The National Home School Association received
more than 3,400 requests for information on a
single day last month, up from between five and
20 inquiries per day before the coronavirus. The
group had to increase the size of its email inbox
to keep up.
“Clearly the interest we have been getting has
exploded,” said J. Allen Weston, the executive
director of the suburban Denver-based group.
“That is really the only way to describe it.”
Some parents in rural parts of Nebraska are
turning to homeschooling because staffing and
limited access to home internet leave districts
unable to offer a virtual learning option, said
Kathryn Dillow, president and executive director
of Nebraska Home Schools, a support and
advocacy group.
Homeschooling applications continue arriving in
Nebraska, where the number of homeschoolers
already had risen to 3,400 as of July 14, up
from 2,800 at the same time a year ago, said
David Jespersen, a spokesman for the Nebraska
Department of Education.
Jespersen said there is “a lot of confusion”
and that “parents are delayed in making their
decision” because so much is changing.
Regardless of the final number, Jespersen
doesn’t expect that the increase will bust districts’
budgets because homeschoolers will still remain
a small fraction of about 326,000 students spread
over the state’s 244 school systems.
Most other states don’t have homeschooling
numbers, either because they aren’t collected at
the state level or it’s too early. But all indications
point to increases across the country.