Penn Foster Again Approved Category III School in Tennessee
Penn Foster received approval from Cognia, its accrediting agency, on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, that it has again been added to the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) list of approved Category III Non-Public Online Schools. That update brings relief to many parents that were required to do an additional registration step if they planned to use the school during the 2024/2025 academic year.
Penn Foster is a Category III accredited online private school that many Tennessee home school parents use to educate their children. Although Category III schools do not fall under the Tennessee home school definition, they are an online option home school parents may use. When the Thursday, July 11, 2024, list of approved Category III Non-Public Online Schools was released, Penn Foster was not included. As a result, Tennessee parents were left able to use Penn Foster only as a curriculum option and not as an online school to comply with compulsory attendance. A requirement of registering as an independent home school or with an approved Church-Related Umbrella School (Category IV) was required to continue homeschooling in Tennessee. Since that first update in July, Penn Foster was working to again become approved as an option in Tennessee.
May Tennessee families use Penn Foster as a Category III school?
Tennessee families may now use Penn Foster as an approved Category III non-public online school and are not required to complete an additional registration step. If yours is a Penn Foster family and you registered as an independent home school or with a Category IV school during the interim, contact Penn Foster to learn if there are any steps you should follow regarding managing the additional registration you did to remain compliant with the Tennessee home school law.
The TDOE website should be updated soon to reflect the status change.
