National and State-Level Trends
Survey data collected from September of 2022 through August of 2023 indicate that nearly 6 percent of all school-aged children nationwide were reported as homeschooled during the 2022–23 school year. This compares to 10 percent of students in private schools and 84 percent in public schools. With pre-pandemic estimates of the national homeschool population representing just 2.8 percent of students in 2019, according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Pulse figures signify growing interest in alternative schooling models.
There is considerable variation in homeschool participation across states. Alaska leads with 12.6 percent of children homeschooled, followed by Tennessee (9 percent) and West Virginia (8.9 percent). These higher rates may reflect differences in region, legislation on homeschooling, and attitudes toward alternative schooling. Conversely, Rhode Island (2.9 percent), Massachusetts (3.1 percent), and New York (3.2 percent) report the lowest homeschooling rates in the country.
Enrollment estimates from the Pulse Survey of the share of students enrolled in public and private schools are generally comparable to those from NCES and state education departments. Among the 35 states and the District of Columbia that currently report data on homeschooling families, however, the Pulse Survey data do reveal some differences. The regions with the greatest discrepancies in homeschool participation estimates were Tennessee, Washington, D.C., and Kansas. For example, in Tennessee the Household Pulse Survey estimates were 7.6 percentage points higher than those we estimated from NCES and Tennessee Department of Education data. The states with the lowest discrepancies were Maine (0.8 percentage points), Kentucky (0.7 percentage points), and Nebraska (0.4 percentage points). It is important to note that the most recent available data from NCES and the state education departments reflect student enrollment in the Fall of 2021, while the Household Pulse Survey data capture student enrollment “the school year that began in the Summer / Fall of 2022.” Regardless, these discrepancies underscore the need for high-quality, adaptive data collection methods to accurately capture our rapidly changing educational landscape.
