• Home-schooling rates are increasing across the country long after the pandemic, with an estimate of 5% of students being home-schooled.
• Among parents surveyed, 9% said they’d like to home-school their children.
• Today, 53% of Utah parents say they want students taught at home at least one day a week.

Home-schooling rates are surging across the country. That is according to Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Education Policy, which hosts Homeschool Hub, a site that tracks home-schooling growth. Their work caught the eye of national media this fall and confirms what a lot of people have been saying: The pandemic changed education. However, the reason for the continued growth of home schooling is unclear, their report says.

The biggest challenge with studying the growth of home schooling is that reporting is not required, and data is hard to find. Much of what does exist is simply estimates.

As we did nearly a year ago, we can look at some of the numbers to understand better the state of home schooling and home education across the nation. Hopefully, families and policymakers can better understand the impact of this growing movement as they make decisions in their respective spheres.

A national view of home-schooling numbers

Johns Hopkins’ Homeschool Hub tracks data for the 30 states that collect and report data on home schooling. What it found for the 2023-24 school year at the time of their report is that all states with data except for two had increases in home schooling.

One of the states that saw a decline in the number of students home-schooling during the 2023-24 school year, New Hampshire (the other was Vermont), might attribute its decrease to the fact that students receiving public funds via education savings accounts for home education are no longer considered home schoolers. Thus, in reality, more families in that state may be schooling at home than ever, but the distinctions for reporting matter.

Likewise, Homeschool Hub research shows that during that school year, home schooling increased in Georgia by 2% and jumped in Delaware by 29%.

Another report this year shows that home schooling has doubled in Missouri since the pandemic, jumping from 3% to 6%. They suggest that one of the reasons is that the more long-lasting shift toward remote work long after the pandemic made it more feasible for families to consider home school.

Again, the exact reason for the overall growth in home schooling across the nation is not clear, and considering the states in light of their unique values and politics makes it more complex. Still, some national estimates can shed some light on the status of home schooling across the country.

One national estimate from the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey (which looks at changes since the COVID-19 pandemic), which ran from Aug. 20 to Sept. 16 of this year, says there are 4,198,591 students being home-schooled out of 89,842,875, which amounts to 4.67% overall. (An earlier phase of this survey indicates it was between 5-6% in the 2022-2023 school year.)

Another education think tank called Ed Choice estimates that 5% of students are home-schooled in its August 2024 publication on schooling in America.

Given these data points, we might be safe in saying that a good national estimate hovers close to 5%.

That percentage is likely to grow, too. Ed Choice’s data also looked at parents’ reported schooling preferences and it showed that while 5% of parents actually enrolled their students in home school, 9% said they’d like to home-school their children. This suggests that as information and resources make it more feasible, we might see the preference for home schooling materialize into more families and a higher percentage of parents choosing this alternative to public schooling.

Utah’s approach to home schooling and home education

The same challenge with home-schooling data and reporting exists in Utah. In fact, according to the Johns Hopkins Homeschool Hub, Utah is notably one of the states that does not require home-schooling data to be shared. Still, using the average from 2022 and 2023 of U.S. Census data, they estimate about 5% of Utah students are home-schooled.

At the same time, according to the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey for August to September 2024, there are 63,762 students being home-schooled out of a possible 979,529, which would mean 6.5% of Utah students are home-schooled.

And according to estimates from Ed Choice on 2025 data, about 2.3% of students in Utah are being home-schooled.

The National Home Education Research Institute says there are currently anywhere from 36,558 to 44,682 students being home schooled in 2024, which highlights the significantly large range of possible home-schooled students for those trying to analyze the growth of this schooling type in a state.

At the same time, Utah now has 10,000 recipients of its universal choice program – the Utah Fits All Scholarship (UFAS) – many of whom may use the funds to pay for private school or some form of schooling at home (UFAS recipients are legally not home-schoolers). So, even attempting to track students receiving a “home education” by way of UFAS is unclear. Very likely, the number of available scholarships will increase with time and adjust the data or number of students being considered as home-school students in national databases. While only 10,000 scholarships were available this year, applications far exceeded available scholarships, and there is interest in expanding funding for the program.

This would be a wise policy choice, considering how more Utahns seem to be thinking outside the traditional schooling options over time. Data of Utah-specific parent preferences show that a majority of Utah parents want students to be taught one or more days a week at home. Today, 53% of Utah parents say that they want students taught at home at least one day a week, compared to 52% last year. This might suggest that a hybrid approach to home education is even more desirable or practically feasible for families in the state than the traditional home-schooling environment.

Issues and recommendations

Sutherland Institute is committed to public policy that facilitates families being able to access an education that works best for the individual student. Home education – whether publicly or personally funded, whether all the time or in a hybrid format – is among the many important options we hope continue to be supported, protected and expanded as demand grows.

Legislative leadership has already made public comments that they would like to see the Utah Fits All Scholarship expanded through more funds, something that Sutherland Institute supports. The revenue base for public education is such that lawmakers can grow UFAS while also increasing funding for public schools through a larger Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU).

Likewise, recent Sutherland Institute polling data from Y2 Analytics shows that Utah voters support UFAS by a 44-40 margin, but a large majority (75%) of them, and even 64% of Utah parents, are unaware of the Utah Fits All Scholarship. We believe that it’s important not only to pass good policy but to promote it so families can use it. There is space to increase information and awareness of the scholarship so those who want options – like a home education – but cannot yet afford it are able to access the scholarship.

It’s an exciting time for families seeking options and considering whether they could educate their children at home. As feasibility, resources and awareness of home education grows, we believe it will grow, too.