About 2 and a half years ago I posted all the available data provided by the various states that keep records on homeschooling enrollment figures (I recognize that some homeschoolers don’t like the term “enrollment,” but for the states that’s what this is). I explained then that this information is notoriously unreliable for at least three reasons: 1. data collection is haphazard, varying widely by state, by district within a state, and from year-to-year, 2. the figures provided by some states don’t account for homeschoolers who may choose to do so by, say, registering as private schools, and 3. some homeschoolers simply refuse to register with the state and hence are not included in these tallies.
Despite these shortcomings I was interested at the time in this statewide data because of a discrepancy I was noting between my own subjective impressions of a slowing down of homeschooling growth here in Pennsylvania even as the National Center for Education Statistics had just come out with their latest estimates showing a dramatic increase in homeschooling nationwide since 2003.
My first effort to generalize from this state data led me to conclude that as of 2007, eight states were seeing growth, six were basically flat, and three were seeing declines. I also noted that for the most part the states that were seeing growth were “Red,” or Republican-leaning states, and those that were either holding steady or declining were mostly “Blue,” or Democrat-leaning.
Well, now that two more years have passed, what has happened?
You can see for yourself by clicking on the link below, which provides first the raw numbers by state, then this data in the form of line graphs, and finally the sources used in compiling this data, with links provided where possible. I’d like to thank here my workstudy student Kathy Balmer who put all of this together for me:
State Homeschool Enrollment Data and Trends 2011
Of the 23 states for which we were able to get data, only 19 had figures more recent than 2008. Of those 19, the trends since 2008 are as follows:
10 States have seen increased enrollments since ’08, most of them modest. 6 States have seen decreases, also mostly modest. 3 States have basically held steady. Bottom line: not a lot of change since ’08.
If you take the longer view, though, for the 15 states for which we have consistent data for every year from 2000 to 2009, twelve of them show increases over the decade, and four of them (FL, GA, NC, and VA) show profound, amazing growth. Only three states (CO, PA, and WA) show declines over the same 10 year period, declines that don’t come anywhere close to matching the gains in the other states. Bottom line is that to the degree that this data is reliable, it does basically corroborate the NCES data that shows continued growth in homeschooling. Beyond that we can perhaps say that this growth seems to be happening most strongly in the Southeast. And that’s about the extent of it so far as I can make out. If anybody else notices a pattern or generalization from this data that I missed, please feel free to note it in the comments!
I recently did a talk for a business executives and community leaders in Richmond as one of various speakers covering types of education in Virginia. In preparation for that talk, when I compiled the homeschooling numbers by year in Virginia and compared them both with general population growth and school enrollment growth for the same period, I was astonished – and I work with homeschoolers in Virginia every day. During the ten-year period that Virginia’s population went up 11.4%, the number of homeschoolers rose over 50 percent (and actually, my data for homeschoolers was short by one year, so I was comparing a ten-year period of general population increase to a nine-year period of homeschooling growth). I also found a seven-year period (I think it was) where school enrollment grew by just over 5% and homeschooler numbers grew by 35%. (Had to use only seven years due to available data, but I compared apples to apples – same seven years for both homeschooler numbers and school enrollments).
By the way, it looks like in Virginia, the data you provided do not include those who are homeschooling through the religious exemption to compulsory attendance. Full disclosure: I did combine “RE numbers” with “homeschool statute” numbers to arrive at my figures, which is commonly understood to be “total homeschoolers” in Virginia, at least the total who report. It was interesting to me that in 2009 – I think it was – Virginia topped 30,000 homeschooled children (using the combined numbers) for the first time.
(I also did round the numbers – I was ballparking just to give people an idea – and was a little surprised at what I found, tho’ there is no doubt about the enthusiasm folks here have for home education. We also have a uniquely strong inclusive state-wide homeschool organization http://www.VaHomeschoolers.org that provides excellent information and support that is not couched in any religious or political point of view. This kind of org is not present in many states, or it’s there but not strong, and I’d have to wonder if that is also a contributing factor to homeschooling growth in Virginia, as more folks begin homeschooling who do not see themselves as “either” the religious conservative or the hippie homeschooler, as newspapers so frequently like to write in their leads these days. I am really sensing a kind of “mainstream homeschooler” these days – except that is an oxymoron we won’t go trying to break down).
After looking further at yours – it’s making me want to go look further at what I said above about what data you included. I did not see the whole document when I first downloaded it, so I apologize if I have not represented that right. (slinking off. . .)
Thanks for compiling this data. I think I can help you with the stats for West Virginia. If you go to http://wveis.k12.wv.us/ses/StatSum/NonPub_index.cfm and then click on Enrollment in NonPublic Schools, you’ll get totals by county for the previous year with links to numbers for about the past 5 years. The WVDE lumps homeschoolers & private school students together for statistical purposes, I guess. For 2009-2010, there were 7027 reported homeschoolers; for 2010-2011, there were 7015 (a good thousand under what State Supt Marple claimed in her speech last May before the joint legislative committee on education in which she called for greater oversight for WV homeschoolers).
It’s interesting info, thx for compiling it. this newcomer to homeschooling is certainly curious as to how much company she has. purely anecdotal, of course, but homeschooling seems more common in the military community than a decade ago. Even more importantly, the concept seems more accepted, less alien to the nonhomeschoolers. Mentioning the option used to make people look at me like lobsters were coming out of my ears.
cheers!
Linda
Thanks Betsy for the West Virginia info. I’ve updated the file and my comments accordingly.
I’m wondering if anyone has the data for Vermont.
I think the decrease in WA state does not reflect a decrease in the number of homeschoolers but an increase in the number of homeschooled children enrolled in homeschool programs funded by the public school district. These programs have increased a lot over the past few years. While these children may take supplementary classes through the programs, they are primarily educated at home. However, if they enroll “full time” in these programs, they are counted as public school students, even if they don’t take any classes outside of the home. Many parents enroll in these programs not for classes but for $ to pay for curriculum and activities.
I am wondering if that explains the other decreases.