by Savannah Hulsey Pointer, Activist Post:
New data from the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy’s homeschool research lab show that 90 percent of states reporting data saw an increase in homeschooling in the 2023–2024 school year.
The report examined data from 21 out of 30 states that collect or report homeschool participation information. The other nine states are expected to report data in the coming months.
The 19 states that experienced growth were Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
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Only Vermont and New Hampshire showed a decline from the previous school year in the total number of homeschooled students.
The report identified two primary trends: sustained growth and rebounding growth. The three states with sustained growth, meaning they experienced no post-COVID-19 pandemic decline, were Louisiana, South Carolina, and South Dakota.
The other 16 states exhibited a rebounding trend, meaning they saw a post-COVID-19 pandemic decline, followed by an increase in 2023–2024.
“While homeschooling grew rapidly during the pandemic, most people thought that students would return to more traditional schools when the pandemic disruptions abated,” the report states.
“Some states did show a decline, but few have returned to normal, even four years after the onset of the pandemic.”
During the 2023–2024 school year, the number of homeschoolers in North Dakota reached an all-time high, reflecting a 24 percent increase from the previous year. Similarly, Rhode Island saw a 67 percent increase in the number of homeschoolers from the previous year. Wyoming also hit an all-time high with an 8 percent increase over the previous year.
“The big takeaway is that this is new homeschool growth that we see in last year’s state reports,” report author Angela Watson said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times.
