Homeschooling Continues to Grow in 2021

In December of 2020, I was informed that the US Census Bureau (USCB) was conducting regularly scheduled surveys (i.e., Household Pulse Survey [HPS]) to determine the pandemic’s impact on American families in areas relating to employment, food availability, income, and children’s education (USCB, 2020). To my surprise, the survey included a question about homeschooling, so I began to monitor the results of the HPS because it appeared that they could be relevant to my position at HSLDA as the director of homeschool research; the results could have been interesting to homeschoolers, as well.

The HPS was developed by the US Census Bureau in collaboration with seven other federal agencies so that the government could rapidly respond to the needs of Americans during the pandemic. Accomplished through emails and phone messaging, the HPS began as a weekly survey in April of 2020 but later converted to one that took place every other week. These surveys have used nationally representative samples that reflected the population of all 50 states and the 15 largest major metropolitan areas. They will continue being administered until they are no longer needed and/or funding for them expires (USCB, 2020).

The Big Picture

When results of the initial HPSs became public, there were concerns that government estimates of homeschool households during the pandemic would be inflated because, at the time, practically all US students were being taught at home. However, the USCB soon addressed this concern by asking parents to label students as homeschoolers only if they were not simultaneously enrolled in public or private schools (Eggleston & Fields, 2020). This could not yield exact data in instances involving individual students who participated in both kinds of schooling, but it did permit households to be counted as homeschools if at least one student in the household was entirely taught at home regardless of siblings who may have been enrolled elsewhere.

The most recent pre-pandemic federal publication (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2017) that had reported the prevalence of homeschooling indicated that 3.3 percent of US school-age children were taught at home. However, by the time the first HPS was published at the outset of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, the percent of homeschool households had grown to 5.4, rapidly increased to 11.1 by October, and continued climbing throughout most of spring 2021 until it peaked at 19.5 in mid-May (USCB_b, 2021). Consequently, in one year’s time, the percent of homeschool households more than tripled.

It seems reasonable that the number of homeschool households will eventually decrease after most of the nation’s schools have reopened. However, the speed and degree at which things return to normal is uncertain because of the lingering effects of the pandemic (Carpenter & Dunn, 2021; Hess, 2021) and concerns that many parents have had about public school safety and curriculum issues (NCES, 2017_b). For example, some students will undoubtedly contract COVID-19 after the schools reopen. Thankfully, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has stated that the risk will be low for most schoolchildren even in the event that they contract the disease (e.g., to date, less than 275 children ages 5 to 18 nationwide have died from COVID-19). However, this may provide little comfort to parents whose children have immune systems that are weakened by other health issues or are concerned that children who became infected at school could pose serious health risks for others at home. This concern was apparent in a recent study by Carpenter and Dunn (2021): 87 percent of the 1,743 parents surveyed expressed concern for the health of the students or someone in their homes if the students were to become infected with COVID-19. Consequently, for many parents, much time may need to elapse before they are comfortable with sending their children back to school. Furthermore, because many teacher unions and some school boards now argue that schools should not reopen until all school-age children are vaccinated (Hess, 2021), it may result in more parents deciding to teach their children at home if they are uncomfortable with the notion of having their children vaccinated.

Concerns over Safety

As it relates to other safety issues, the NCES_c (2018) estimated that 1.7 percent of students were victims of violent crimes at school and that 20.2 percent of US students experienced bullying when on school premises, the school bus, or going to and from school (NCES_b, 2017). When considering statistics such as these, it is not surprising that government surveys conducted during the last 20 years have detected that unsafe school environments were the leading reason why parents withdrew their children from school and began educating them at home (NCES_b, 2017). Another leading issue behind their decision to homeschool (NCES_a, 2017) has been their dissatisfaction with school-based curriculums. As a matter of fact, parental unhappiness with school curriculum materials has either been the second- or third-most frequently mentioned reason for homeschooling during the last two decades (NCES_a, 2017). Furthermore, if recent stories about the level of dissatisfaction that parents have toward curriculum materials are any indication (e.g., Mayer, 2021), it could soon become the leading reason why parents choose to educate their children at home.  

In conclusion, even as the pandemic wanes, it is difficult to predict how high the number of homeschool households will continue to climb or how soon it will be before school enrollments return to previous levels. Currently, it appears that anxiety related to COVID-19, concerns for children’s safety, and school curricular issues seem to be causing more parents to homeschool their children than ever before and could, at the very least, delay their decision to reenroll them in brick-and-mortar schools. Time and continued monitoring will tell, but in the meantime, the homeschool movement continues to grow at a rapid pace.