This is a state by state thing. The state that we started homeschooling in, had zero proof requirements that you do anything at all. You simply inform your local school district that you're home schooling and that's that.

However, several years later we moved to another state that requires you to give the school system a curriculum that you're using to teach your children.

Read up on your state's home schooling laws... also, expect those laws to get more strict here soon if you live in a blue state. They NEED to indoctrinate our kids to keep their communist momentum going, so they're going to start making it hard to home school soon.

As far as the diploma goes, in most states the best you can get after homeschooling is to take the GED test and get a GED.