Requirements for accreditation not only vary from state to state, but also from country to country. Because we are an International Homeschooling company as well as a US company, accreditation would be immensely strenuous, expensive and time-consuming.
There are many forms of accreditation; some homeschool/correspondence programs are accredited, but what does that actually mean? The only accreditation that has national acceptance is the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education, a division of the Federal Government. Accreditation from a Christian School Accrediting Agency, even one that is endorsed by state, does not have national acceptance. The few correspondence type schools that do have the DESE accreditation are usually related to a state university.
Many, many colleges are not only accepting home education students with a parent-generated transcript, but they are actively seeking them out, even offering scholarships for homeschooled students! A lack of national accreditation is no longer a deterrent in most situations.
In a desire to serve our customers, and not an accrediting agency, Sonlight has chosen not to seek accreditation. We do recommend, beginning in 8th grade, you request information from colleges in which your child may be interested to be sure you meet their entrance requirements and plan your child's high school experience accordingly. Most colleges will be happy to provide you with information, and many even have admissions officers designated to assist homeschooled applicants. For book recommendations on this subject and discussion with other Sonlight users, you may wish to visit our High School Forum or explore the "Introduction to High School" page on the Sonlight website.
We can offer you our experience with students who have graduated from a homeschool. In our experience students in the United States have no difficulty at all being accepted to colleges, even selective colleges who have more applicants than they have slots for students. Also, in our experience, we find a homeschool education is not a deterrent in finding a job. Among the advisor team we have quite a few parents whose students have graduated from college, gone on to graduate school, been accepted into the military and graduated from training in specialized fields with top honors, obtained jobs in all kinds of fields from medicine to police officers to teachers - all without an 'accredited' high school diploma.