In the summer of 2024, HSLDA surveyed thousands of homeschooling families across the country in order to provide a more up-to-date cost estimate for parents homeschooling or those considering homeschooling. Such estimates have been made in the past, but with recent inflation, many of them are now out-of-date.
We know parents are often concerned about whether they can afford to leave the public school system behind—nearly half of parents in a 2021 survey said the financial burden of homeschooling is moderately to extremely problematic for their family.[1] So we hope this information serves to inform and inspire confidence as parents make critical decisions about homeschooling.
Our survey findings indicate that homeschooling costs significantly less per child than public and private school tuition. Below, we explain how we arrived at this conclusion.
About the survey
More than 4,000 homeschooling families from all 50 states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico responded to the survey, so the sample is representative of the country. And while the sample included HSLDA members and former members, it also included families who have never been members.
We asked the families how many children they are currently homeschooling in elementary school and in middle or high school, and then to estimate the annual cost of homeschooling each child. We asked them to include curriculum, supplies and printing, annual co-op or organization fees, tuition for online classes, transportation, music lessons, art classes, sports, and tutoring in the estimate. We also asked what state they live in and whether they reside in a rural, suburban, or urban community.
The families who responded had an average of about two students being homeschooled in their household. Of those students, 60 percent were in elementary school, and the remaining 40 percent were in middle or high school.