The 74

The pandemic gave America’s parents a taste of homeschooling, whether they wanted it or not.  Many discovered their children were better suited for learning outside traditional schools and stuck with it. Others said schools were pushing “leftist indoctrination” and wanted to teach their own values. These parents help to explain why homeschooling doubled during the pandemic and shows no sign of retreating to pre-COVID rates. But that doesn’t mean those families have completely left public schools behind, according to the latest data from researchers at Johns Hopkins University.  More than a third of families with at least one homeschooled child also have a student enrolled in a traditional district school. Another 9% of homeschoolers have a child in a charter.

Families often turn to homeschooling after struggling to get adequate services in the public system for children with disabilities. Education savings accounts — public funds that pay for private school tuition or homeschooling costs — have made that decision even easier.  Angela Faber pulled her youngest child, who has autism, out of the Deer Valley Unified School District near Phoenix during the pandemic. Remote learning had allowed Faber to see up close the extent of her daughter’s delays. She was in fourth grade, but reading at a kindergarten level and getting just 30 minutes of extra help each week.  With state funds, her daughter now learns at home with a private teacher and receives horseback riding therapy, which helps with balance, coordination, and focus.