As of October 21, 2026, we list 18 homeschool co-ops in California, across 17 towns.
If no group here fits, the co-op starter pack comes with it: 12 pages from the Starpath Library for starting a small Waldorf-inspired co-op of your own. They include an agenda for the first meeting and a first term, week by week. Leave your email and you’ll be on the list for both. You can stop the emails any time.
Or read the co-op pages in the Library nowCalifornia co-ops are shaped by how homeschooling is done here legally. Many families operate under a private school affidavit, and many others enrol with a charter independent study programme or a private satellite programme, which brings funds and a supervising teacher. Co-ops sit alongside all three, and some are attached to a programme rather than standing alone.
That matters when you are choosing. A co-op attached to a charter may expect you to be enrolled with that charter. An independent co-op will not care. The listing pages below say what each group says about itself, and where a group has not said, we have left it blank rather than guessed.
California is also large enough that "near me" means something different from state to state. A group in Sacramento is not an option for a family in San Diego, so the listings are grouped by town rather than presented as one state-wide list.
Listed
18
homeschool co-ops
Towns
17
covered
Checked
2026-09-11
every listing
Type a town or postcode in California, or use your location, and we’ll list the 10 nearest. Your location stays in your browser. Distances are from each group’s town, not its meeting place.
From what each group says on its own website. A group that doesn’t say is in neither list.
California sets no minimum hours or days, so there is nothing for a co-op day to count toward. California does ask you to keep records, so a co-op day is worth noting in whatever you keep.
The full California requirementsTaken from what each group publishes. Fees change, so treat these as a guide and check with the group.
A private school satellite program (PSP) in Santa Rosa for Christian homeschooling families in Sonoma County, with about 40 families from pre-K to 12th grade and optional co-op classes on Fridays.
A Catholic co-op for homeschooling families at the Cathedral of St. Eugene in Santa Rosa, for children in kindergarten to 6th grade across Sonoma County, meeting twice a week, with new families welcome through the year as space allows.
Ellemercito Learning Community, an independent hybrid homeschool program in Downey founded in 2021, with project and place-based learning, small groups, an individual learning plan for each student and field trips.
An art studio in Fair Oaks with small homeschool classes for children from TK to grade 8, in fall and spring sessions.
A homeschool community on East Bidwell Street in Folsom with project-based classes across subjects, and a vendor for several charter schools, among them Clarksville and Feather River.
A volunteer-run nonprofit for Christian homeschooling families in Fresno County and nearby areas, with shared social and educational activities, a theatre company called Glow! and a robotics team.
A secular, nonprofit homeschool community based in Fullerton, with multi-grade classes of up to about 12 students that each family picks term by term, and community events.
A Waldorf-inspired homeschool co-op for families in the Antelope Valley, started by parents looking for an unhurried alternative to early academics.
A statewide, all-volunteer homeschooling organization founded in 1994 by California families, open to every faith and homeschooling style, that follows homeschooling laws and helps families find legal options and local support groups.
Discover Country Strong Learning Center in Redding, CA, a hands-on homeschool co-op combining academics, fitness, and real-world life skills.
A Christian homeschool support network for Sonoma County families that meets every Friday at 1pm at Dorotea Park in Rohnert Park, with lists of local co-ops, PSPs and groups.
A Christian homeschool co-op on North G Street in San Bernardino for families across the Inland Empire, with classes, park days and field trips, and an academy that keeps records for families who want more structure.
Heritage Christian School, a private school satellite program (PSP) in San Diego for Christian homeschooling families, where parents choose the curriculum, with mentoring, classes, activities and a graduation, and office hours Monday to Thursday.
A homeschool community in the San Francisco Bay Area with more than 100 classes for K-12 students across four campuses, from San Mateo to Morgan Hill.
Learn Beyond The Book, a learning center for homeschooled and hybrid-schooled students from age 4 through high school, with small project-based classes in Newhall, Northridge and on Zoom, Parent & Me classes, tutoring, music lessons and field trips.
A Christian homeschool support group whose co-op classes for kindergarten to high school meet on Wednesdays in Silverado Canyon, California.
A Catholic homeschool co-op run as a ministry of Holy Martyrs Catholic Church in Temecula, California, with enrichment classes taught by parent volunteers.
A nonprofit, non-denominational association of Christian homeschooling families in Ventura County, started in 1981, with families from Ojai to Westlake Village and park days, spelling bees, science fairs and field trips.
Teaching at home between co-op days? Starpath’s Waldorf-inspired lessons cover grades 1 to 3, and grade 4 is being added. Sophie, a Waldorf class teacher, wrote the stories, verses and activities for each day. 14 days for $7, then $47 a month. Cancel before the trial ends and you aren't charged again.
Families agree to meet on the same day each week during term, usually in a church hall, a community centre or a hired room. Parents take turns teaching, so a parent who is confident with science takes the science class and someone else takes art. Most co-ops expect a parent to stay on site rather than drop off, and most ask every family to contribute in some way, whether that is teaching, setting up or helping in a room. A term runs eight to fourteen weeks, and places are usually allocated before the term starts rather than week by week.
It depends on what the co-op has to pay for. A group meeting in a member's home with borrowed materials can run on almost nothing, while a co-op hiring a hall and paying outside tutors for a few classes costs real money per term. The fees each group publishes are listed on this page where we have them, taken from the group's own website, so you can compare rather than guess. Ask what the fee covers before you commit: some cover the hall only, and materials are extra.
No. A co-op is a choice, not a requirement, and plenty of families never join one. What a co-op gives you is the subjects that are hard to do alone, a timetable someone else is holding, and other children in the room. What it costs you is a fixed day each week and, in most cases, a share of the work.
Not directly. Families who enrol with a public charter independent study programme receive instructional funds, typically a couple of thousand dollars a year, which can be spent on approved vendors and materials. Families who file a private school affidavit instead receive nothing. Which route you are on changes what you can spend on a co-op.
Most co-ops do, because a hall costs money and so do materials. What separates a co-op from a business is usually that the fee covers costs rather than paying the parents who teach. Some co-ops are incorporated as non-profits and some are an informal group with a shared bank account. If you are starting one and planning to pay teachers, that is a different undertaking with tax and insurance questions attached, and it is worth taking advice before the first term rather than after it.
Yes. 9 of the 18 groups listed here say on their own websites that they’re Christian, among them CHEFA: Christian Home Educators of the Fresno Area, C.H.E.R.P., Dikaios Christian Educators and 6 more. 1 say they’re secular. 8 of the 18 don’t say either way on their websites, so ask them before you join.
Claim your listing and it stays current, because it reads from your own term plan rather than from whatever we last checked. Starpath is free for co-ops to run on.
Add or claim a listingOr start running your homeschool co-op on Starpath, free: the week, the families and the classes in one place.