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When the pandemic caused schools to close their doors in 2020, many families decided to transition to the homeschool option. But since COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted for a few years, Nebraska has seen its homeschool numbers decrease from their record number.
Department of Education spokesperson David Jespersen said the number of homeschooled students is almost back on track to pre-pandemic patterns.
“It might be a little bit higher, because some of those kids, during the bump status, homeschooled families, but the majority of that bump has returned to public or private school settings,” he said.
Meanwhile, homeschool numbers do continue to increase when looking historically at exempt school program i.e., home school, registration levels. The data shows a 23% increase from 2019 numbers to 2022.
Latrice Ingram, homeschool mom and the director of Lincoln Homeschool Academy, said her program has not slowed down in enrollment. She said she currently has twenty families on her wait list.
“Parents now, this kind of generation of parents, I think, have started to understand that there are a lot of options and that education doesn't have to be one size fits all,” she added.
This year-over-year growth is occurring across the state, into the panhandle. Sheri Logan, the chair for the Valley Home School Association (VHSA), has been homeschool since around 1992.
“The last few years, it just seems what I personally witnessed, it seems like it’s exploding and our organization is growing quickly,” she said.
Logan estimated there were about 255 children within VHSA membership, which accounts for about a 32% increase from 2021. Like Ingram and the Lincoln Homeschool Academy, Logan said VHSA is “filled to the max” on their classes and classroom. VHSA is currently looking for ways to expand.
Homeschool numbers in Nebraska have historically increased around 1,500 to 2,000 every year, minus the 2020 outlier associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2020/2021 school year, 14,780 students were registered with exempt schools. That number went slightly down in 2021/2022 to 13,765.
The numbers for the 2022/2023 school year are subject to change since school is still in session, but there are more than 11,600 students enrolled in exempt schools. This is compared to in 2019 when that number was an estimated 9,450.
Jespersen, with the Nebraska Department of Education, said those numbers could be increasing for a few reasons. One being simply that the school-aged population of Nebraska continues to grow every year. He said public and private schools are also seeing higher numbers.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 476,237 (24.2% of the population) school-aged children live in Nebraska. In 2020, there were around 1,500 fewer school-aged children in the state.
Jespersen said the other reason could be more exempt program options.
“What we're seeing is that there could be a little bit of an increase in exempt students as well, because we have an uptick in schools that are starting and forming that aren't public or listed as private, private-approved or accredited schools,” he said.
Lincoln Homeschool Academy’s Latrice Ingram formerly taught in public schools, and based on her experience, she said she has noticed her children have more freedom.
“I think what COVID showed us is that it really is possible to do some different things with education,” she said. “I think families were able to see that there were more options than they thought they had.”
Ingram said most of the inquiries she receives are for kids just starting their education, families with children going into kindergarten or first grade. She is also working on expanding Lincoln Homeschool Academy’s programming for older students. Ingram said she feels confident Lincoln Homeschool Academy’s future is a long one, as long as the community still shows a need.
The state is looking at the numbers for the 2024-2025 school year. Those are projected to be lower than 2020’s number, but higher than pre-pandemic data.