Are the homeschooled students required to take a GED course or do they simply take the exam? No point, just curious.
It may vary from state to state, but generally, home schoolers do not have to take GED exams. Most families join an “Umbrella” school which keeps records of grades and attendance of the home schoolers, and awards them an appropriate HS degree according to how they do on an ACT exam. These exams can be taken at any junior college or other accredited facility for a small fee. Both our kids were home schooled from about grade 4, and they had no problems getting accepted into and graduating from Local Junior Colleges and State Universities.
No, just the exam to earn their diploma.
There are testing options besides the GED. You can look for them on the Internet. We discovered that some colleges will take home-schooled children and give them entrance exams, and accept or refuse them on the results, with or without a diploma.