Homeschooling is the practice of educating children at home or in settings other than a traditional public or private school, typically led by a parent or guardian rather than a certified classroom teacher, though specific legal requirements for homeschooling families vary considerably from one country or state to another. In the United States, homeschooling is legal in all fifty states, though states differ widely in what they require of homeschooling families, ranging from minimal notification requirements to more extensive rules involving standardized testing or curriculum approval.
Growth and motivations
Homeschooling grew substantially from a relatively small movement in the 1970s and 1980s, driven partly by religious and philosophical objections to public school curricula, into a far larger and more demographically diverse practice by the twenty-first century, with families citing reasons ranging from dissatisfaction with local schools to a desire for a more individualized pace of learning to concerns about school safety or bullying. Homeschooling saw a particularly sharp increase in the United States around 2020, when many families turned to it during a period of widespread school disruption, and participation remained elevated afterward compared with pre-2020 levels in many areas.
Formats and ongoing debates
Modern homeschooling takes many different forms, from parents teaching every subject themselves using a purchased curriculum, to families joining homeschool cooperatives that share teaching responsibilities across several households, to hybrid arrangements where a student is homeschooled part-time while attending a public or private school for specific classes or activities. Researchers and policymakers continue to debate how much oversight homeschooling families should face, with some arguing that current regulations in many states are too limited to ensure homeschooled children receive an adequate education, while homeschooling advocates argue that parents are best positioned to determine their own children’s educational needs.
Legal history and key court cases
Homeschooling’s legal status in the United States was clarified gradually through state legislation and court rulings during the 1980s, after a period in earlier decades when some states treated homeschooling as a violation of compulsory education laws unless a family could show their home instruction met specific equivalency standards. By the early 1990s, every state had passed some form of legislation explicitly permitting homeschooling, though the specific requirements, such as mandatory testing, portfolio review, or simple notification, continue to vary significantly from state to state today.
Homeschooled students have historically performed comparably to or above average on standardized college admissions tests in aggregate data, though researchers caution that families who choose to homeschool and report that data are not a random sample of the broader population, making direct comparisons with traditionally schooled students difficult to interpret with full confidence.
Support networks and curricula
A substantial industry of homeschool curriculum publishers, online course providers, and testing services has developed to support homeschooling families, offering everything from complete boxed curricula covering every subject to individual online courses for specific subjects a parent may not feel equipped to teach themselves. Local and online homeschool support groups and cooperatives have also become common, allowing families to share teaching responsibilities, organize group field trips, and provide socialization opportunities that critics of homeschooling have sometimes argued are harder to replicate outside a traditional school setting.
College admissions for homeschooled students
Most colleges and universities in the United States now have established processes for evaluating homeschooled applicants, often relying more heavily on standardized test scores, a detailed transcript compiled by the parent, and sometimes a portfolio of work, since homeschooled students typically lack the traditional class rank and school-issued grade point average that admissions offices use for conventionally schooled applicants.
Online and hybrid homeschooling programs
Some states offer publicly funded online charter schools or hybrid homeschool-public school partnership programs that blur the traditional line between homeschooling and public schooling, allowing families significant control over curriculum and pacing while still receiving some public funding and oversight, an arrangement that has grown alongside broader increases in school choice options across many states.
Homeschooling during the COVID-19 period
The sharp rise in homeschooling noted earlier was closely tied to widespread school building closures and remote instruction mandates in the early 2020s, during which many families who had never previously considered homeschooling tried a version of at-home education out of necessity, and survey data from that period found that a meaningful share of those families chose to continue some form of homeschooling or hybrid arrangement even after schools fully reopened.
Homeschooling associations in several states actively track and sometimes lobby regarding proposed changes to homeschooling regulations, reflecting an organized political dimension to the practice beyond individual families making private educational choices for their own children.
Socialization research on homeschooled children
Researchers studying the social development of homeschooled children have produced mixed findings, with some studies finding no meaningful difference in social skills or peer relationships compared with traditionally schooled children, particularly among homeschooled children who participate actively in cooperatives, sports, or community activities, while other research has raised concerns about more isolated homeschooling arrangements that offer limited structured interaction with peers outside the family.
Annual surveys conducted by federal education agencies and independent research organizations continue to track homeschooling rates and reasons families cite for choosing it, providing some of the most reliable longitudinal data available on how and why the practice has grown over time.
Homeschooling rates differ notably by region and demographic group, and researchers studying these patterns have found that motivations for homeschooling have broadened considerably over recent decades beyond the religious motivations that dominated the movement’s earlier history.
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Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed November 2, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue