Report: More than 100,000 students withdraw from Texas public schools to be home-schooled

(The Center Square) – More than 100,000 students combined were withdrawn from public schools in 2022 and 2023 to be home-schooled, according to a new report from the Texas Home School Coalition.

According to the THSC’s latest analysis of Texas Education Agency and school district data, more than 50,000 students were pulled from public schools each year in 2022 and in 2023 in order to be home-schooled.

The numbers only relate to student withdrawals as they pertain to being home-schooled and exclude those withdrawn to be enrolled in private school.

The numbers also exclude families who never enrolled their children in public school and only home-schooled them. The coalition notes that because of this, “total new home-school enrollment each year could be much higher.”

The THSC also published an interactive map that shows how many students were pulled from public schools by county by school year. Each county is ranked by the number of withdrawals; data includes total withdrawals and percentage increase of withdrawals compared to the previous year. The map also provides information about grades, charter schools and independent school districts.

Looking at the 2022-2023 school year, the state’s largest county, Harris, had the greatest number of withdrawals of 4,750. Bexar (3,118), Tarrant (2,655), Denton (2,073), and Dallas (1,765), had the next greatest withdrawals rounding out the top five.

Harris County’s withdrawal represented a 13% increase from the previous year, Tarrant County’s an 11% increase. While the other counties reported large withdrawal totals, their withdrawal rate decreased from the previous year: Denton (-33%), Dallas (-3%) and Bexar (-1%).

Eleven counties had a minimum of more than 1,200 withdrawals that school year. In addition to the top five counties, they include Hidalgo (1,753), Montgomery (1,577), Harrison (1,508), Travis (1,400), Williamson (1,292) and Collin (1,212).

Galveston County had the next highest of nearly 1,000, followed by Smith, Brazoria, Lubbock, El Paso, Karnes, Bell, Ector, Johnson, and Cameron, which each had more than 500 withdrawals. McClellan, Ellis, Fort Bend, Comal, Kaufman, Taylor, Grayson, and Gregg, which each had more than 350 withdrawals.

The total of more than 50,000 withdrawals each school year is less than a record more than 83,000 during the COVID-era 2020-2021 school year, the THSC notes.

The number of families who chose to home-school during and after the COVID-era lockdowns and remote learning policies tripled in one year, The Center Square reported.

The coalition also notes that its previous reports indicating there were 20,000 to 30,000 students withdrawn each year to be home-schooled was based on limited data because the only available TEA data was for students between grades 7 through 12.

The THSC next obtained data directly from school districts to obtain a more complete picture.

When data for students in pre-K through sixth grade was included, an estimated more than 50,000 students were withdrawn each year in the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years.

According to the interactive map, the majority withdrawn in 2023 were pre-K through sixth grade students.

While many look to the COVID-era as “a high-water mark for the number of students withdrawing, even post-COVID withdrawals have remained approximately 50% higher than before, indicating that high home-schooling numbers are likely the new normal,” the coalition said in a statement.

According to the TEA, more than 5.5 million students were enrolled in public schools statewide in the 2022-2023 school year.

Between 1997 and 2023, nearly 800,000 students withdrew from Texas public schools to be home-schooled.

According to several reports, the number of home-schooled children nationally increased from an estimated 13,000 in 1973 to 5 million in 2020, The Center Square reported.