Since 2019, a surprising number of families, who once reliably sent their children to public schools, have chosen homeschooling instead. This trend has caught many educators off guard, as many of these families are not returning to traditional classrooms. Data from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education reveals a nationwide surge in homeschooling, a phenomenon not solely driven by the pandemic or typical disruptions to schooling.
A comprehensive policy and research analysis suggests that this growth stems from multiple factors. This shift carries significant implications not only for school enrollment numbers and budgets but also for educational equity, as public schools serving the most vulnerable students face reduced resources when families depart.
Why Families Chose to Leave
According to the Pew Research Center, national figures indicate a distinct rise in homeschooling after 2019, with numbers remaining elevated. Approximately 3.4% of K-12 students were homeschooled in 2022-23, a meaningful increase from around 2.8% before the pandemic. This represents a significant change in both scale and demographic composition.
Multiple analyses suggest that the pandemic acted as a catalyst. Frustration with remote learning, escalating concerns about safety, and a general dissatisfaction with how schools responded to their needs prompted many families to explore homeschooling. A considerable portion of these families decided to stay with their new educational model. It’s important to note that these shifts weren’t uniform across the US; certain states and communities experienced particularly large increases.
The National Center for Education Statistics reports that US parents cite diverse reasons for homeschooling. These range from crucial safety and health concerns to dissatisfaction with academic quality or the overall school environment. Other factors include a desire for specific religious or cultural instruction, differing values, and the appeal of greater flexibility. Given these varied motivations, a universal ‘one-size-fits-all’ strategy to win them back simply won’t be effective.
6 Ways US Schools Can Bring Families Back
- Rebuild Trust Through Open, Consistent Communication: Many families left because they felt their voices weren’t heard. Research on effective family engagement underscores that regular, two-way communication—going beyond just newsletters—is key to building trust and fostering participation. School districts should implement consistent outreach, including phone calls, home visits, and multilingual resources, and establish rapid-response teams to address family questions and concerns. Studies consistently show that genuine parental involvement correlates with better attendance and improved student outcomes, making transparency the critical first step in restoring this relationship.
- Offer Flexible Learning Pathways: Some families gravitated towards homeschooling for its inherent flexibility. Schools can emulate this by providing blended or hybrid schedules, enriching after-school programs, and fostering partnerships with micro-schools or learning pods. This allows families to feel they have viable choices while remaining connected to the public education system. As Johns Hopkins’ homeschooling hub indicates, this growth isn’t due to a single cause, implying that solutions must be equally multifaceted.
- Prioritize Visible and Actionable Safety & Well-being Plans: Safety concerns, whether stemming from COVID-era anxieties or high-profile incidents, are a recurring reason for families leaving. Schools must openly publish clear safety protocols, such as robust mental health staffing, comprehensive bullying prevention strategies, and detailed emergency plans. Crucially, they must demonstrate measurable results like reduced incidents and increased access to counseling. Public accountability and transparent investment in a positive school climate reassure families that their children are secure and cared for. Research strongly links a positive school environment to greater engagement and a lower risk of academic struggles.
- Strengthen Family-Centered Supports: Successful re-enrollment initiatives pair outreach with practical supports such as parenting workshops, tutoring, and ‘family navigation’ services. These services help families with enrollment processes, accessing health resources, and ensuring food security. Pilot programs focused on family interventions, like ‘Family Check-Up’ and other school-based family support systems, demonstrate improved attendance and behavior when schools proactively support families, rather than simply expecting compliance.
- Cultivate a Positive School Climate and Re-engagement Programs for Students: A supportive school environment, characterized by caring teachers, a sense of peer belonging, and minimal harassment, is strongly linked to consistent attendance, deep engagement, and academic perseverance. Schools should invest in social-emotional learning curricula, provide teacher coaching on fostering inclusive classroom cultures, and implement targeted re-engagement programs for students who may have fallen behind during previous disruptions. Meta-analyses confirm that effective engagement interventions reduce dropout rates and improve overall student outcomes.
- Publicize Outcomes and Career-Connected Pathways: Parents are inherently pragmatic. There is compelling evidence that school attendance leads directly to college readiness, stable career paths, or high-quality vocational training. Schools that visibly expand opportunities like internships, Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, and dual enrollment, and openly publicize measurable results (e.g., graduation rates, job placements), make a far stronger case than those relying solely on tradition or reputation. Data and transparency are powerful tools for winning back skeptical families.
What Districts Should Measure and Report
To effectively convince families to return, districts must demonstrate tangible progress. They should annually and accessibly track and publish key metrics such as enrollment trends broken down by grade and ZIP code, details of student safety incidents and how they were addressed, mental health staffing ratios, attendance and chronic absenteeism rates, results from family-engagement surveys, and outcomes from any hybrid or alternative learning programs offered. Transparent public reporting fosters accountability and effectively builds a narrative of continuous improvement.
The rise of homeschooling is a complex phenomenon driven by various factors, including safety concerns, dissatisfaction with instruction or school culture, and a desire for greater flexibility. Therefore, the strategy for winning families back must be equally multifaceted. It requires restoring trust through clear communication and demonstrable safety enhancements, offering diverse and flexible learning options, strengthening family support systems, investing in a positive school climate and student re-engagement, and transparently publicizing outcomes that genuinely matter to parents.
Evidence from extensive research on family engagement and school climate consistently shows that these proactive measures are effective. By acting decisively and with transparency, many families who initially left for short-term reasons will rediscover the value of public education, making the public school system itself stronger and more responsive.