New Homeschooling Data Shows Decrease in Enrollment From Pandemic Surge
The number of home schools in North Carolina soared by nearly 20% from 2019 to 2020. But new data shows a 10% decrease last school year
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The total number of home schools in North Carolina fell during the 2021-22 school year, according to released by the state Department of Administration. The decrease 鈥� about 10% from the prior school year 鈥斅爉ay not come as a surprise given pandemic-related changes.
In 2020, as the pandemic hit and many schools closed, a surge in interest in home schooling for families to register. That surge was reflected in the data: The number of home schools in North Carolina from 2019-20 to 2020-21.
But that doesn鈥檛 appear to have stuck around. The data, released in July, indicates that North Carolina had 11,710 fewer home schools during the 2021-22 school year than in 2020-21.
Longer-term trends
Despite the fluctuations of the previous two school years, the number of home schools in North Carolina has increased steadily over time. In the past five years, the number of home schools increased by about 16% 鈥� or 14,151 total schools.聽In the past decade, the number has nearly doubled.
Some counties have seen substantial increases since 2017:
- Onslow County: 53%
- Camden County: 46%
- Johnston County: 41%
- Orange County: 39%
- Hertford County: 39%
Also in that time, the share of religious home schools has slowly decreased, while the share of independent home schools has increased. In the 2017-18 school year, religious home schools made up nearly 59% of all North Carolina home schools. In 2021-22, they made up 53%.
Data by county
North Carolina鈥檚 counties have substantial variation in their number of home schools and changes over time.聽Wake County currently has the most home schools with 9,002, while Tyrrell County has 32.
In the 2021-22 data, certain counties saw especially large declines from the 2020-21 school year 鈥斅燩itt, Swain, and Halifax had declines greater than 20%. Madison, Graham, Randolph, and Jones had declines of about 19%.
Only four counties 鈥� Cumberland, Tyrrell, Hertford and Rutherford 鈥� saw the number of home schools increase from 2020-21.
The graphic below shows percent changes in North Carolina home schools by county since 2017.
This first appeared on and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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