Steve Duvall, director of research for the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), admits that he fully expected the number of homeschool families to sharply drop with the conclusion of the pandemic. But that has not been the case. In fact, research shows that the past two years have seen a rise in homeschooling across all demographics.
"For this current year, I would probably put it like this: The white families and the black families and the Asian families and the Hispanic families all are homeschooling about at the same proportional levels," he explains
According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics Surveys, 3.8% of white families were homeschooling in 2016; that jumped to 10.9% in 2021 and held relatively constant in 2022 (9.9%). In similar fashion, homeschooling among black families grew from 1.9% (2016) to 11% (2021), then held at 10.3% in 2022. Rates of homeschooling among Asian and Hispanic families from 2021 to 2022 also remained relatively the same: 9.1% to 8% (Asian families), and 14.6% to 13.7% (Hispanic families).
Because the changes occurred among all those groups in 2021 and 2022, Duvall sees reason to believe those increases in homeschooling may be permanent.
"The numbers are maintaining at high rates and so is the diversity of the homeschool population," he asserts. "So, that's really pretty big news."
Meanwhile, because so many students are not reenrolling in public schools, those schools are taking some large financial hits.
