texas.gov/Graduation_Toolkit_Summer2019 (page 5, in particular, is user friendly)
➡️ tea.state.tx.us/rules (this one is more detailed — all options are listed, but you’ll need to scroll through the bulk of the document to read through them)
On page 5 of that first link, you’ll find a chart that lists the number of credits required for graduation in each of several different subjects. These include:
✅ English (4 credits)
✅ Mathematics (3 credits)
✅ Science (3 credits)
✅ History (2 credits)
✅ U.S.Government(1/2 credit)
✅ Economics(1/2 credit)
✅ Languages Other Than English (2 credits)
✅ Physical Education (1 credit)
✅ Fine Arts (1 credit)
✅ Electives (5 credits)
Students earn credits for successfully completing a course of study. Normally, courses that last a full school year receive 1 credit, while those the last only one semester get 1/2 credits. In Texas, students are required to earn a minimum of 22 credits to qualify for graduation.
In preparing my own children’s transcripts, I award credit according to the following criteria:
? traditional schooling – I award 1 full credit when we complete a traditional textbook, such as Saxon Algebra 1 or Apologia Biology or Bob Jones American History. I give them the full year’s credit, even if it takes us less than a year to finish. For instance, if my child does two math lessons a day and finishes in half the time, he still gets full credit for the course. I also give him credit whether he studies the subject at home, at co-op, or on a college campus as a dual-credit course.
? independent study – sometimes my kids study a subject on their own, such as psychology or economics, in order to take a CLEP test on it. If they learn the material well enough to pass the CLEP exam, I award them credit on the high school transcript – half a credit if the CLEP awards 3 hours of college credit, and a full credit if the CLEP is worth 6-8 hours of college credit.
? life experience – I also award credit on my kids’ high school credits for extra curricular involvement. For instance, one son played basketball with a local private school for three seasons. I gave him 1/2 a PE credit for each semester he played. Another son trained for (and successfully completed) a half-iron man race, so I awarded him a PE credit for that. Several of my children have taken piano lessons, and I’ve awarded them a Fine Arts credit for that. I gave my kids who spent summers volunteering at the hospital a 1/2 elective credit in first aid. One of my sons built three stone patios on our property and spent several weeks preparing and planting flowerbeds on our property, so I gave him 1 elective credit in landscape and design.
Please note that high school credits are different than grades. The credits tell how much time a student has devoted to a particular course of study. Grades tell how well they mastered the material covered in that course. The GPA is an average of the grades your student makes divided by the hours he’s spent in class. For my graduates, I calculate the GPA based on the following scale:
A (90-100%) = 4.0
B (80-89%) = 3.0
C (70-79%) = 2.0
D (65-69%) = 1.0
F (64% or below) = 0.0
To calculate the GPA, I add the number of grade points received times each credit awarded, then divide by the total number of credits earned during that school year. (So if my student received 4 As and 2 Bs taking 6 credits worth of classes, her GPA would be { [(4 x 4.0) + (2 x 3.0)] / 6 } = [ (16.0 + 6.0) / 6 ] = ( 22.0 / 6 ) = 3.67 GPA
You should be aware, though, that some schools now use a 5.0 scale instead of a 4.0 in calculating the GPA, and others set stricter definitions for what qualifies as an A, B, C, etc. So mine is not certainly not the only way (or even the best way) to calculate GPA. It has, however, successfully gotten all my graduates (so far) into college. So hopefully, it will work for you, too. 🙂
What a blessing you have been to me! Thank you for such a great resource and easy to understand directions! God bless you!
You’re very welcome, Kim. Glad to help!
This is a GODSEND!! Thank you so much for sharing all your wisdom!
You’re welcome, Lacey. Glad you found what you needed.
Thank you so much for the easy High School Academic Transcript template! It was very helpful! I am seeing many other interesting articles and helps to explore!
Blessings to you and your family for all your time and effort to help others!
Happy to help, Amber! So glad you found the transcript helpful. May God pour out His richest blessings upon you and your family, as well!
Thank you so much, Jennifer! And your website looks great! So helpful. I sent the kids chore chart to [my married children] in case it might be a springboard for great ideas. ☺️
Love you my friend!
Molly
Happy to be of service, Molly. And thanks for your encouragement. We’ve been working hard to update the website and make things easier to find. We still have more to do, but are glad to know you like the changes so far.
Hi Jennifer,
Just wanted to let you know how helpful your simple transcript was today! I needed to quickly prepare one for my older son in order to sign him with with a Charter School and every website was just way too detailed and expensive! Your simple and editable sheet (plus a quick google search to see how many units I should award!) helped so much!!!
All the best to you!
Kindly,
Allison
So happy to hear this, Allison. I’m glad you found what you needed.
Thank you so much for making it so easy to download and change as need it! What a blessing! Thanks again!
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for this! We are considering making the switch to a private school and they were super impressed with my child’s transcript. They were a tad condesending toward homeschooling when we spoke on the phone, so it made me feel great to get such positive compliments when in person. I couldn’t have done it without you!