How to Complete and File the California Private School Affidavit (PSA)

The California Private School Affidavit is an annual online filing that tells the state your private school is operating. You submit it through the California Department of Education’s portal at www3.cde.ca.gov/psa between October 1 and October 15 each year, though the system stays open from August 1 through June 30 for schools and homeschools that start mid-year.¹ The affidavit is a factual statement signed under penalty of perjury, not an application for approval or a license.²

Who Has to File

Every person, firm, association, partnership, or corporation offering private school instruction at the elementary or high school level in California files a PSA each year.² That takes in traditional brick-and-mortar schools, religious schools, and parents who operate a home-based private school for their own children. The same form applies whether the school enrolls 500 students or one.

Filing is what makes your students legally exempt from public school attendance under Education Code Section 48222.³ For homeschool families running as a private school, skipping the filing can trigger truancy inquiries from the local district.

Some programs should not file. The PSA covers full-time private day schools serving kindergarten through twelfth grade. If you offer only preschool, transitional kindergarten, or instruction to children younger than four years and nine months, you don’t file. Part-time and supplemental programs don’t file either.⁴

When to File

The statutory window is October 1 through October 15.² This is an annual obligation. Even if nothing has changed since last year, you file a new affidavit.

If your school opens outside that window, the CDE portal accepts filings from August 1 through June 30, so a school that starts in January can file then rather than waiting until the next October. The portal is closed in July — a school established that month waits until August 1.¹

What to Gather Before You Start

The portal can time out if you leave it idle, so pull everything together first. The form collects:

Every name the school does business under, including any fictitious business names, plus whether it’s religious or secular and whether it awards a high school diploma.
The physical address where instruction takes place, a mailing address if different, and the address where records are stored along with the name of the records custodian.²
Names and addresses of directors (if any) and principal officers. For a home-based private school, the parent running it is typically the sole administrator.
Total enrollment broken down by grade, whether the school is coeducational, and whether it has boarding facilities.
Number of teachers, with each teacher’s name, address, and educational qualifications, and the total number of administrative personnel.
Certification that criminal record summaries have been obtained for staff as required by Education Code Section 44237.⁵
A description of the courses of study. Private schools must offer instruction in the same general subject areas taught in California public schools — English, mathematics, social sciences, science, health, and physical education, with additional areas at the secondary level. Instruction must be in English, and teachers must be “persons capable of teaching.” California does not require a state teaching credential for private school teachers.³

You will also certify, under penalty of perjury, that the records required by Section 48222 are maintained at the address you listed and are true and accurate. Those records include the attendance register and the courses of study.

Filing Through the CDE Portal

Go to www3.cde.ca.gov/psa.⁴ The system first asks whether you’re a full-time private school meeting the exemption criteria in Education Code Section 48222. Answering yes takes you into the data-entry screens.

Use the “Next” and “Previous” buttons to move through the sections, which are grouped by topic: identity, addresses, enrollment, staff, and certifications. When you’ve completed every section, click “Review” for a summary of what you entered. If something’s wrong, click the “Edit” link next to that section to fix it before you submit.

When the summary looks right, click “Submit Affidavit.” The portal redirects you to a confirmation page and sends an automated email confirmation to the school owner and to the email address on the form. Save or print that confirmation. It’s your proof that you met the annual filing obligation. If you can’t file online, the CDE’s Private Schools office can provide alternative filing options.¹

After You File

Print a copy of the completed affidavit and keep it at the school’s physical location. If you run a home-based private school where you serve as both instructor and administrator, you have to make the affidavit available on request to the parents or guardians of your current students and to any parent considering enrolling a child.⁵ That’s narrower than “open to the public” — the duty runs to current and prospective families specifically.

The affidavit sits alongside several ongoing records the school is required to keep:

An attendance register showing every absence of each pupil for a half day or more, for each day the school is in session.³
Names, addresses, and educational qualifications of each teacher.
A record of the courses of study offered.
Documentary proof of each student’s immunization status, with an annual report filed with the California Department of Public Health and the local health department.⁶
Evidence of criminal background checks on employees under Section 44237.

An attendance supervisor or truancy officer is legally entitled to inspect the affidavit, attendance records, and enrollment verification without a warrant. A current PSA on its own does not satisfy these record-keeping duties, and gaps in any of them can create legal problems even when your affidavit is up to date.

What Filing Does Not Mean

The affidavit is often misread, especially by new homeschool filers. Filing a PSA does not mean the state has evaluated, approved, or endorsed your school or its program. The statute makes it unlawful for any school to claim or imply that filing the affidavit constitutes state recognition or accreditation.² It works the other way too: a district’s verification of your filing is not an approval of your school’s academic quality.

Accreditation is a separate, voluntary process handled by independent accrediting bodies and involves a much more rigorous review. The PSA is purely a notification. It tells the state you exist and certifies you are keeping the records the law requires.

1
California Department of Education. Private School Affidavit Information
2
California Legislative Information. California Education Code EDC 33190 – Private School Affidavit
3
California Legislative Information. California Education Code Section 48222
4
California Department of Education. Private School Affidavit Form
5
California Legislative Information. California Education Code EDC 33191
6
California Legislative Information. California Health and Safety Code HSC 120375 – Immunization Status