Across Cultural Lines, Home Schooling has Boomed Since COVID-19 Hit
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For Isabel Bishop, 12, and her 8-year-old brother, Bodhi, school might mean a trip from their home in Fairfax County to the Harriet Tubman Museum in Maryland to learn about slavery and the underground railroad.
For Mali Holmes, 7, of Richmond, school might mean playing chess with friends and developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
For Tera Thomas鈥 sons 鈥 Noah, 10; Jude, 8; and Elias, 7 鈥 school might mean baking Christmas cookies. 鈥淟ots of math and instruction following,鈥 the boys鈥 mother said.
Those children are among the approximately in Virginia 鈥 a number that has doubled over the past decade and is up 40 percent since fall 2019.
Experts say home schooling has grown in popularity across the socio-political spectrum, from the religious right to the humanist left, driven in recent years not only by the COVID-19 pandemic but also by the culture wars being waged in many school districts.
鈥淚 think it will permanently change the landscape of education,鈥 said Yvonne Bunn, director of government affairs for the, or HEAV. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it will ever go back to the way it was before.鈥
Bunn said home schooling lets parents 鈥渋ndividualize the curriculum to fit the needs of their children.鈥
Nikiya Ellis, Mali鈥檚 mother, agreed.
鈥淥ur children learn from us in different ways,鈥 she said. 鈥淎nd it doesn鈥檛 have to be this academic way of learning all day, every day. They learn from watching us cook, watching how we treat each other. It doesn鈥檛 have to be sitting down at a table with pen and paper.鈥
Over the past two years, home schooling has of Virginia鈥檚 132 school divisions, including in of the 15 largest districts. If home-schoolers were a division unto themselves, it would be the in the commonwealth 鈥 with about as many students as the public schools of Virginia Beach or Chesterfield County.
COVID-19 was the main trigger. When the coronavirus prompted schools to move instruction online in spring 2020, many families created 鈥鈥 to home-school their children: A handful of students, often from the same neighborhood, would study together, led by parents or a hired teacher.
As a result, the number of home-schoolers in Virginia spiked from about 44,000 before the pandemic to for the 2020-21 academic year, when instruction remained virtual in most communities.
Tera Thomas鈥 children were part of that initial exodus from the public schools.
鈥淲e knew there was no way our kids were going to enjoy being on a computer all day,鈥 said Thomas, a former high school English teacher who lives in Louisa County. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 even want to be on a computer all day.鈥
When public schools resumed in-person classes this fall, some home-schoolers returned to campus, but most continued their studies at home. They were joined by children like Isabel and Bodhi Bishop.
Their mother, Carlea Bauman, said home schooling not only makes learning fun and interactive but also helps her forge 鈥渄eeper relationships with my kids.鈥
With the sharp spike when COVID-19 emerged and then a slight dip this fall, home schooling in Virginia has seen a net gain of about 18,000 students over the past two years.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 amazing to us,鈥 Bunn said.
The number may continue to grow. Since September, Bunn said, HEAV has handled more than 21,000 phone calls for advice about home schooling. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been unbelievable the surge in parents just wanting to know what they need to do and how they could do it.鈥
Andrea Cubelo-McKay, president of the, said many families that turned to home schooling early in the pandemic thought it would be a temporary move. But they 鈥渄ecided to continue home schooling because it was a really positive experience for them.鈥
Why the increase? Zoom, masks, CRT and Billie Eilish
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cubelo-McKay said, two factors boosted home schooling:
- When public schools moved online, many students experienced, and other trouble learning in a virtual environment. They wanted an alternative.
- At the same time, more parents were working from home, had flexible schedules or were furloughed from their jobs. That made them more available for home schooling.
When school doors re-opened for the 2021-22 academic year, numerous parents and students, social distancing and other measures adopted by school boards to curb the spread of the virus.
In addition, some home schooling advocates have circulated misinformation that the coronavirus vaccines are dangerous and that public schools are forcing students to get them. Such misinformation may have scared some parents about sending their children back to school.
For example, in an with The Virginia Mercury, J. Allen Weston, executive director of the, said some parents fear 鈥渢hat their children will be bribed or coerced into getting injected with a 鈥榮o-called鈥 vaccine that has been proven to be damaging and even deadly to many who get it.鈥 (In fact, that the COVID-19 vaccines approved for children by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are safe and effective.)
But it wasn鈥檛 just COVID-19 that spurred home schooling.
In Loudoun County, where Cubelo-McKay lives, angry parents over the role of critical race theory in teacher trainings and education more broadly ( that it is not part of the curriculum) and by requiring teachers and staff to refer to transgender students by their chosen pronoun.
