The facts:

Is Home Schooling Legal?
Home schooling is legal in all 50 U.S. states and throughout Canada. Home schooling is also becoming increasingly popular in Australia, New Zealand, England, and Japan. However, each state manages home schooling differently within the governance of compulsory attendance laws, or in some cases, statutes specific to home schooling. Some home schooling laws merely require you to let your local school district know that you will be home schooling your children. Some laws require you to fill out paperwork as if you were a private school. If you are considering home schooling, you will need to get information on the current laws in your area.

Who is Home Schooling?
Home schoolers today are a very diverse group. They come from every background imaginable – religious and secular; rich, middle class, and poor; rural, suburban, and urban; Republican, Democrat, and Independent. Doctors, government employees, small business owners, military personnel, factory workers, and former public school teachers head home schooling families.

What does it cost?
Depends on the choices you make. Generally, you can assume that home schooling costs more than a public school education and less than a private school. If you had to, you could home school for free using public resources like libraries, PBS shows, museums, the Internet, and hand-me-down educational supplies.

In general, home schooling costs more if you use a boxed curriculum or sign up with an independent study program. You will also want to budget additional funding for extracurricular activities such as soccer, gymnastics, martial arts, piano lessons, and the like. Since home schooled children have more time, they tend to participate in more of these activities.

Why Home School?
Researcher Isabel Lyman found that the top four reasons to home school are as follows: 1) to freely impart religious values,
2) to search for academic excellence,
3) to build strong family bonds and
4) dissatisfaction with the public schools.
In a recent survey in Florida, dissatisfaction with public and private schools was the common reason for home schooling. Others have suggested that flexibility in scheduling is part of what makes home schooling a much more attractive option for mainstream families.

Can Home Schoolers Gain Entry to College and University?
The facts suggest that home schooled students have a better chance of acceptance at every level of the higher academic system. Home schoolers tested above average on ACT and SAT tests.

Why Not Home School?
Because it requires a commitment from one or both parents, there is a certain loss of real or potential income for the family. This may be an option. Also, the parents' knowledge base may not extent to cover the entire curriculum, nor may they communicate appropriately.

Home Schooling Facts and Figures

United States

“No one knows how many home schoolers there have been, nor how many there are today. The only thing anyone can agree on is that home education is growing by leaps and bounds, and will continue to grow.” (Ransom, 2001, p.21) According to NHERI between 1.3 million to 1.7 million U.S. students in grades K through 12 are currently being home educated. This represents approximately 3 percent of all school-aged children in the United States. The estimates indicate that home education is growing by a rate of 15 percent annually. (Ransom, 2001, p. 3)

Florida Ranks First

Florida law requires all children ages 6–16 to regularly attend school. Regular attendance may be achieved by attendance in a home education program. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) determined Florida was ranked first nationally in the number of home educated students. (Geist, 1995, p. 1) According to the Florida Department of Education the number of home educated students has risen by 59 percent in the last five years with 25,930 home educated students during the 1996 – 97 school year and escalating to 41,128 students in 2000 – 01. “Home education is the fastest growing alternative to public schools and traditional learning environments.” (http://www.firn.edu/doe/bin00077/home0077.htm)

Above adapted from http://www.okaloosa.k12.fl.us/stuserv/ci/blended_school_information.htm

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