Georgia’s rich homeschool history supplies ‘fertile ground’ for emerging hybrid options

Since Georgia legalized homeschooling in 1984, it has achieved national prominence as a leader in alternative education options. 

“The state’s relaxed regulations, along with metro Atlanta’s density, geographic spread, and diversity, have made it fertile ground for homeschooling,” the Atlanta magazine wrote in a recent feature. 

“In Georgia, what began around kitchen tables has evolved into a far-reaching network, spanning from the traditional parent-taught curricula to forest schools, microschools, and hybrid schools that blend in-classroom and at-home learning.” 

With almost 90,000 of its 1.7 million students learning “outside traditional classrooms,” the Peach State provides a fruitful vision of what alternative education can look like – including microschools, associational support and university-model schools. 

Learning pods, microschools: ‘One-room schoolhouses of old’ 

Perhaps the most popular educational alternative post-pandemic was learning pods, which the Atlanta magazine described as “small groups of families who share teaching duties or hire tutors to educate their children at home.” 

Georgia helped this movement flourish by passing the Learning Pods Protection Act in 2021. It helped provide exemptions from such requirements as administrative staffing ratios and certifications that larger schools must follow, according to the magazine. 

“Since then, many pods have matured into microschools: independently run academies that meet a few days a week, charge modest tuition, and blend home-based and classroom learning,” Gillian Neimark wrote. “Such microschools resemble the one-room schoolhouses of old, with students of all ages learning side by side.” 

The magazine cites one example of a microschool, The Attuned Community School founded by LaToya Nelson. 

“In traditional schools, kids get managed more but learn less of the durable skills that lead them into adulthood,” Nelson said. 

By contrast, Nelson’s 17-year-old daughter D’Aana has thrived in her hybrid education by taking forensic photography classes at Atlanta Technical College. 

“The way she’s blossomed is beyond me,” her mom explained, adding she thinks D’Aana would never have taken such classes if she had been in public school. 

Associational support: ‘For those families that are on the fringes’ 

In addition to microschools, Georgia also boasts several associations dedicated to advancing homeschool resources and opportunities within communities. 

The Atlanta magazine credits Terry and Vickie Roemhild with helping start “the state’s first homeschool advocacy group,” Georgians for Freedom in Education. 

Today the group’s website helps equip parents “with core knowledge and an understanding of America’s founding principles in order to protect their own future as a self-governing people,” according to its vision statement. 

“[The Roemhilds’] influence, along with a sympathetic governor, Joe Frank Harris, led Georgia to legalize homeschooling in 1984,” Neimark observed, noting they had been convicted in 1981 of breaking the state’s compulsory attendance law by homeschooling. 

Another statewide association, Georgia Black Home Educators Network (GBHEN), was designed to support underserved, under-resourced families choosing to homeschool. 

“We wanted to pull homeschooling resources for those families that are on the fringes, that no one’s really focusing on,” said Nicole P. Doyle, GBHEN’s founder. “We’re recognizing that homeschool is not free, and sometimes it’s very difficult when you’re a fixed-budget family with a lot of children.”  

Doyle listed a technology initiative as one way the association helps families by securing devices for computer programming classes and online education.  

In the 2023-24 academic year, her association partnered with Compudopt and Homeschool EmpowerED to distribute 139 laptops, 50 tablets and Chromebooks to homeschoolers. 

“If you have a lot of children, let’s just be honest: you probably don’t have six laptops for every child,” she said. 

“We wanted to make sure that we are always providing resources that may not be readily seen as being the most urgent at that time.”  

Hybrid schools: ‘DIY spirit of American education’ 

The final education alternative, university-model schools, also goes by other names such as hybrid schools or part-time private schools or university-model schools. 

“These schools are the DIY spirit of American education,” said Eric Wearne, a Kennesaw State University professor and codirector of the National Hybrid Schools Project. 

Wearne, a father of seven, has firsthand experience with these schools after he and his wife enrolled their children in a hybrid course at St. John Bosco Academy. 

“It was a calmer pace of life,” he said. “Dinner together, not just homework and hurry.” 

Even with today’s resources and opportunities, many longtime homeschoolers acknowledge the challenges involved. 

“You can do it inexpensively, yes,” says Kerstin Kruse Davis, executive director of the co-op Wildwood Nature Academy. “But homeschool is a sacrifice. Usually one parent steps out of the workforce, cutting the income in half.”  

Kruse Davis began her homeschool journey 23 years ago, “before it was cool or easy.” She believes all homeschoolers have days “when you sob at the sink and question your choices.” 

However, homeschooling today has become far more mainstream than when she started.  

“Back then, we built our own classes from scratch. Now you can find every sport, every subject. It’s so much easier.” 

Kruse Davis’ co-op now serves more than 200 children in an all-outdoor, parent-run setting. 

“Kids on the spectrum blossom outside,” she said. “Children who won’t touch paint in a classroom will roll in a muddy creek.” 

Other homeschool moms have also found comfort in building community. Andrea Hall, founder of Epic Homeschool Network, started her homeschool journey in 2012. 

“I walked into my local library looking for a homeschool group for my 4-year-old daughter,” she said, and when she found none, she started her own with the help of a librarian. 

Now the 43-year-old math teacher credits homeschooling with helping her eldest child, a high school senior, prepare her college applications to Emory University and Kennesaw State. 

“When we started, it was five families and a library room,” Hall noted. “Now it’s a whole community, and that’s where my kids have all their friends. One of our families has a student in the Civil Air Patrol, already logging flight hours toward becoming a pilot. Homeschooling is definitely what you make it.”