"Certifying" a diploma in Ohio

I suppose I knew this was coming, but still…..Grrr!

We were planning to order my daughter’s diploma through HSLDA next year (just as we did for my older daughter), knowing that HSLDA does not officially “certify” diplomas; they simply provide a nice-looking, official-looking, elegant diploma.  In the state of Ohio, parents of homeschooled students grant the diploma.  No accredited agency is required nor any affidavit of completion by a teacher or school district.  That’s the law.

However….we were talking to an Army recruiter yesterday who kept asking us if we were going to have her diploma issued by an accredited organization.  Ironically, this recruiter was homeschooled through 12th grade in Pennsylvania.  There, the annual requirements for submission of records to the state is similar to that of Ohio, but there are also organizations that are “accredited” and will examine your child’s transcript and the annual affidavits of progress (signed by a teacher who reviews the child’s work at the end of the school year), and the organization issues the diploma.  The recruiter said that their education department would have to review her case, but he was pretty sure she could not get into the Army without a diploma issued by an accredited agency, unless she gets her GED.  Of course, I am consulting with HSLDA on this matter.

What makes this all the more perplexing is the fact that, while we were there, my daughter took a practice test version of their entrance exam on which she scored 42.  The recruiter told us the practice test is the four hardest sections out of seven, and nearly everyone scores higher on the actual test.  Furthermore, he told me (while she was taking the test) that the average score of potential recruits who come through that office is 18.  After she completed it, he told her where online she could practice before taking the real entrance exam, informing her that if she scores just a few points higher on the exam, she can request to be trained for any job in the Army she would want.

So…..does anyone from Ohio happen to know if there is an agency or organization that would review her records and issue a certified diploma of some sort?