‘Student safety’ among top reasons more are homeschooling from all backgrounds

Homeschooling is growing again – and the COVID-19 pandemic can’t be blamed this time for its popularity.

“Outdated is the stereotype that (homeschooling) is confined to White, upper-income, Christian families who educate their children at home out of a faith that distrusts public education,” argues Amber Northern, senior vice president for research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

“Taken together, these reports point to the need for a better definition of homeschooling that captures its variations without confusing everyone. It once conjured the idea of a stay-at-home mother educating her children around the kitchen table.

“But homeschooling is not limited to a home location; it’s a flexible approach to education that allows kids to learn outside the traditional classroom.”

Safety ‘driving the decision to homeschool’

Northern pointed to a recent issue of the Journal of School Choice exploring research on homeschooling, which has generally increased nationwide by 2-7% annually since 2010. 

“It rose by a whopping 39 percent in the 2020–21 school year; declined by 3 percent in 2021–22; and shrank by another 7 percent in 2022–23. But then data indicate that the decline reversed in the 2023–24 school year, with homeschool participation increasing by 4 percent over the prior year.” 

What’s causing this post-pandemic increase? At least part of the reason involves growing concern from parents over their children’s safety in schools, Northern explains. 

“Some reports find that student safety is a primary factor driving the decision to homeschool, even surpassing moral/religious and academic concerns,” she writes.

Violence, such as a shooting at a Nashville high school in January that left two students dead, caused parents like Dajuan Bernard to consider homeschooling, something his wife was already pushing for.

“We might consider it,” Bernard said after the deadly incident in the school’s cafeteria. 

There’s also concerns about bullying. One out of every five public school students reported being bullied in 2019, according to PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center. 

Special-needs students can be especially at risk, as one Cuban family discovered when their daughter Susana was physically attacked at a Nebraska public school. 

“Our whole experience with the public school was horrible,” said Adianez, Susana’s mother. “I trusted them with my child, and she came home injured and traumatized.” 

Now Susana, who has received diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder and anxiety, is on a customized Student Education Plan and learning alongside her brother, Enrique. 

“Homeschooling was as if heaven opened up for us,” Adianez recalled. “Whenever I meet someone new, I tell them about the wonders of homeschooling.” 

Homeschool families from every background

Like Adianez, more parents from diverse backgrounds and cultures are choosing home education over public schools. 

Another recent report investigated the ethnic demographics of homeschoolers over 25 years, finding they have grown “more racially diverse” than in previous decades. 

“The National Household Education Survey (NHES) finds that the portion of White homeschooled students decreased by 4 percentage points from 1998 to 2023, mirrored by an increase of 4 percentage points among students of color,” Northern writes. “But NHES also uses a more traditional definition of homeschooling that likely underreports participation because of the various innovations – think school co-ops, micro-schools, and hybrid schools – that became go-to options during Covid and are still with us today.”

One example is the Georgia Black Home Educators Network (GBHEN), which hosted its third annual event this January for hundreds of attendees.

“Everything is ready for us to put family first in such a way that it’s going to create societal change,” the association’s co-founder Nicole P. Doyle, told The Lion.

Doyle credited a diverse, multigenerational cooperative – the DeKalb Christian Home Educators – with helping her during the early years of homeschooling.

“It’s a more intense and beautiful journey when you are being intentional about everything, including education.”