Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Academic Progress Reports, Attendance Reports, and Report Cards

The ultimate value of Homeschool Data Bank is in the reports you get at the end of each semester. These include:

• Report Cards. GPA calculation is included on report cards for high school students.
• Course of Study. This is a list of classes, along with supporting class materials (any textbooks, lab manuals, etc.) This report shows the particular curriculum you used.
• Attendance History. This report shows the number of school days, sick days, and excused absence days per month during each semester.
• Monthly Evaluations. This report shows progress made for each course by each student. It also shows any extracurricular activities, field trips, or other accomplishments.
• Student Work Samples With Cover Page. This report provides a cover page for each student work sample you have uploaded.

In order to get all these reports, the right information has to be entered and uploaded. Homeschool Data Bank guides homeschooling parents/educators through the process of entering the required academic history and attendance records.

Step-by-Step Guidance

Homeschool Data Bank provides an on-screen checklist that shows all the tasks you need to perform for each student, and the sequence in which the tasks should be performed.

Each activity in the checklist has a button you click/tap to open a special screen where you perform the corresponding activity. Once the activity is completed the checklist automatically updates to show what task is next.

Each screen also has an Instructions section that provide a clear explanation of the task at hand. What each screen does is usually obvious. But the instructions are there to help provide perspective on parts that may not be so obvious.

After you register, the first task will be to add students to your new account.

After you add students you will be prompted to pay for each, for the current semester.

Once payment is received, you can proceed to the Student Progress area where you will see your list of students and current status of each. You will see a prompt telling you what to do next for each student. You will also see a link to each student’s checklist.

You will just need to follow the on-screen prompts. Homeschool Data Bank keeps track of where you are in the record-keeping process and tells you what to do next for each student.

We want to hear from you, particularly about any aspect of Homeschool Data Bank you would like to see improved.

We are always looking to make improvements, and we carefully consider all feedback. Accordingly, Homeschool Data Bank has been extensively refined and expanded based on feedback from our customers.

If we ultimately cannot arrive at a satisfactory conclusion and you wish to discontinue your use of Homeschool Data Bank, we will provide a 100% refund of fees paid for the current semester, provided your request for refund is received within the first 30 days from the date you paid, subject to our Terms of Service.

Homeschool Data Bank is hosted in Amazon's cloud hosting environment, formally known as Amazon Web Services. This is a commercial cloud hosting service used by the largest companies in the United States, including Amazon itself.

Homeschool Data Bank is hosted in a private cloud provisioned within Amazon Web Services using industry standard best practices and protocols for securing websites and their backing services and databases.

No computer system is completely secure. Consider that even large banks, the U.S. government, and military - all with enormous budgets - have security breaches of their computer systems every year. But consider also, by way of comparison, that no cars are completely secure from having traffic collisions resulting in physical injuries. Just like the automobile industry has made cars much safer and injury much less likely than in decades past, modern computer systems have evolved so they are not nearly as easy to hack as systems from a few decades ago. So a better question than, "is it secure" is to ask whether modern security protocols have been implemented. In the case of Homeschool Data Bank - yes, modern security protocols have been implemented.

Homeschool Data Bank does not store data that hackers typically want. Most computer security breaches happen because a hacker wants valuable financial information contained in the system. Homeschool Data Bank stores no information that hackers would typically want. Social security numbers are not required or even requested. Addresses are not required or requested. And credit card numbers and related information are never stored in Homeschool Data Bank. All credit card processing is done by a trusted 3rd Party named Authorize.net (one of the oldest and most reputable credit card processors).

Homeschool Data Bank was created by homeschoolers for homeschoolers.

Specifically, Homeschool Data Bank was developed by Jeff Schaefer and Krista Goodman while working closely with a group of more than 30 homeschooling families in southern California.

Jeff and Krista were both homeschooled before proceeding to earn degrees from California State University, and the University of Southern California.

Jeff Schaefer

Jeff Schaefer is a technology professional with more than 25 years of enterprise system design, development, and consulting experience. Jeff has earned a variety of industry certifications from Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). During his consulting career, Jeff worked extensively in the roles of system architect, lead developer, technical trainer and project manager. Clients and employers include Wells Fargo Bank, AT&T and the United States Department of the Interior. His last full-time employment position was senior applications architect for the RAND Corporation. Jeff left the RAND Corporation in early 2010 to focus full-time on the development of Smart Access IT, Inc.

Homeschool Data Bank began when Jeff was approached by a local homeschool support group who wanted assistance with academic record management. With the prior experience of moving from homeschool and into the California State University system, Jeff immediately recognized the value well-organized academic records would provide for homeschooled students, and agreed to develop the system that became Homeschool Data Bank.

Krista Goodman

Krista is a graduate from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism with a Master of Arts in Strategic Public Relations. Since 2008, she has worked on projects with a wide range of organizations in the sports, education, legal and non-profit sectors, helping them develop their brands, develop an online and/or offline presence on relevant channels of the media mix and make meaningful connections with their audiences. Krista is a communications strategist with an absolute love and passion for helping individuals and organizations tell their stories. Her background brings together strengths in communications planning, digital marketing, brand development, content creation, print design, front-end website design and graphic design. 

Krista holds a professional achievement award in Digital Marketing from the University of California, Riverside Extension; a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Media from California Baptist University; and an Associate’s degree in Web Design & Interactive Media from The Art Institute of California, Orange County.

Homeschool Data Bank is a comprehensive platform designed to simplify record-keeping, attendance tracking, and compliance for homeschooling families. It’s built to help you organize your homeschool journey with ease.

Any homeschooling family or homeschool support group can use Homeschool Data Bank to manage student records, track progress, and generate report cards and transcripts.

No professional background or training is required because Homeschool Data Bank guides parents/educators through every step of the record-keeping process.

Our platform is designed to automate and simplify homeschool record-keeping. You can easily enter and track attendance, grades, course information, and more—all while generating reports that meet your state’s requirements.

Yes, for new accounts a full refund of the $20.00 (per semester per student) fee is available if requested within the first 30 days. Get started today and see how Homeschool Data Bank can transform your homeschooling experience.

Setting up your account is easy! Simply register on our website, enter your homeschool information, and add your student profiles. From there, you can start tracking attendance, grades, and more.

You’ll need basic student information, such as name and grade level, as well as any previous records you’d like to enter. Our system allows you to import past data for a complete academic history.

You can manually enter past attendance, grades, and course information through our easy-to-use interface. This ensures that all records are up-to-date and in one place.

Our attendance tracking feature allows you to mark school days, sick days, vacations, and more through our eash-to-use calendar. Easily log attendance per student to ensure you stay compliant with your state’s regulations.

Our Attendance Summary report shows the entire school year at a glance. This report shows monthly totals for school days, sick days, and excused absences. This allows you to quickly understand where each student is with respect to required school days per school year.

Yes! You can add and customize course entries (definitions or descriptions) to reflect your child’s unique curriculum. Include textbooks, lab manuals, and extracurricular activities to create a comprehensive learning plan. You can use any curriculum with Homeschool Data Bank.

You can automatically generate professional-grade report cards and transcripts with just a few clicks once all the data has been entered and student work samples uploaded. Our system calculates GPA and compiles all relevant academic data, making the process hassle-free.

Homeschool Data Bank offers tools for administrators of homeschool support groups. These features including multi-family tracking, group and family report generation, and administrative tools to help group leaders manage access for families. Support group administrators can view records for any group members, and assist with data entry for students in the support group.

Click here for more information on our homeschool support group features.