{"id":4041,"date":"2018-09-06T18:01:59","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T18:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/?p=4041"},"modified":"2018-09-06T18:01:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T18:01:59","slug":"state-homeschool-enrollment-data-trends-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/?p=4041","title":{"rendered":"State Homeschool Enrollment Data Trends, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here at ICHER, we try to annually compile all of the available data maintained by the states that keep records on homeschool enrollment.\u00a0Some states make this information easily-accessible on state department of education websites, but many do not.\u00a0This time around my very resourceful workstudy student Marissa Donlevie was able, by sleuthing and persistence, to obtain data for several states for which we previously had nothing.\u00a0 For some of these new additions we only have one year of data, but it’s a start, and we hope to continue building on these gains in the future.\u00a0 You can access the full data, presented both in chart and graph form, here at the ICHER main site<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before commenting on trends, let me reiterate our usual caveats regarding this data. As noted\u00a0many times before<\/a>\u00a0when<\/a>\u00a0presenting<\/a>\u00a0this information<\/a>, the numbers here are unreliable for at least three reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Data collection is haphazard, varying widely by state, by district within a state, and from year-to-year based upon state budgets, which do not prioritize homeschooling data collection.<\/li>\n
  2. The figures provided by some states don\u2019t account for homeschoolers who may choose to do so by, say, registering as private schools.<\/li>\n
  3. Some homeschoolers simply refuse to register with the state and hence are not included in these tallies.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    These shortcomings mean that the enrollment figures cited here are in no way an accurate count of homeschoolers in a given state, but they can at least tell us something about trend lines if we look at how the figures are changing year by year. Of the 16 states that we have found updated enrollments for, 9 are up and 7 are down. As in the past, it is difficult from these data points to identify clear regional trends.\u00a0 Based on this admittedly very problematic data, it appears that homeschooling is continuing to grow at a moderate rate, even though it has slowed-down and declined in some states.\u00a0 This picture contrasts with what was found by the most recent NCES data<\/a>, which for the first time since the National Household Education Survey began documenting homeschooling found no growth.\u00a0 \u00a0Here are the two most recent data points available for each state so that you\u00a0can get a sense of the trends:<\/p>\n

    Arkansas<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2016: 19,229<\/p>\n

    2017: 19, 520<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Up, modestly<\/p>\n

    Colorado<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2016: 7,659<\/p>\n

    2017: 7,136<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Down, modestly<\/p>\n

    Delaware<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2016: 3,051<\/p>\n

    2017: 2,948<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Down, modestly<\/p>\n

    Florida<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2015: 83,359<\/p>\n

    2016: 87,462<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Up, significantly<\/p>\n

    Georgia<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2017: 64,799<\/p>\n

    2018: 66,149<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Up, significantly<\/p>\n

    Louisiana<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2016: 5,467<\/p>\n

    2017: 5,275<\/p>\n

    Trend<\/em>: Down, modestly<\/p>\n

    Maine<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2016: 5,467<\/p>\n

    2017: 5,275<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Down, modestly<\/p>\n

    Minnesota<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2015: 18,772<\/p>\n

    2016: 12,927<\/p>\n

    Trend:<\/em> Down, significantly<\/p>\n

    Montana<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2016: 5,262<\/p>\n

    2017: 5,390<\/p>\n

    Trend:<\/em> Up, modestly<\/p>\n

    New Mexico<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2016: 72<\/p>\n

    2017: 97<\/p>\n

    Trend:<\/em> Up, significantly<\/p>\n

    North Carolina<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2015: 118,268<\/p>\n

    2016; 127,847<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Up, significantly<\/p>\n

    Oregon<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2016: 22,353<\/p>\n

    2017: 22,956<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Up, modestly<\/p>\n

    Utah<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2015: 13,033<\/p>\n

    2016: 16,085<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Up, significantly<\/p>\n

    Vermont<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2016: 2,279<\/p>\n

    2017: 2,205<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Down, modestly<\/p>\n

    Virginia<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2015: 33,415<\/p>\n

    2016: 33,927<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Up, modestly<\/p>\n

    Washington<\/strong><\/p>\n

    2016: 21,213<\/p>\n

    2017: 21,022<\/p>\n

    Trend:\u00a0<\/em>Down, modestly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Here at ICHER, we try to annually compile all of the available data maintained by the states that keep records on homeschool enrollment.\u00a0Some states make this information easily-accessible on state department of education websites, but many do not.\u00a0This time around … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[751],"class_list":["post-4041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-state-data"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4042,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4041\/revisions\/4042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icher.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}