Homeschooling in the United States: 1999

NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS
Homeschooling in the
United States: 1999
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Educational Research and Improvement NCES 2001–033

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NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS



Statistical Analysis Report
July 2001
National Household Education Surveys Program
Homeschooling in the
United States: 1999
National
Household
Education
Surveys Program
Stacey Bielick
Education Statistics Services Institute
Kathryn Chandler
Stephen P. Broughman
National Center for Education Statistics
U.S. Department of Education
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
NCES 2001–033

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U.S. Department of Education
Rod Paige
Secretary
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
Grover J. Whitehurst
Assistant Secretary
National Center for Education Statistics
Gary W. Phillips
Acting Commissioner
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting,
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Suggested Citation
Bielick, S., Chandler K., and Broughman, S. P., (2001). Homeschooling in the United States:
1999 (NCES 2001–033). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for
Education Statistics.
For ordering information on this report, write:
U.S. Department of Education
ED Pubs
P.O. Box 1398
Jessup, MD 20794-1398
or call toll free 1–877–4ED–Pubs.
Content Contact:
Stephen P. Broughman
(202) 502-7315
Stephen.Broughman@ed.gov

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Acknowledgments
Many people contributed to the completion of this report. The authors wish to thank
Sandra Eyster, Jennifer Sable, and Nikkita Taylor of the Education Statistics Services Institute
(ESSI) for their research assistance, comments, and analysis suggestions on earlier drafts of this
report. Mary McLaughlin of ESSI provided a thorough technical review of the report. At NCES,
Karen O’Conor, Bill Hussar, Sheida White, and Frank Johnson reviewed the report and provided
thoughtful feedback on the content and technical aspects of the report.
Several other reviewers helped shape the final report. These reviewers include: Joyce P.
Johnson of the New Hampshire Department of Education; Jack Klenk of the U.S. Department of
Education’s Office of Non-Public Education; Patricia Lines, formerly of the U.S. Department of
Education and Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute; and Brian Ray of the National Home
Education Research Institute. A special thank you to Brian Ray and Patricia Lines for their
pioneering efforts to document homeschooling families in the United States. Any remaining
errors or problems in this report are the sole responsibility of the authors.
iii

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Highlights
The Parent Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program, 1999 (Parent-
NHES:1999) provides a comprehensive set of information that may be used to estimate the
number and characteristics of homeschoolers in the United States. This report, Homeschooling in
the United States: 1999, presents an estimate of the number of homeschooled students,
characteristics of homeschooled children and their families, parents' reasons for homeschooling,
and public school support for homeschoolers. Students were considered to be homeschooled if
their parents reported them being schooled at home instead of a public or private school, if their
enrollment in public or private schools did not exceed 25 hours a week, and if they were not
being homeschooled solely because of a temporary illness.
Major findings from the Parent-NHES:1999 indicate:
• In the spring of 1999, an estimated 850,000 students nationwide were being
homeschooled. This amounts to 1.7 percent of U.S. students, ages 5 to 17, with a grade
equivalent of kindergarten through grade 12. Four out of five homeschoolers were
homeschooled only (82 percent) and one out of five homeschoolers were enrolled in
public or private schools part time (18 percent).
• A greater percentage of homeschoolers compared to nonhomeschoolers were white,
non-Hispanic in 1999—75 percent compared to 65 percent. At the same time, a
smaller percentage of homeschoolers were black, non-Hispanic students and a smaller
percentage were Hispanic students.
• The household income of homeschoolers in 1999 was no different than
nonhomeschoolers. However, parents of homeschoolers had higher levels of
educational attainment than did parents of nonhomeschoolers.
• Parents gave a wide variety of reasons for homeschooling their children. These
reasons included being able to give their child a better education at home, for religious
reasons, and because of a poor learning environment at school.
iv

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................................
iii
Highlights ...........................................................................................................................
iv
Background .......................................................................................................................... 1
Estimated Number of Homeschooled Students in the United States ...................................
3
Characteristics of Homeschooled Students and Their Families ..........................................
4
Parents’ Reasons for Homeschooling ..................................................................................
10
Public School Support for Homeschooled Students ............................................................
12
Future Research Plans ..........................................................................................................
14
Methodology and Technical Notes ......................................................................................
15
References ............................................................................................................................
22
v

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List of Tables
Table 1.— Number and percentage of homeschooled students, ages 5-17, with a grade
equivalent of kindergarten to grade 12, by school enrollment status: 1999 ....
4
Table 2.— Number of students and number and percentage of homeschooled students,
ages 5-17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten to grade 12,
by selected characteristics: 1999 ......................................................................
5
Table 3.— Distribution of all students, homeschooled students, and nonhomeschooled
students ages 5-17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten to grade 12, by
selected characteristics: 1999 ...........................................................................
7
Table 4.— Number and percentage of homeschooled students by reason for home-
schooling: 1999 ................................................................................................
11
Table 5.— Percentage of homeschooled students whose parents reported support available
from public schools or districts for homeschoolers and the percentage who also
used them: 1999 ...............................................................................................
13
List of Figures
Figure 1.— Point estimate and 95% confidence interval for number of homeschooled
students, ages 5-17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten to
grade 12: 1999 ..................................................................................................
3
Figure 2.— Ten reasons for homeschooling and the percentage of homeschooled
students whose parents gave each reason: 1999 ...............................................
10
vi

