Homeschool enrollment increases even after pandemic: Data

New data from John Hopkins Institute for Education Policy’s Homeschool Research Lab found that 90 percent of states that report homeschooling enrollment found increases for the 2023-24 academic year despite assumptions many made that home instruction would fizzle out after the pandemic. 

Out of the 21 states that have reported homeschooling data from last academic year, only two saw a decrease in numbers: New Hampshire and Vermont. Nine states are still working on their enrollment numbers, and 21 states do not release the data publicly.  

“I think everybody knows that homeschooling went up during the pandemic. But people really thought that when schooling went back to normal, as the pandemic kind of waned, that everybody would go back to their normal way of educating. And so, every year, we keep thinking that the numbers are going to drop and the numbers are going to drop, and we keep not seeing that happening to the degree that we thought that it would in education circles,” said Angela Watson, director of the research lab.  

But tracking homeschoolers is a bit tricky due to how different states count who is getting home instruction.  

In some states, homeschoolers are put under the private school umbrella, while in others, they can be counted as private school students but aren’t necessarily.

“The numbers that we are reporting here are the actual numbers that come from this state. So we don’t do any kind of estimating or adjusting or controlling,” Watson said.  

“In some states, microschooling is very popular right now, and so lots of growth in microschooling. In some states, microschool students are legally classified as homeschool students, even if what they’re doing isn’t happening at home, right? It looks much more like a private school in a lot of circumstances, but they’re legally classified, and they legally are counted under that homeschooling umbrella,” she added. 

In the case of New Hampshire, one of the two states that saw a decrease, the state is no longer counting those who are receiving public funding through the state’s Education Freedom Account as homeschoolers. Since the program was launched in 2021, homeschooling numbers have been down there.  

North Dakota saw a record number of homeschoolers in the 2023-24 year, including a 24 percent jump from the year before. Rhode Island saw a 67 percent jump in homeschoolers.  

“While there is a clear growth trend in homeschooling, the reason for that growth is unknown. What is clear is that this time, the growth is not driven by a global pandemic or sudden disruptions to traditional schooling. Something else is driving this growth,” the report said.  

“Also, it is important to note that these are counts of homeschooled students, not percentages. So the increase is even more interesting because the overall number of U.S. students is declining due in part to declining birth rates. In other words, ultimately we see that the number of homeschooled students is going up as the total number of U.S. students in going down,” it concluded.