how many homeschoolers are there?

[amma!]

When I search for statistics on number of homeschoolers, I find data from the 2000 census (that estimated number of homeschoolers at 2 million). 

Now that the 2010 census is out, have updated numbers been posted?  I am really curious - one article (probably this one) I read called homeschooling the fastest growing educational trend in the US.  I just want to find out how much it has grown.

[pigpokey]

Also consider that public virtual and private distance learning schools are probably the second fastest growing educational trend.  I think in the next 10 years, 10% of kids K-12 will not be in brick and mortar schools. 

[moominmamma]

I think it's very difficult to count homeschoolers. As pigpokey says, there's a lot that falls into grey areas. I have three kids enrolled in a virtual unschooling program which the government considers to be a public school program. So legally my kids are "in a school" yet the day to day reality is that we unschool based at home. If I was asked on a census whether my kids attend public school or are homeschooled, I'm not sure whether I'd answer according to the legal definition or the practical reality. My fourth kid is enrolled part-time in a school. Again, I'm not sure how I'd count her on a census form.

Miranda

[AKfamily]

I'd love an answer to this too! And where are they all? Homeschooling is incredibly prevalent in AK but I have no sense of how it is in the rest of the country.

In Alaska many many people homeschool with a program connected to a public school district (as mentioned above).  For example, in Fairbanks one program (the largest) has approximately 1000 homeschooled enrollees, all of whom would probably show up as enrolled in the Galena school district.

[pigpokey]

DeKalb County, GA has slightly more than 100,000 students enrolled in its public schools.  Additionally 1,550 students have Declarations of Intent to home school filed with the county.  I do not know how many private school students there are including private accredited distance learning students such as private accredited K12.  Also I have no idea how may public virtual school students we have.  I would hazard to guess that if we have 1,550 registered home schoolers, we have another 700 public virtual or private virtual school students.  A great number of the newbies seem to be coming in through the public cyber academy route, which I think of as the two way swinging gateway drug of education. 

[nwinnieway]

It's definitely hard to guage the amount of home schoolers because there are traditional home schoolers, students in online schools, among many other outlets to at-home education.

[amma!]

do you think that it is harder to count today than it was 10 years ago?

whatever method they used in 2000, if they used the same method now, we would at least get an idea of how much it has grown in 10 years.  If the US Census is counting, should they not post the results somewhere?  Similarly I wonder if the govt of Canada also keeps a count?

[happy1nluv]

i dont remember there being a box on the census saying how you were educating your children? where are you getting the schooling numbers from, or are you just taking total number of kids from census of schooling age - number of kids in public school to get number of homeschoolers?

[amma!]

Originally Posted by happy1nluv 

i dont remember there being a box on the census saying how you were educating your children? where are you getting the schooling numbers from, or are you just taking total number of kids from census of schooling age - number of kids in public school to get number of homeschoolers?

There is an article on the  US census website:

Home Schooling in the United States:
Trends and Characteristics

by Kurt J. Bauman

Population Division
U.S. Census Bureau
Washington, DC 20233-8800

August 2001

Working Paper Series No. 53

There is a section called "Extent and Growth of Home Schooling"

There are a number of tables. 

[amma!]

Just came across this: School's In

"According to the United States Department of Education, an estimated 1.5 million children in grades K-12 were home-educated in 2007, many of them for religious reasons; that number grew an average of 11 percent between 1999 and 2007."

This is from the December 2008 Issue Brief of National Center for Education Sciences:  nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf

And the entire report is here: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool/index.asp

These numbers appear lower than those reported in the US Census article. 

 I am just curious because I am on a number of lists in US and India and they seem to be growing in membership.  No way to tell if this reflects actual growth of homeschoolers or more curiosity about homeschooling.