Homeschooling best helps special-needs students succeed

In a time when media outlets typically bemoan the growing homeschool movement, it’s refreshing to see a thoughtful article from Vox: “One complicated reason homeschooling is on the rise.”

Special needs are spurring many families to homeschool, writes Anna North – recognizing public schools, legally required to provide “a fair and equitable education” for all, are only hindering their children’s learning.

“Let’s just figure out what works instead of being so constrained by the way we’re supposed to do it,” says homeschool mom Shawna Wingert, who pulled her 3rd grader from a Southern California school. 

Eureka. 

Instead of decrying the sacrifice millions of homeschooling families make daily to help their children succeed, why don’t more journalists focus on what made them homeschool in the first place? 

One-size-fits-all vs. one-on-one attention 

Wingert’s child had been reading since age 2 but had been overwhelmed by fear and anxiety from attending school. It reached the point where they “would panic every morning at the idea of going to school, panic about getting shoes on, panic about getting socks on, panic about leaving the car to go into the classroom.” 

However, the “rigid” public-school system refused to make any accommodations Wingert suggested – even simple ones such as more advanced reading material to keep her child engaged. 

Wingert unfortunately has plenty of company. One-third of families in a Washington Post-Schar School survey “say they made that choice (to pull kids out) because their child has special needs that public schools can’t or won’t meet,” North explains. 

“Families sometimes feel they’re getting a one-size-fits-all approach: ‘Your child has this disability, and this is what we do for children who have that disability,’ versus saying, ‘What does your child need?’” 

In contrast, homeschooling’s “one-on-one attention” model caters to each child, allowing “everything from a distraction-free learning environment to individualized reading instruction to lessons that play to kids’ strengths, not just their challenges.” 

Other parents with advanced educational degrees have also seen the failures of public schools in their own families. 

For example, Yale professor Christina Cipriano’s daughter failed to get the academic support she needed, despite an Individual Education Plan (IEP). 

“If we keep providing all students with the same ‘this is the way we do things’ approach to education, neurodivergent students will continue to experience diminished academic achievement, increased punitive disciplinary practices and exclusionary placements,” Cipriano wrote. 

Debunking the ‘regulations’ argument 

As with most media outlets, Vox rushes to deploy the overused “homeschools-need-regulating” claim: “Some experts, however, are concerned that a lack of oversight in homeschool and microschool settings could leave students vulnerable not just to substandard education but even to injury or abuse because these settings are not subject to the same legal safeguards as traditional schools.” 

Let’s consider all three charges: “substandard education,” “injury or abuse,” and “legal safeguards.” How are public schools performing on all these? 

Terribly. 

As the declining rates of literacy and math proficiency among U.S. high school graduates indicate, public schools are overemphasizing graduation rates over actual learning. As a result, many young adults are woefully unprepared for college and life in the real world. 

Color me skeptical, but such bureaucratic mismanagement means the typical public-school student already suffers from a substandard education. 

Just ask former schoolteacher Jeremy Noonan: “The public school accountability system, by relying solely on quantitative metrics like graduation rates to gauge educational quality and to evaluate administrators, frustrates teachers’ ability to truly teach and care for their students and look out for their long-term well-being.” 

Let’s also tackle the injury-or-abuse claim. Shockingly, nearly 12% of recent public high school graduates are reporting sexual misconduct, which includes injury and abuse they’ve experienced from teachers or coaches. 

Even worse, this figure is likely to be underreported. 

With such high offence rates – often with these issues handled “in-house” with little, if any, disciplinary action against perpetrators – it’s no wonder organizations such as S.E.S.A.M.E. have formed to help students avoid sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment by educators. 

All this is happening against the backdrop of “legal safeguards,” which Vox fails to define but could mean regulations such as background checks. 

Why do media outlets think adding more regulations – requiring costly and invasive procedures assuming homeschool parents are guilty before being proved innocent – will help? 

This also demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding about the role of parents vs. government. Imagine the outrage if state or federal officials suddenly required all first-time parents to undergo background checks and submit a detailed questionnaire explaining why they “need” to raise a child. 

It’s assuming sinister motives and the need to justify your parenting decisions to a third party, without any proof of wrongdoing. 

In the same way, homeschool parents are simply exercising their pre-existing rights to educate their children however they choose. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has historically recognized the teaching of children as a parental responsibility, not a governmental one – even after the introduction of compulsory education in the 1800s. 

Debunking the ‘common understanding’ argument 

Another overused argument against homeschoolers involves the “common understanding” schools are supposed to offer their students. 

Vox quotes Lauren Morando Rhim, executive director of the Center for Learner Equity, heralding public education’s “community-building aspect” to teach everyone “a common understanding of our history.” 

How ironic, considering the multiple charges against public schools of rewriting or distorting historical records to fit political agendas. A few recent examples: 

• Colorado parents protesting new social studies standards, which include “first grade lessons on LGBTQ history, transgenderism, and the rainbow flag.” 

• A public-school teacher and campus administrator filing a lawsuit after New York high school students reportedly chanted “Death to Israel” and “Kill the Jews,” along with other antisemitic slogans. 

• A Rhode Island teacher sounding the alarm over a federal “media literacy” program, which targeted those who expressed politically conservative views as “extremists.” 

Even if these schools started out to provide a common understanding, they’ve veered off this path to promote specific viewpoints at the expense of others. Such tactics only serve to divide and destroy this nation’s unity. 

Against all odds, homeschoolers have pioneered a way for the next generation to receive a better and more excellent education. 

Years of research confirm homeschooled children “typically score 15 to 25 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests,” according to the National Home Education Research Institute. 

Instead of propping up failed systems, let’s figure out what works – just as millions of homeschool parents like Wingert have accomplished without government “help” – and support more families wanting the same for their children.