Will the Homeschooling Surge Outlast the Pandemic?

T he latest K–12 enrollment data show that many families who chose to homeschool during the first year of the pandemic are sticking with it despite schools’ largely reopening their doors for in-person learning.

In March 2021, U.S. Census data unsurprisingly showed that the homeschooling population doubled during the 2020–2021 school year, from 5.4 percent of households with school-age children to 11.1 percent. What remained unclear, however, was whether that shift mainly reflected a temporary response to health concerns or an authentic change in learning preferences.

According to the Associated Press, 18 states that have reported enrollment data through the current year saw only a minor dip in their homeschooling populations: The number of homeschooling students increased by 63 percent over the 2020–2021 year, then dipped by only 17 percent. Far from experiencing a precipitous drop, homeschooling numbers are still well above their pre-pandemic levels.

There are several reasons why that could be.

The first is that families may still be uneasy about Covid-19. After all, many teachers and students have continued to report infections, and many public schools are no longer offering the same accommodations for remote learning that they did last year. For families concerned about the virus, homeschooling may have been the only option.

A second possible reason for the prolonged surge is that the political backlash to teaching critical race theory and early sex education has caused many families to sour on the idea of sending their kids back to public school. That some schools continue to enforce various Covid procedures — such as masking — may factor into that aversion, too. Interestingly, while these concerns seem to be more typical of Republican-leaning families, reports show that families who identify as Democrats have also become disenchanted with their neighborhood public schools and more open to other alternatives with less-strict masking policies.

But beyond lingering pandemic fear and political polarization, there are other more encouraging explanations for why families are continuing to homeschool.

For one thing, parents are probably enjoying spending more time with their kids. U.S. Census survey data published in January 2022 show that the pandemic caused an increase in interaction between parents and children. The share of parents regularly reading to their children also increased from 64 percent in 2019 to 69 percent in 2020. Many parents got a chance to experience the overall benefits of spending more quality time with their children during pandemic shutdowns, something homeschooling could help them continue.

Another explanation for the sustained commitment to homeschooling is that a wider range of parents gained new confidence in their ability to direct their own child’s education. Families realized that homeschooling is more feasible than they may have previously imagined, and that there are many ways to do it, from forming learning pods to using a more-flexible schedule than the typical school environment allows.

For decades, homeschooling has been closely associated with devoutly religious white conservatives. But today — especially after the disruptions of the pandemic — that stereotype no longer holds. The homeschooling population has become more diverse over the past decade across a variety of metrics. In the first year of the pandemic, the number of black families who were homeschooling grew fivefold. Parents from a wider range of backgrounds have also found that there are many affordable and effective homeschooling resources.

Regardless of income level or the type of education that parents choose — public, private, charter, or homeschool — parental engagement plays a key role in determining a child’s academic success. Let’s hope, then, that the surge in homeschooling holds. Among other things, it would doubtless reflect that parents are becoming more engaged in their children’s education for the long haul.