Conservative commentators that those controversies prompted politically conservative families, especially Whites, to pull their children from the public schools.
At HEAV, which espouses a 鈥,鈥 Bunn said parents may have turned to home schooling because 鈥渢hey feel like they鈥檙e not being heard鈥 鈥 a theme that Republican Glenn Youngkin struck in in November.
鈥淭he children don鈥檛 belong to the state. I think parents really want to impart their own values to their children 鈥 their values and beliefs and their own worldview. And that is a major reason parents are home schooling,鈥 Bunn said.
At VaHomeschoolers, which an inclusive alternative to 鈥淐hristian conservative home-school organizations,鈥 Cubelo-McKay said the rancor over social issues in the public schools had a different effect: It drove more Black and LGBT students to try home schooling.
鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 feel safe with the level of hostility鈥 toward racial equity iniatives and transgender rights, she said.
Beyond public school policies, recent buzz over has energized the home-schooling movement. Grammy Award winner has attributed her success as a singer and songwriter to her years of being home-schooled. And Zaila Avant-garde, a 14-year-old home-schooler from Louisiana, .
Virginia is among top states for home schooling
Home-schoolers represent about of Virginia鈥檚 total public school enrollment. That is among the highest proportions in the United States, according to the.
Fifteen states publicly report their home-schooling numbers, the institute said. 鈥 North Carolina and Montana 鈥 had a greater percentage of home-schoolers than Virginia.
The proportion of home-schoolers varies widely among the commonwealth鈥檚 school divisions. It ranges from less than 1 percent in Arlington County and the city of Norton to more than 15 percent in eight mostly rural counties. In Franklin and Highland counties, nearly one of every five students is home-schooled.
The law on home schooling, and a call to ban it
The Home School Legal Defense Association, based in Loudoun County, a 鈥渕oderate regulation鈥 state in terms of home schooling. has two main requirements:
- By Aug. 15 of each year, parents must file a notice with their school district that they plan to home-school their children. The notice must list the subjects each home-schooler will study.
- At the end of the school year, parents must submit 鈥渆vidence of the child鈥檚 academic achievement.鈥 That can be a standardized test score or an evaluation by a licensed teacher or 鈥渁 person with a master鈥檚 degree or higher in an academic discipline.鈥
In Virginia, parents generally need only a high school diploma to oversee their child鈥檚 home schooling. Even then, there鈥檚 an exception: Parents who didn鈥檛 graduate from high school can home-school their children if they use 鈥渁 program of study or curriculum,鈥 such as correspondence or distance-learning courses.
A Harvard Law School professor recently created a stir among home-schooling advocates when she criticized such laws as too lax and said home schooling should be closely regulated if not banned.
In an,, who specializes in child welfare laws, called for a 鈥減resumptive ban鈥 on home schooling, saying it 鈥減resents both academic concerns and democratic concerns.鈥
In a, she said there is a danger that home-schoolers 鈥渁re simply not learning basic academic skills or learning about the most basic democratic values of our society or getting the kind of exposure to alternative views that enables them to exercise meaningful choice about their future lives.鈥
Citing 鈥渞ight-wing Christian conservatives鈥 in particular, Bartholet said many home-schooling parents question science and 鈥渁re extreme ideologues, committed to raising their children within their belief systems isolated from any societal influence.鈥
She noted the dearth of independent, peer-reviewed research to support claims that home-schoolers are as well prepared academically and socially as public school students. 鈥淲e have zero evidence that, on average, home-schooled students are doing well.鈥
Bartholet鈥檚 views home-schooling advocates.
They pointed out that home-schoolers are diverse: African Americans represent the fastest-growing home-schooling demographic nationwide, and Black and Hispanic families have been more likely than Whites to home-school their children during the pandemic, by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Proponents of home schooling also say show that home-schoolers do better than their regular-school counterparts on achievement tests and in college later on; however, such studies often have been sponsored by home-schooling advocacy groups like the.
How and why families home-school children
Many parents say they have firsthand evidence of the benefits of home-schooling. Nikiya Ellis said it has been a far better fit for her son Mali than Barack Obama Elementary School, which serves the family鈥檚 Battery Park neighborhood in Richmond.
鈥淗e鈥檚 not a disrespectful child at all, but he鈥檚 curious and he鈥檚 smart,鈥 said Ellis, who is a doula (a home-birth assistant to a midwife) and co-director of the nonprofit organization. She said Mali likes to ask questions like 鈥淲hy?鈥 and 鈥淐an I do it another way?鈥
Mali attended Obama Elementary for kindergarten during the 2019-20 academic year, and his inquisitiveness got him in trouble, Ellis said.
