What is a PSA?

Wondering what a PSA is? In this episode, I will be telling you all about it. 

Transcript

Welcome to Homeschool Horizons! I’m Yvette, your host. In today’s episode I will be answering this question, “What is a PSA?” Here is the definition of what it says that it is from their website at cde.ca.gov on this day, which is March 22, 2025 “The Private School Affidavit, also referred to as the R-4 Form, is a registration document that is required to be filed annually by all California private schools. By filing the Affidavit, operators of a private school report under penalty of perjury the school information required by California Education Code (EC) Section 33190. Please visit the Private School Affidavit Information web page for more information.” 

 And now for my own interpretation of what it is. Let me begin by pointing out that the abbreviation PSA stands for Private School Affidavit. It is a form that you fill out online at cde.ca.gov. If you decide to fill out this form, that means you have decided you do not want to join a charter. Once you submit your form online, you are then on your own to homeschool in any way you desire and there is no one that you have to answer to for whatever you decide to do. You can use any curriculum you want and you can even choose to unschool. This is an extremely attractive option for many families and I can understand why. 

There was a time when we moved to South Dakota and because there were no charters there, I was on my own! I didn’t even have to file a PSA, because that state didn’t require a form like that. All I was encouraged to do, was notify the school district that I was homeschooling and provide the ages of my children with a simple form that the state did provide. That was it. I say encouraged, because that state didn’t actually make it a requirement that I absolutely had to submit a form. But it was encouraged, in case anyone saw my children out during school hours and might report me for not having my kids in school. I was a little confused about that scenario, so I decided to fill out the form and not have to worry about being reported! 

That was the first and only time I have not used a charter. I must admit it did feel very freeing not to have to think about submitting samples or meeting with an HST. There wasn’t anyone checking in on us and my sons didn’t even have to do state testing. I bought all of the workbooks that I like to use for my curriculum on my own as well as all of our school supplies. I was able to enroll one of my sons in a parkour class that he was interested in taking, but that was it! I didn’t have any extra money to enroll my other son in any extra activities. I did search for free or very low-cost classes, but there just weren’t too many of those. 

I didn’t like that I didn’t have the extra money that I would normally have by being in a charter, but I know that for a lot of other families this is completely ok. If you are just beginning to homeschool, let’s say your 5 yr old, and you decide that you would like to file a PSA, all you have to do is go the website I mentioned and follow the Private School Affidavit Instructions to help you fill out your form. That’s it. If, however, you decide to homeschool your child that is currently in public school, then you must unenroll your child from their current school by email or in writing. The Homeschool Association of California has a great website (hsc.org). They will help you with all of that. They even provide sample letters that you can print and fill out so that you can give that to the school and school district. Once you unenroll your child, you can then file your PSA online. The PSA form itself will ask a lot of questions, some of which will be asking you things like the name of your private school, are you the head of the school, hours of your school, days of the week your school operates, etc. Don’t let the questions intimidate you! The name of my school for example might be, Horizons Private School. You can choose any name you want. Answer all of the questions as if you are the head of your own school, because you actually are! 

Now let’s talk about the filing period. As of March 22, 2025 this is what the website says regarding the filing period. “The statutory filing period is October 1 through 15; however, the filing system is open throughout the school year beginning August 1 and ending June 30 to accommodate new schools and home schools. Schools established during the month of July, shall wait to file an affidavit until the PSA filing period begins in August.”

So this means that you can file your PSA anytime between October 1st through October 15th. But don’t worry if you miss that window, because you can still file any time after that throughout the schoolyear. Since they say that the schoolyear months are August 1st-June 30th, this means the only month that you can’t file is in July. 

I hope that makes sense, because I myself was once confused about filing periods. Back when I first began homeschooling, I did wonder about whether I should file a PSA instead of remaining with a charter. The charter was so new to me, that I couldn’t help but wonder about the other option. There are many different reasons why a homeschool family might choose a charter over PSA or vice versa. I will discuss those reasons on a future episode. 

Maybe you are at a point where you haven’t quite decided what you want to do yet. I want you to know that no matter what or how you decide to homeschool, you are making the best decision ever! Your child or children would never get the type of personalized attention that you are going to give them if they were in a public-school classroom. My husband can attest to that, because he has been a public-school teacher for 27 years now. He will actually be my guest next week! There are many different things he and I can discuss when it comes to homeschooling. But for next week, he will be sharing his perspective on homeschooling and why he is a huge supporter. So make sure to tune in! Have a great week! Talk to you soon!