Homeschooling Fast Facts

Homeschooling is famously a difficult concept to define in research and policy spaces. We use “homeschooling” to refer to parent-directed education, which involves parents taking on the responsibility of directing, and generally delivering, the education of their children. This can encompass a number of different educational practices: from parents instructing their children full-time at home, to part-time homeschooling, to increasingly popular models like micro-schools and homeschooling pods. 

Since not every state keeps track of its homeschooled children, we do not know the exact number of homeschooled children in the United States. Every four years, however, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) calculates an estimate of the homeschool population based on its nationally representative Parental and Family Involvement in Education Survey. 

The most recent NCES findings estimate that 3.4% of school-aged children were  homeschooled in 2023, up from 2.8% in 2019. The total percentage of children instructed at home, which includes virtually schooled children, grew from 3.7% in 2019 to 5.2% in 2023. 

Over the years, homeschooling has become increasingly diverse – both in terms of demographics and motivations. Homeschooling has been steadily on the rise in Latino communities, and experienced a large surge among Black families during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While many parents still cite religious reasons for homeschooling, the most common motivation according to 2023 national data was concern about the environment of other schools, with 83% of caregivers selecting it as a motivation. It was closely followed by a desire to provide moral instruction (75%), a desire to emphasize family life together (72%), and a dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools (72%).

Each state regulates homeschooling slightly differently. Some have dedicated homeschool statutes, while others regulate homeschooling under an alternative education clause, private school law, or other mechanisms. Many states have multiple legal options for homeschooling.

On the whole, homeschool policy is lax across the United States. Only 21 states have provisions requiring caregivers to submit evidence of educational progress, but only two states, New York and Hawaii, universally enforce this requirement. 18 states only require parents to notify their school districts that they are homeschooling without imposing any accountability to ensure children are educated. In 11 states, parents do not have to make any notification, effectively nullifying compulsory education law by creating “truancy loopholes.”

When it comes to child safety, oversight is insufficient in all 50 states. All 50 states allow families that were recently subject of a social services investigation to withdraw their children from school. 47 states do not prevent caregivers convicted of crimes against children from homeschooling. 18 states only require parents to notify their school districts that they are homeschooling without imposing any accountability to ensure children are educated or alive. No state requires all homeschooled children to come into contact with a mandated reporter.

The question of academic outcomes for homeschooled students has generated intense interest among homeschooling communities and educational researchers alike. 

The most widely cited research on the topic is a set of studies that claim to show that homeschooled students far out-perform their conventionally schooled peers academically. This work has been repeatedly discredited on account of its methodological unsoundness: in particular, on the basis that it relies on self-reported data drawn from non-representative samples of mostly white, wealthy, highly educated homeschooling families. 

Credible research paints a less sensational picture. While homeschooling can lead to very high academic outcomes, there is evidence that homeschooled students perform consistently lower in math than traditionally schooled peers and that homeschooled children may be less likely to attend university. There is a body of data from several states linking withdrawal from school to homeschool with indicators of educational neglect, like truancy, but more research needs to be conducted. On the whole, research indicates that factors like parents’ education level, access to resources, and level of involvement in their children’s education are the best predictors of academic success for homeschooled children. 

Research into abuse and neglect in homeschooling environments has been minimal. While recent research suggests that homeschooled children are not necessarily more likely to report experiencing abuse or neglect, a growing body of evidence points to distinct patterns of abuse that warrant further investigation. For example, research and reporting from several states shows an association between withdrawal from school to homeschool and educational neglect and other forms of child maltreatment under certain circumstances.

Since 2013, CRHE has maintained the Homeschooling’s Invisible Children database, which tracks and analyzes publicly documented incidents of abuse and neglect in homeschooling environments. We have identified a constellation of red flags, risk factors, and patterns of abuse associated with abusive homeschooling, including withdrawal from school to homeschool under suspicious circumstances. The data we have collected illuminate how abusive caregivers are able to use homeschooling to conceal and escalate their abuse. We have found, furthermore, that homeschool oversight policies are rarely effective at identifying that abuse is taking place – much less at stopping it.

Educational neglect is a hazy concept. Only 27 states include educational neglect in their abuse and neglect statutes, and generally define it in terms of parents failing to ensure children attend school. 

This is in spite of the fact that educational neglect has long been a term with which homeschool alumni with negative experiences identify. For example, in a non-representative study of homeschool alumni conducted in 2014, 17% of participants report experiencing educational neglect. We are in the process of developing a framework for understanding how best to define, identify, and ultimately prevent educational neglect in homeschool settings.