Understanding the Rise of Homeschooling:
Data, Drivers, and Implications
By Emma Zande
Fall 2025 Intern
Six years ago, most parents never imagined becoming their children’s teacher. North American homeschooling has been a highly contentious practice since the establishment of mandatory schooling, marked by legal battles, shifting ideologies, and tensions between parental rights and state control. In many European countries, homeschooling is outlawed or placed under heavy restrictions. While legal in all fifty states in America, homeschooling has come under scrutiny again and again. Are students truly learning all they need before graduation? Do homeschoolers get the same level of social and emotional development as others? These debates roiled, with strong opinions on either side. Then, the world shut down.
How the Pandemic Reframed Homeschooling
The COVID-19 pandemic affected more than 1.6 billion students globally. In March 2020, schools across America closed their buildings, impacting at least 55 million students. At the peak of lockdown, nearly every state had mandates or recommendations advising schools to close their buildings through the 2019-20 academic year, transferring to remote education. Schools in wealthier areas were prepared for such a transition, with many students having school-provided technology and access to stable internet and supervision while at home.
However, many schools across America were entirely unprepared for the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. A significant number of schools lacked the technological infrastructure to accommodate a large-scale shift to online learning. This included a shortage of devices for students and teachers, as well as inadequate broadband access to the internet. Compounding this issue, many teachers lacked the training to deliver effective instruction in a virtual environment. They faced a huge learning curve, both with technology and with the pedagogical requirements of online learning. Unprepared for such a widespread and unexpected shift, teachers, students, and parents felt the pressure of sustaining student learning in these new and shifting waters.
With children at home and many adults shifting to working remotely, parents had to assume a lot of extra responsibility. With classes moving online, many assumed the role of primary educators, guiding their children through virtual lessons and curriculum. Working parents faced a substantial increase in workload as they needed to balance their jobs with childcare needs. Educators also faced a huge amount of stress during this time, dealing with health concerns, the challenges of remote instruction, and staff shortages.
In rural areas, the pressure placed on parents was compounded. These school districts were less likely to expect educators to provide remote learning, placing these students’ education on pause. In these districts, teachers had to assume full responsibility for childcare and education during this time. For many parents, this became their first exposure to homeschooling—and many developed a new appreciation for it.
Why More Families Are Choosing to Stay Home
While many students trickled back into the education system in the following school years, 1.2 million more students were now being permanently homeschooled. Pre-pandemic, about 3.7% of American families were homeschoolers (2.5 million K-12 homeschool students), a number which ballooned to 11% (3.7 million students) during the 2020-21 school year. Upon schools reopening, it was expected that most families would return to traditional schooling, but many had made the switch permanent. In the 2022-23 school year, 5.2% of American families were homeschooling, a percentage which rose to 5.4% during the next school year. During the 2023-24 school year, about 3.5 million K-12 students were homeschooled.
Homeschooling is more popular in states in the South and West, which have the highest growth rates of homeschooling (e.g., Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and California). The homeschooling population is increasingly diverse, with significant growth among Black and Hispanic families post-2020. For some families, their experience with homeschooling led them to realize that a personalized learning approach was much more beneficial for their child’s education. Many families cite safety and wellbeing as primary drivers due to school shootings, the student mental health crisis, and pandemic-heightened health concerns.
According to research by the Pew Research Center, 83% of homeschoolers said that concern about the school environment, including safety, drug exposure, or negative peer pressure, was a major deciding factor. 72% also cite dissatisfaction with academic instruction as a major reason for making the switch. 52% of homeschool parents said their desire to provide cultural, religious, and nontraditional instruction was a major factor. A minority of parents also pointed to the lack of support for their child’s medical or learning needs as a reason for homeschooling.
Homeschooling’s Benefits and Blind Spots
Like the public education system, homeschooling has some benefits and drawbacks for parents to consider. One benefit of choosing homeschooling is customized learning. Homeschooling allows parents to provide instruction tailored to their child’s learning preferences, pace, and interests.
Homeschooling offers families flexibility. This provides them with the freedom to create their own schedules structured to their lifestyles. In rural areas, this can often look like tailoring the school year to harvest seasons.
It can provide families with peace of mind regarding their children’s safety. Homeschooling can provide a controlled and safe learning environment, protecting students from bullying, peer pressure, and violence.
Homeschooling can also make more efficient use of time by allowing students to move more quickly through topics they understand and spend more time on topics that are challenging to them. Likewise, homeschooling can allow students to spend less time on activities, breaks, and other non-learning aspects of school. On average, homeschooled students score 15-30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests; however, these student numbers are estimates, as many low-regulation states do not require registration for homeschooled students, making precise counts impossible.
There are some drawbacks to choosing homeschooling. One is parental workload. Teaching a child requires significant time and effort, and homeschooling parents may experience burnout from assuming this responsibility. Although all educators are at risk for burnout, parents may be less equipped to handle balancing their mental health with the education of their children. Similarly, homeschooling may place families under financial strain by limiting them long-term to one income.
Some homeschooled children may have fewer opportunities to develop social and emotional (SEL) skills—however, studies do show that some homeschoolers outperform their peers in SEL skills. Parents of homeschoolers may need to make a stronger effort to teach their children SEL skills and provide opportunities for socialization than parents of traditionally schooled children.
Parents of homeschoolers may inadvertently pass on their biases and academic weaknesses to their children. Children in public school will have many teachers throughout the course of their education, which helps to prevent them from picking up on teacher biases or weaknesses. Likewise, homeschoolers may struggle with a lack of resources, including labs, libraries, and diverse adult figures.
What Homeschooling’s Rise Is Really Telling Us
Homeschooling isn’t going away. And it isn’t the enemy. It’s a reminder that families are hungry for learning environments that feel safe, personal, and human. Whether kids learn at home, in classrooms, or somewhere in between, the future of education belongs to the models that meet students where they are and help them grow from there.
Publishing Solutions Group
At Publishing Solutions Group, we recognize that education today is anything but one-size-fits-all. Families, educators, and districts are navigating a landscape that’s shifting faster than ever—new learning models, new expectations, and new challenges that require flexible, thoughtful solutions. That’s why our work is grounded in the belief that every learner deserves materials that meet them where they are and help them move forward with confidence.
We stay attuned to emerging research, national trends, and the lived realities of classrooms and homes alike. Whether students are learning in traditional settings, hybrid environments, or at the kitchen table, we develop content that supports a wide range of learning styles, linguistic needs, and instructional approaches.
Our goal is simple: to create resources that are accurate, accessible, and genuinely useful. At PSG, we don’t just produce educational materials; we help build systems of support for the people who rely on them. Because when learning tools are clear, adaptable, and grounded in what students require, every educational path becomes a little stronger.
Photo by Jessica Lewis for Unsplash