鈥淲e want our children to be free-thinking and creative,鈥 she said, but Mali鈥檚 teacher 鈥渇elt that he wasn鈥檛 listening and he was being defiant because he was questioning her.鈥 As a result, Mali received frequent demerits (repeatedly being placed 鈥渙n red鈥 in the school鈥檚 behavioral management system) and was moved to the back of the classroom, Ellis said.
She said Mali wanted to learn, but the school鈥檚 chief lesson was 鈥渙bey authority, don鈥檛 question anything, sit in your seat and be quiet 鈥 and if you don鈥檛, you鈥檒l be punished.鈥
When she picked up Mali from school in the afternoon, Ellis said, 鈥淪ometimes, we were literally in tears.鈥
For the 2020-21 academic year, Richmond Public Schools, like other districts, held classes only online. 鈥淭hat did not work for Mali at all,鈥 Ellis said.
So for the current year, Ellis developed a home-schooling system that she believes does work. It has several components, including:
鈥 A curriculum from, a popular learning program for home-schoolers. Mali is taking classes in math, English, robotics and Spanish. The program involves online coursework, working independently and studying with guidance from Ellis; her partner, Duron Chavis; and, on weekends, Mali鈥檚 father, David Holmes. (Ellis and Holmes are divorced.)
鈥 Activities at the, which emphasizes the 鈥渃ultural attributes, traditions and histories of Black and Brown communities.鈥 Mali takes classes in art, cultural studies, science, yoga and capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music. Mali also plays chess and outdoor games with friends at the co-op.
鈥 Lessons mostly in reading and writing with Dr. Hollee Freeman, an and executive director of the regional. Mali is reading on a fifth-grade level, Ellis said.
鈥 Weekly visits to the Libbie Mill Library to check out books, participate in scavenger hunts (finding pictures among the stacks) and meet in a study room to work on academic projects.
鈥 Field trips to venues such as the Science Museum of Virginia, where Mali recently watched an immersive film about Antarctica and played the role of a pit crew member for an, racing and velocity. 鈥淲hen the environment is a fun, welcoming one, Mali doesn鈥檛 even notice when he鈥檚 actually 鈥榣earning,鈥欌 Ellis said. 鈥淗e takes it all in and is eager to know more.鈥
That schedule is packed but doable, Ellis said.
She is a busy person: Ellis and Chavis are urban farmers who manage three community gardens and an orchard, and Ellis is not only a doula but also a beekeeper and a member of a on maternal and infant health.
But Ellis said she and Chavis are both self-employed and have some flexibility in their work schedules.
Moreover, Ellis said she now realizes that learning can happen at any place at any time. 鈥淚 never thought that a trip to the grocery store could actually teach my son about math and money,鈥 she said.
For instance, Ellis might give Mali $5 to buy certain items on their shopping list 鈥 and if he can come in under budget, he can use the leftover money to purchase a piece of candy.
Another strategy is to let children make some of their own decisions about learning.
Mali hated reading the books he was assigned in public school because 鈥渋t wasn鈥檛 anything that he was interested in,鈥 Ellis said. Now, she said, Mali gets to choose age-appropriate graphic novels. 鈥淗e loves it, and now he鈥檚 going through books.鈥
Tera and Silas Thomas, who have been home-schooling their three school-age sons for the past two years, also say their children are learning a lot and enjoying it.
The family was living in Henrico County, and the boys were attending Springfield Park Elementary School, 鈥渨hen COVID hit and everything got shut down,鈥 Tera Thomas said.
Even before then, the Thomases were disenchanted with the public schools. For example, Tera Thomas said she felt the teachers assigned a lot of busywork. Her children would come home with a pack of worksheets they had completed at school, she said. 鈥淚鈥檇 ask, 鈥榃hat鈥檚 worth keeping?鈥 And they鈥檇 say, 鈥楴one of it.鈥欌
鈥淲e wanted there to be more value in their education, more individualized (attention), more freedom to explore and do things,鈥 Tera Thomas said.
So the Thomases took a. And when the public schools shifted to online instruction because of COVID-19, the family switched to home schooling.
Last spring, the Thomases moved to Maidens, an unincorporated community in Goochland County. Tera Thomas said the boys 鈥 along with their 3-year-old sister, Adah 鈥 enjoy the variety of educational activities the family has developed.
At times, the children work one on one with their mother at the 鈥渕om station.鈥 Other times, they work independently 鈥 perhaps with a curriculum program like. Sometimes, they all read a book together but do different follow-up activities based on their academic levels.
