While advocates staunchly defend the benefits of homeschooling, others are raising questions about lack of data and accountability in some states.
A map published by the Coalition for Responsible Home Education shows an array of different homeschool requirements across the U.S. and a variety of funding practices.
Texas doesn’t require parents to notify a school district that they plan to homeschool their child.
New York, on the other hand, requires notification and intervention procedures when a child isn’t receiving an education meeting state standards.
According to New York statute, homeschool parents in the state must file yearly test assessments, and scores are considered adequate only if they are above the 33rd percentile or reflect one academic year of growth compared to the student’s previous test. When students don’t show progress on annual assessments, the homeschool program is put on probation for two years and parents are required to submit a remediation plan.
West Virginia and Massachusetts fall in between, according to the Coalition for Responsible Home Education map. Both require parents to notify the school district of the intention to homeschool and ask for assessments tracking academic progress. However, both states leave curriculum, instruction methods and other educational decisions up to parents. Neither state takes measures to intervene.
Paying for home school
On the funding front, more states are considering offering Education Savings Accounts and making them available for homeschool families to tap into public funds.
Today, 17 states offer ESAs to parents interested in homeschooling, reported EdChoice, a pro-school choice organization.
West Virginia joined those ranks in 2021. Named the Hope Scholarship, the program diverts roughly $4,000 of taxpayer money per school year from public schools to an educational choice of a parent’s designation.
Among the options is the individualized instructional plan that provides state support to parents who opt for in-home instruction, according to Marion County Schools (West Virginia) Attendance Director Tricia Maxwell.
Jube Dankworth, president of the Texas Home Educators, said homeschool parents in Texas generally oppose Gov. Greg Abbott’s attempts to establish an ESA program for students.
“Personally, I am very much against it,” Dankworth said. “Oklahoma, they did the same thing. Oklahoma was also a free state, and they started doing what they call EPIC up there.
“What happened was all of the (homeschool) tutors and academies and co-ops, they became EPIC-certified and raised their prices, which made it harder for the non-EPIC families to pay for it.”
The Georgia-based EPIC Homeschool Network offers homeschool advising, accreditation services, field trips and other services and support for homeschool families. EPIC stands for empowering, parent-led, individualized, community-driven.
Government involvement
Dankworth is also concerned ESAs would provide the government with an avenue for overreach into homeschooling. Since ESAs pay for educational materials with public money, the government can require parents to adhere to educational guidelines they may not agree with for various reasons, including the parents’ assessment of the needs of the child and religious objections.
Bill Heuer, director of the Massachusetts Home Learning Association, has a similar perspective on homeschool accountability.
He points out that, in Massachusetts, public school superintendents are responsible for every child in their district, whether the child attends a public school, a private school or is homeschooled. If a homeschool student fails to progress academically, responsibility lies with the superintendent who approved the parents’ request to homeschool.
State accountability only needs to go so far, anyway, Heuer argues, since most homeschool families are doing it for the well-being of their children, who often excel best in a home environment.
“You’ve got to do this in good faith,” he said. “If they (the public school) gave you an education plan and they outline what they’re going to do and what the assessment is going to be, it’s sort of like a contract. They (parents) have to do it. We’re not looking to scam the system.”
Massachusetts is nowhere near approving an Education Savings Account plan, Heuer said. According to edchoice.org, Massachusetts does not have a private school choice program, though state lawmakers have considered a tax credit scholarship proposal in the past. The state is firmly set on public money staying in public schools.
Measuring success
Concerns about funding and accountability of homeschooling are compounded by lack of data concerning practices and outcomes.
“Some states, there’s very little oversight and transparency, “ said Erica Frankenberg, who studies education policy at Pennsylvania State University. “They have no idea how many students are being homeschooled.”
However, Heuer said trying to quantify homeschooling is difficult because it comes in various forms, from hybrid models to dual-credit arrangements.
“I don’t know what it accomplishes,” he said of homeschool data efforts.
Frankenberg disagrees, arguing that understanding the churn of students transferring between homeschool and public schools is important.
In West Virginia, Maxwell said some parents transfer students in and out of public school to dodge assessment requirements, making it difficult for the school district to track a child’s progress. Only 37% of homeschool families in the state turn in required assessments.
States that do have homeschool requirements often fail to uphold them, according to Frankenberg.
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education has a collection of testimonials from 28 homeschool students and parents who say they were failed by homeschooling. Some point to lack of state oversight as a persistent problem.
Others have had a much better experience with homeschooling.
The Indiana Association of Home Educators website contains 40 stories from parents and students who praise the flexibility and quality of homeschool education.
These testimonials note, specifically, that homeschooling can make more efficient use of students’ time, lead to faster learning, enable students to take breaks when they need them, generate less stress than traditional school settings, allow more individual attention and enable parents to tailor curriculum to the students’ abilities and needs.