Texas · high school · 2026-2027 school year
Texas homeschool graduation requirements, diploma, and transcript
The Texas Education Agency's (TEA) Foundation High School Program sets public-school graduation credits only; homeschool parents set their own requirements and issue the diploma themselves.
The short version
- Who sets the requirement: the state's graduation rules bind public schools, not homeschools. The parent issues the diploma.
- The reference standard: the public-school minimum is 22 credits, and that table is the common starting point a transcript is read against; colleges set their own expectations on top of it, below.
- What colleges actually look for: the universities in the table below publish their own course expectations.
- What a transcript must show: courses by year, credits, and grades, kept by the parent, with the same subject headings the reference table uses.
- Across states: compare what 51 flagship universities ask.
The public-school credit table, for reference
Texas's public-school diploma requires 22 credits. A homeschool is not held to it. It is shown as the reference a transcript is commonly read against. A recruited athlete also registers with the NCAA Eligibility Center, which grades home-school core courses against its own worksheet, separate from this table.
| Subject | Credits | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| English | 4 | English I; English II; English III (or comparable AP/IB course); an advanced English course. |
| Math | 3 | Algebra I; Geometry; an advanced math course. |
| Science | 3 | Biology; Integrated Physics and Chemistry, Chemistry, or Physics; an advanced science course. no separate lab-hours mandate beyond the course list itself |
| Social studies | 3 | World History or World Geography; U.S. History; U.S. Government (0.5); Economics, or Economics and Personal Financial Literacy combined (0.5 either way). TEA's 2025 toolkit footnotes the Economics line as the rule for students who entered ninth grade in or before 2025-26; check TEA's graduation page for the 2026-27 entering class. |
| Foreign language | 2 | two credits in the same language; or two credits of computer programming languages. TEA calls this category 'Languages Other Than English' (LOTE) |
| PE and health | 1 | physical education only; the base program has no separate health credit |
| Arts | 1 | One credit of fine arts: art, dance, music, or theatre, under TEA's Foundation program. |
| Electives | 5 | Elective credits fill the Foundation program to 22; TEA sets the count, not the courses. |
| Other | 0 | speech proficiency (no credit value); CPR/AED instruction; a FAFSA, a TASFA (the Texas Application for State Financial Aid), or a signed opt-out form in grade 12; instruction on proper interaction with peace officers (Community Safety Education Act). non-credit items TEA still lists as graduation requirements |
Assessments in the public-school rules: Five end-of-course exams: English I, English II, Algebra I, Biology, and U.S. History. A student who fails no more than two may still graduate through an Individual Graduation Committee review. These exams bind public-school students; a homeschooled student is not required to take them.
What Texas colleges ask a homeschooled applicant for
Texas sets no homeschool graduation-credit minimum: TEA's 22-credit Foundation Program applies to public schools, and parents design their own plan and issue the diploma. Separately, Texas Education Code § 51.9241 directs a public university to treat a home-school graduate's application "according to the same general standards, including specific standardized testing score requirements," it applies to a public high school graduate (the statute calls a home school a nontraditional secondary education, and the state counts finishing one as equivalent to public-school graduation); homeschoolers typically fall outside rank-based automatic-admission policies like Top 10% since they have no class rank; House Bill 3041 (2025) rewrote § 51.9241(d) and added § 51.9241(e) for admissions from fall 2026: under (d) a university that sorts by class rank assigns a home-school applicant the highest rank whose admitted applicants' median college-entrance score the applicant's own score meets, and under (e) it posts those medians; where UT Austin caps automatic admission at 75 percent of its class (§ 51.803(a-1)), it must publish the benchmark test score it will use for home-school applicants; and home-school graduates became eligible for the TEXAS Grant (§§ 56.304 and 56.3041), so a missing rank does not by itself count against the application; each university's own page below says what it asks for in place of rank. The Foundation Program's Distinguished Level of Achievement (4 math credits incl. Algebra II, 4 science credits, plus an endorsement, one of TEA's five course tracks such as STEM or business and industry, earned through a set sequence of courses) is the credit pattern UT Austin's own published expectations below describe (Texas A&M publishes no subject table); nothing requires a homeschooler to follow the Foundation Program itself to reach it.
Years of each subject. 0 means the university lists no requirement in that subject; a dash means it publishes no figure for it.
flagship University of Texas at Austin
| Subject | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| English | 4 | 4 |
| Math | 3 | 4 |
| Science | 2 | 4 |
| Social studies | 3 | 4 |
| Foreign language | 2 | 2 |
| Arts | 0 | 1 |
math should include Algebra II or a higher-rigor equivalent (UT's word is 'should'); UT publishes no figure beyond the requirement for English or foreign language, so those cells show one figure rather than a minimum and a recommendation
UT ties the Foundation Program's Distinguished Level of Achievement to automatic (Top 10%) admission eligibility, with the basic Foundation Program otherwise; a Texas private-school student can claim the exemption through a counselor certification or SAT/ACT benchmark scores (UT's page says nothing about out-of-state applicants). UT also recommends 1 credit of physical education, which this table has no row for. University of Texas at Austin requirements (source), checked 2026-09-04.
Texas A&M University publishes no subject-by-subject course list. No separate subject-credit matrix published; applicants are reviewed individually. No course table published; the state's Distinguished Level of Achievement (4 math credits incl. Algebra II, 4 science credits) is the Foundation Program's own marker of rigor, not a stated TAMU requirement. Under HB 3041, Texas A&M assigns home-schooled Texas residents a Top 10% rank from a test benchmark it sets each cycle (1290 SAT or 27 ACT for students applying for Fall 2027) and automatically admits everyone in the top 10%. An applicant below that line goes through the same holistic review as everyone else. Texas A&M is test optional: it does not require ACT or SAT scores, encourages students who have scores to send them, and says sending them creates no advantage or disadvantage. Texas A&M University requirements (source), checked 2026-09-04.
Questions families ask
Does Texas require a homeschool diploma?
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How many credits does a Texas homeschool diploma need?
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Who signs a homeschool transcript in Texas?
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What does University of Texas at Austin expect from a homeschooled applicant?
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Does Texas require me to register my homeschool anywhere?
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How Trellis checks your transcript against this table
In Trellis, the courses you plan and the work your children check off become the transcript as you go. The graduation card reads that transcript against the table above and says, subject by subject, what is earned and what is still open, and it notices a course filed under the wrong heading before a college does. Nothing is retyped at the end of senior year.
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