HomeSchool Scribe
Help center
Short answers in the order a family meets them. If yours isn't here, email support; every message is read by the person who wrote the app, usually within a day on weekdays.
- Getting started
- Planning
- Checking off and records
- Reports and transcripts
- Your state
- Student Mode
- Scribe Plus and billing
- Privacy and your data
Getting started
The first run asks for four things: your school's name and your state, the school year's dates and goals, your students, and whether you want filing reminders. Pick your state first; it fills in the days, hours, and deadlines the state expects, and you can change any of them later in Settings.
Set up your school year (recording in November; the steps are written out below)
Do I need an account?
No. There are no accounts and no passwords. Your records live on your device and, if iCloud is on, in your own iCloud account.
Can I add students later?
Yes. Students › Add student. Each child gets a color and an animal picture so little ones can find their own list.
What if I've used the app before on another phone?
On the first screen, tap “I've used HomeSchool Scribe before” and choose the backup file you exported, or sign in to the same iCloud account and wait a minute for the records to arrive.
Which iPhones and iPads work?
Anything running iOS 26 or iPadOS 26. The iPad shows students and their records side by side.
Planning
Courses belong to a student, and lessons belong to a course. Make a course from the student's page (Courses › +), then let the planner lay out the lessons: Plan › Plan a course, choose the course, how many lessons, which days, how long, and the start date. It skips your breaks.
Plan a course in one tap (recording in November; the steps are written out below)
The “Plan a course” list is empty.
You haven't made a course yet. Tap “Add a course” right there in the sheet, or go to the student's page › Courses › + first.
Can one course be for all my children?
Yes. In the course editor, under “Also for”, check the other students. It shows once on Today under “Together”; checking it off once checks it for everyone.
How do I add breaks and holidays?
Settings › School years › your year › Breaks. Lessons already planned around a new break can be shifted with Plan › Shift schedule.
What is a loop course?
A course whose lessons have no dates. Today always shows the next one; when you finish it, the next appears. Good for read-alouds, memory work, and anything you do “whenever there's time”.
Can I paste a table of contents?
Yes. In the course, choose Import lessons, paste one lesson per line, and the planner spreads them across your days.
Routines?
Repeating items that aren't lessons (piano practice, chores, a daily read) live under the student's Routines. They count for time if you give them minutes and show a streak.
Checking off and records
Today is the screen you live on. Check a lesson and three things happen: the student is marked present, the lesson's minutes are logged as hours, and any grade you enter updates the course. Undo is there for a moment after every check.
Check off the day (recording in November; the steps are written out below)
The lesson took longer or shorter than planned.
Tap Log time on the student's card and enter the real minutes against the course. It adjusts the day's hours; the plan stays as it was.
We did something that wasn't planned: a field trip, a nature walk.
Log time and pick the subject, or tap “Add a moment” for a photo, a clip, or a few words. Both count toward the record.
How do I mark a sick day, or a day we did school on Saturday?
From the student's page › Attendance, mark any day present, absent, or sick. Manual marks override the automatic ones.
What does “Add a moment” do?
It puts a photo, a short video clip (up to 15 seconds), or a note into the student's portfolio, dated and tied to a course if you like. Moments show up in the printed portfolio and in the week's recap.
Can I check things off with Siri?
Yes: “Log time in HomeSchool Scribe” lets you pick a student, minutes, and a course without opening the app.
Reports and transcripts
Everything on the Records tab is built from what you checked off. Pick the student and year at the top of the Reports section, then tap a report: attendance and hours, report card, transcript, portfolio, reading log, course of study. Each opens as a PDF you can print, save, or share.
Grades, weights, and the transcript (recording in November; the steps are written out below)
The numbers on the report don't match Today.
They should. Check the year and term picked at the top of Records; a term filters the report card and attendance to that stretch.
How do grades work?
Per course: points (enter earned and possible on graded lessons), categories with weights (tests 60%, homework 40%), a grade you enter for the term, pass/fail, or narrative with no grade at all. The transcript uses what each course is set to.
What's on the transcript?
High-school courses with credits and grades, weighted and unweighted GPA, test scores, activities, and signature lines. Switch it to all years for a K–12 record.
Can the app write the report card comments?
On phones with Apple Intelligence, yes: an optional summary written on the device from the student's record. Nothing is sent anywhere. Read it before you print it.
Your state
Records › Compliance lists what your state asks for and when. Each item opens the document the app prepares, a button to the state's own portal where one exists, and “Mark filed” so you can record the date and confirmation number. Reminders come 14 and 2 days before, if you turned them on.
Deadlines, documents, and “Mark filed” (recording in November; the steps are written out below)
Is this legal advice?
No. These are plain-language planning summaries, reviewed against the law, and every one links to the source. Confirm with your state or a homeschool legal organization before you file.
Does the app file anything for me?
Never. It prepares the document and opens the state's site in Safari; you file, and you copy the confirmation back into the app.
My district's deadline is different.
Edit the date on the item. Districts vary; the app's date is the state's default.
Where are the requirements for my state written out?
On this site: every state and DC, from the same data the app uses.
Student Mode
Hand over the iPad and a child sees only their own day: big checkboxes, a timer per lesson, and a “Stuck?” button that tells you. Set a parent PIN the first time; Exit asks for it. Nothing else in the app is reachable from there, and nothing a child does can be shared.
Student Mode and the parent PIN (recording in November; the steps are written out below)
I forgot the PIN.
Sign out of iCloud on that device and back in, or delete and reinstall the app; your records return from iCloud. If iCloud is off, export a backup first from Records › Backup.
Do a child's check marks count?
Yes, exactly like yours: attendance and hours fill in, and the timer feeds the hours log.
Can a child take photos in Student Mode?
No. Moments, sharing, and everything else stay with the parent.
Scribe Plus and billing
Scribe Plus is one plan for the whole family: $49.99 a year with two weeks free, $7.99 a month with one week free, or $149.99 once. Purchases go through the App Store and can be shared with Family Sharing. Founding families pay $99.99 for lifetime during the first 30 days after launch.
Backup, export, and what happens if you stop paying (recording in November; the steps are written out below)
How do I cancel?
iPhone Settings › your name › Subscriptions › HomeSchool Scribe. Cancelling stops the next renewal; the current period runs out as paid.
What happens to my records if I stop?
They stay on your device, stay readable, and can still be exported. Nothing is deleted.
Can my spouse use it too?
Yes, with Family Sharing on the same Apple family. Records sync through your own iCloud, so both phones see the same family.
Refunds?
Apple handles refunds under its own policy at reportaproblem.apple.com. We can't issue them ourselves.
Restore didn't find my purchase.
Make sure the phone is signed in with the Apple Account that bought it, then tap Restore on the plan screen. If it still fails, email us with the receipt date.
Privacy and your data
The app has no servers and collects nothing. Records live on your device and, if you turn on iCloud, in your own iCloud account. Reports, cards, and reels leave the phone only when you share them yourself.
Where is my data, exactly?
In the app's database on your device, and in your private iCloud database if iCloud is on. We never see it.
How do I get everything out?
Records › Backup › Export everything gives you one JSON file with every student, lesson, grade, and record. Photos and clips are not in the backup; they stay in your iCloud.
Sync isn't working between my iPhone and iPad.
Both need the same Apple Account with iCloud Drive on for HomeSchool Scribe (Settings › your name › iCloud › Saved to iCloud). Give it a minute on Wi-Fi with the app open on both.
What about my children's privacy?
Only you enter information about them, and only you can share anything. Student Mode collects nothing beyond the check marks a child makes.
Full policy?
Read the privacy policy and the terms of use.