Contemporary homeschooling arrangements: An analysis of three waves of nationally representative data

Homeschooling has increased dramatically in recent decades. During this period of expansion, scholars have reported on growing diversity in the ways that homeschool families educate their children. However, research tends to treat homeschooled children as a uniform group without accounting for differing homeschool arrangements. In this study, we examine the prevalence of four types of homeschool arrangements reported in prior literature as follows: (1) home education supplemented by the use of a private tutor or a homeschool cooperative, (2) home education supplemented by the use of online learning, (3) home education supplemented by part-time enrollment in a brick-and-mortar school, and (4) fully parent-delivered home education. For the analyses, three cross-sectional waves of nationally representative data on homeschool families (n = 1,468) from the National Household Education Survey (NHES: 2012, 2016, 2019) are examined. Results indicate that the four types of homeschool arrangements tested in this study are widespread and that the majority of homeschool families supplement home education with cooperatives and tutors, brick-and-mortar schools, and online education. Homeschool families who continue to perform conventional homeschooling without additional supplements are more likely to be white and less educated with elementary-aged children in the South region of the United States. Homeschool families whose children attend brick-and-mortar schools part-time are less likely to be white and more likely to have secondary school-aged children in urban areas. Use of online education is also higher at the secondary school level