The study from Urban Institute also found that public school enrollment fell by 1.2 million students.
The increase in homeschool enrollment persisted even after many schools returned to in-person instruction.
Steven F. Duvall, director of research for the Home School Legal Defense Association, told The Christian Post that the findings are consistent with other observations regarding COVID-19’s influence on homeschooling.
He said in a statement, “We believe that homeschooling is a wonderful way to educate a child and that many hundreds of thousands of families made this same discovery during the pandemic.”
The data shows that the rise in homeschooling varied by state. The smallest increase occurred in North Carolina, where homeschool enrollment grew by 8%. States with larger increases included New York (65%), Pennsylvania (53%) and Florida (43%).
Nat Malkus, senior fellow and deputy director of education policy at the center-right think tank American Enterprise Institute, believes certain behaviors in addition to the pandemic must be accounted for in the data.
Specifically, he said those variables need to be analyzed to determine if the trend surrounding enrollment numbers will continue in the future.
He said, “The question on the long term is, really, what pushed people out and whether homeschooling was a direct response to remote schooling or whether it was something that’s going to be sustainable for a number of families.”