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Background
Past estimates of the number of homeschoolers vary by hundreds of thousands of
children. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, estimated the
number of homeschoolers to be around 1.15 million during the 1996–97 school year, and
predicted that the number would grow to at least 1.3 million during 1999–2000 (Ray 1997).
Patricia M. Lines, through her research at the U.S. Department of Education, National Institute on
Student Achievement, Curriculum and Assessment, estimated the number of homeschoolers to be
around 700,000 during 1995–96, possibly growing to 1 million by 1997–98 (Lines 1999). Both
Ray and Lines grant that their estimates probably anchor the range within which the actual
number of homeschoolers could fall.
The methods used by Ray and Lines in the development of their estimates varied. Ray
derived his most recent estimate of the number of homeschoolers using his own 1995 survey of
homeschoolers and their use of curricular packages as his base and sales of homeschooling
curricular packages to adjust for growth over time. Ray applied the ratio of users of curricular
packages and nonusers identified in the 1995 survey to more recent sales of homeschool
curricular packages to obtain his 1999–2000 estimate. Lines collected data from all states that
obtained records on homeschooling children in both the 1990–91 and 1995–96 school years (32
states and the District of Columbia). Using the 12 states with high record-collection rates for
homeschoolers, based on Ray's estimates of the percentage of homeschoolers who reported filing
in their state, Lines estimated the percentage of school-aged children who were homeschooling in
those 12 states. Lines estimated the number of children homeschooled nationally by applying the
percentage distribution of homeschoolers from the state sample to national totals of school-aged
children.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) was the first organization to attempt
to estimate the number of homeschoolers in the United States using a rigorous sample survey of
households. A household sampling frame circumvents problems inherent in the use of
incomplete sample frames, such as customers of curricular providers and administrative records.
Attempts to develop estimates of homeschoolers through household surveys, however, can also
be problematic. The first two efforts to estimate homeschoolers at NCES—through the October
supplement to the 1994 Current Population Survey (CPS:Oct94) and through the Parent and
1

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Family Involvement in Education/Civic Involvement Survey of the National Household
Education Surveys Program, 1996 (PFI/CI-NHES:1996)—produced very different estimates.
One problem that may have contributed to the varying estimates was the difference in how the
two surveys identified students who were both homeschooled and enrolled in school part-time.
Neither survey collected precise data on these part-time homeschoolers. An NCES technical
report, Issues Related to Estimating the Home-Schooled Population in the United States with
National Household Survey Data, explores in detail the differences in survey design and
execution that may have contributed to the disparity between the CPS:Oct94 and PFI-NHES:1996
estimates (Henke et al. 2000).
In this report, the Parent Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program,
1999 (Parent-NHES:1999) is used to estimate the number of homeschoolers in the United States,
to describe the characteristics of homeschoolers, to document parents’ reasons for
homeschooling, and parents’ reports of public school support for homeschoolers. Students were
considered to be homeschooled if their parents reported them being schooled at home instead of a
public or private school, if their enrollment in public or private schools did not exceed 25 hours a
week, and if they were not being homeschooled solely because of a temporary illness. The
unweighted number of homeschooled students used in this analysis is 275 and the unweighted
number of nonhomeschooled students is 16,833. Students are defined in this report as children
ages 5 to 17 with a grade equivalent of kindergarten through grade 12.
2

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Estimated Number of Homeschooled Students in the United States
Approximately 850,000 students were being homeschooled during the spring of 1999,
according to data from the Parent Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program,
1999 (Parent-NHES:1999) (see table 1). Homeschoolers accounted for 1.7 percent of students
nationwide, ages 5 to 17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten through grade 12. The estimate
includes students who were homeschooled while also enrolled in school for 25 hours or less per
week, and excludes students who were homeschooled due to a temporary illness.
As with all sample surveys, the numbers and percentages in this report are estimates of
the numbers and percentages in the population. Although 850,000 is the best population estimate
available from this sample survey, another similar sample survey might produce a different
estimate. A 95 percent confidence interval defines a range of values such that 95 percent of the
estimates from other similar surveys will fall within the range of values. The 95 percent
confidence interval for the number of homeschoolers is 709,000 to 992,000. The estimate
provided here—850,000—is the mid-point of the range. Figure 1 illustrates the confidence
interval.
Figure 1.— Point estimate and 95% confidence interval for number of homeschooled
students, ages 5-17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten to grade 12: 1999
1,100,000
1,000,000
s
992,000
900,000
850,000
t
udent
800,000
d s
l
e
700,000
709,000
hoo
600,000
s
c
e
500,000
m
o
400,000

h
r
of
300,000
e
b
200,000
m
u
N
100,000
0
1999
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Parent
Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program, 1999.
3

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Document Outline

• Acknowledgments
• Highlights
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Background
• Estimated Number Homeschooled Students in the United States
  • Figure 1.? Point estimate and 95% confidence interval for number of homeschooled students, ages 5-17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten to grade 12: 1999
• Characteristics of Homeschooled Students and Their Families
  • Table 1.? Number and percentage of homeschooled students, ages 5-17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten to grade 12, by school enrollment status: 1999
  • Table 2.? Number of students and number and percentage of homeschooled students, ages 5-17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten to grade 12, by selected characteristics: 1999
  • Table 3.? Distribution of all students, homeschooled students, and nonhomeschooled students ages 5-17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten to grade 12, by selected characteristics: 1999
• Parents? Reasons for Homeschooling
  • Figure 2.? Ten reasons for homeschooling and the percentage of homeschooled students whose parents gave each reason: 1999
  • Table 4.? Number and percentage of homeschooled students by reason for homeschooling: 1999
• Public School Support for Homeschooled Students
  • Table 5.? Percentage of homeschooled students whose parents reported support available from public schools or districts for homeschoolers and the percentage who also used them: 1999
• Future Research Plans
• Methodology and Technical Notes
  • Response Rates
  • Data Reliability
  • Nonsampling Errors
  • Sampling Errors
  • Statistical Tests
  • Definitions of Variables
• References

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