In a few states, parents must possess certain credentials to homeschool. West Virginia requires homeschooling parents to either be approved by the county superintendent and board as capable of teaching public elementary school subjects or to hold a high school diploma or its equivalent. In Tennessee, parents must have earned a high school diploma or GED to teach kindergarten through the eighth grade and a bachelor's degree to teach high school, unless they have received an exemption from the Commissioner of Education. If parents are connected to a religious school, the requirement is waived for lower grades, but a high school equivalency is still required to teach ninth through twelfth grades.
Some states require parents who lack certain credentials to be supervised by someone who is credentialed. In Washington, parents who have not taken a basic home-education course or have not earned at least 30 college credits must either be approved as a suitable teacher by the local school district or have a certificated person regularly assist and evaluate the child's educational process. In North Dakota, parents who lack a high school diploma must be supervised by a certified teacher for their first two years of homeschooling. They may receive supervision after that if a child scores too low on standardized tests or by the mutual agreement of the parents and monitor.
Students taught at home must be evaluated yearly by a credentialed individual in certain states. Pennsylvania requires an annual evaluation by a licensed psychologist, a state certified teacher with at least two years of teaching experience or a private administrator or teacher who has taught at least two out of the last ten years. In Virginia, most homeschooling parents must demonstrate satisfactory educational progress through a state-approved authority, such as a report card from an accredited school or evaluation by a state-licensed teacher or someone who has earned at least a master's degree in an academic discipline. This requirement is waived for parents homeschooling because of religious beliefs.
When parents hire a tutor to teach their child, the tutor may need to be credentialed. In Georgia, homeschooling parents may hire someone as a tutor if the tutor has a high school diploma or GED. California allows homeschooling parents to use a tutor so long as the tutor meets certain requirements, such as holding a valid state certificate for tutoring children at a specific grade level, and providing instruction for at least three hours, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., 175 days during the year.