US schools are losing families to homeschooling: How to bring them back
The rise in homeschooling since 2019 shocked many educators as families who once assumed their children would attend public school are opting out and many are not coming back. Recent data from Johns Hopkins University, School of Education shows that homeschooling grew across the United States but it was not driven by the pandemic or a sudden disruption to traditional schooling. The policy/research roundup that examines trends suggested that the growth is multi-causal. The shift matters not only for enrollment and budgets but for equity because when families leave unevenly, public schools serving the most vulnerable students lose the resources they need most.
Why families left
According to Pew Research Center, national data shows that homeschooling jumped after 2019 and has remained elevated where roughly 3.4% of K–12 students were homeschooled in 2022–23, up from about 2.8% pre-pandemic. This is a meaningful change in scale and composition. Multiple analyses indicate that the pandemic was a trigger. Dissatisfaction with remote learning, concerns about safety and frustration with school responsiveness pushed many families to try homeschooling and many stayed. The shifts were not uniform across the US as some states and communities saw particularly large increases. As per the National Center for Education Statistics, parents in the US report a range of reasons for homeschooling, from safety and health concerns to dissatisfaction with academic quality or school climate, desire for religious/cultural instruction or different values and flexibility. These motives are varied so a one-size-fits-all return strategy won’t work.
6 ways US schools can bring families back
- Rebuild trust with transparent, regular communication: Families left in many places because they felt unheard. Research on family engagement shows that regular and two-way communication, not just newsletters, builds trust and lifts engagement. Districts should implement consistent outreach (phone calls, home visits, multilingual materials) and create rapid response teams for family questions and complaints. Studies show parental involvement correlates with better attendance and outcomes and transparency is the first step to restoring it.
- Offer flexible learning pathways (hybrid, micro-school partnerships and wraparound supports): Some families chose homeschooling for flexibility.
Schools can mirror that flexibility by offering blended/hybrid schedules, after-school enrichment and partnerships with micro-schools or learning pods so that families feel they have choices while remaining tied to the public system. Johns Hopkins’ homeschooling hub notes that growth has not been driven by a single cause hence, implying solutions must be multi-faceted. - Prioritise safety and well-being (visible, actionable plans): Safety concerns from Covid-era anxiety to high-profile violence are a recurring reason families left. Schools must publish clear safety protocols like mental-health staffing, bullying prevention, emergency plans and show measurable results like reduced incidents and increased counselling access. Public accountability and visible investments in school climate help families feel their children are secure and cared for. Research links positive school climate to engagement and lower risk of academic failure.
- Strengthen family-centered supports and home-school partnerships: Successful re-enrollment campaigns combine outreach with supports like parenting workshops, tutoring and family navigation services that help with enrollment, health services and food access. Trials of family-focused interventions for e.g., Family Check-Up and other school-based family programs, show improved attendance and behaviour when schools actively support families, rather than merely expecting compliance.
- Build school climate and re-engagement programs for students: A positive school climate of supportive teachers, peer belonging and low levels of harassment is strongly associated with attendance, engagement and academic persistence. Schools should invest in social-emotional learning curricula, teacher coaching on inclusive classroom culture and re-engagement programs for students who fell behind during the pandemic. Meta-analyses show engagement interventions reduce dropout risk and improve outcomes.
- Publicise outcomes and career-connected pathways: Parents are pragmatic and there is clear evidence that school attendance leads to college readiness, stable careers or high-quality vocational pathways matters. Schools that expand visible pathways of internships, CTE (career and technical education), dual-enrollment and publicise measurable results (graduation rates, job placements) make a stronger case than schools that rely only on tradition or reputation. Data and transparency win back skeptical families.
What districts should measure (and report)
To convince families to return, districts must show progress. Annually and accessibly, track and publish metrics such as enrollment trends by grade/ZIP code, student safety incidents and responses, mental-health staffing ratios, attendance and chronic absenteeism, results of family-engagement surveys and outcomes from hybrid/alternative programs. Public reporting creates accountability and builds the narrative of improvement.The rise in homeschooling is a multi-cause phenomenon where safety worries, dissatisfaction with instruction or school culture and a hunger for flexibility all played roles. This means that the comeback strategy must be equally multifaceted so restore trust through communication and measurable safety improvements, offer flexible learning options, strengthen family supports, invest in climate and student re-engagement and publicise outcomes that matter to parents.Evidence from family-engagement and school-climate research shows these moves don’t just sound good on paper, they work. If districts act decisively and transparently, many families who left for short-term reasons will find public schools worth returning to and public education itself will be stronger for having listened.