It鈥檚 structured but customized: When a son was grumpy one morning, Tera Thomas told him to take a break, and then they completed the lesson later in the day.
The Thomases also belong to a home-school co-op, a group of parents who have pooled their resources to organize classes and other learning activities for their children. (Tera Thomas declined to name the co-op because it is a private group and is not seeking more members.) The boys go to the co-op once a week for lessons in science, creative writing, Spanish and American history.
There are home-school co-ops across Virginia, and they offer a broad range of models. Some are highly structured, emphasizing or. Other co-ops focus on or and. Such support groups provide a sense of community for home-schoolers and their parents, Tera Thomas said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 this idea that home-schoolers are unsocialized 鈥 weirdos, for lack of a better term. But there鈥檚 a huge network of people鈥 involved in home-schooling, she said. 鈥淲e have more of a community of friends and parents than we ever did in the three years that we were at Springfield Park.鈥
In the co-op, parents share ideas on how to facilitate learning. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 really get to have those conversations in the public schools,鈥 Tera Thomas said. 鈥淵ou just are kind of at the mercy of whatever they鈥檙e choosing to do 鈥 鈥榦ne size fits all.鈥欌
As part of their home-schooling adventure, the Thomases have taken their children on trips 鈥 not only to nearby sites like Colonial Williamsburg and Pamplin Historical Park but also cross-country in the family鈥檚 pop-up camper.
Tera Thomas said her son Jude is 鈥渧ery into Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone鈥 鈥 and the boy was captivated when the family visited the stomping grounds of those two frontiersmen in Tennessee.
On another occasion, the Thomases spent a 鈥渉omesteading weekend鈥 on a farm.
鈥淢y kids came home knowing how to raise chickens and process chickens and rabbits. It was hands-on. I think by the time we were done, my 10-year-old had processed 30 chickens from live to packaged and ready for market,鈥 Tera Thomas said.
鈥淪ome people might not see value in that, like 鈥楬ow is that teaching you math and other things?鈥 But it does teach a level of work ethic and self-sustainability and how to take care of animals well.鈥
Experiential learning also is a crucial component of home-schooling for Carlea Bauman and Geoff Bishop鈥檚 children, Isabel and Bodhi.
Bishop works at Marriott International鈥檚 headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland; Bauman has worked for various nonprofits and currently is a director for, which helps women and girls in Rajasthan, India.
They started looking into home schooling after COVID-19 disrupted work and school in the spring of 2020.
When the Fairfax County Public Schools went virtual for the 2020-21 academic year, 鈥渢hey did the very best that could be done,鈥 Bauman said. Even so, she said, 鈥渋t was awful鈥 for Isabel and Bodhi, who were 鈥渁nchored to their chairs for eight hours a day.鈥
In her research, Bauman found that 鈥渢here is no one way to do home schooling 鈥 which is great but also terrifying.鈥 So for the current school year, she developed a program customized for her children.
For Isabel and Bodhi (a name that means enlightenment in Buddhism), home-schooling has included lessons with their parents 鈥 Bauman鈥檚 strong suits are English and history 鈥 and online learning programs such as and Math Dad.
The children learn a lot of their own, too. In a, Bauman recounted how Isabel learned math by playing a favorite video game: 鈥淪he figured out that if she didn鈥檛 spend any (of the virtual) money and instead worked on her tasks with other players, her money would start to grow.鈥 In her head, Isabel even calculated the amount to the penny.
The payoff, according to the blog: 鈥淔inancial literacy AND double-digit multiplication. In a video game. That she was playing on her own. Because she wanted to.鈥
Such 鈥鈥 has become popular among home-schoolers. Bodhi and Isabel have been playing 鈥 鈥渁 pretty fun math game,鈥 explained Bauman, 鈥渁nd I say this as a person who never liked math.鈥
On Mondays, Bauman usually takes her children on a field trip 鈥 for example, to the, Assateague Island National Seashore and historic sites like Jamestown.
The visit to the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in Maryland was especially memorable for Isabel. After holding hands with a statue of the who escaped slavery and then rescued other enslaved people, Isabel told her mother 鈥渢hat she could feel Harriet Tubman鈥檚 spirit,鈥 Bauman said.
Bauman and her children also do community service projects together 鈥 hauling leftover produce from a nearby farm to a , for example and conducting a neighborhood food drive.
The children aren鈥檛 the only beneficiaries of home schooling, their mother said. 鈥淚鈥檓 really getting this quality time with them that I will never get back, and I鈥檓 so lucky and grateful for that.鈥
Bauman is a proponent of self-directed education 鈥 sometimes called 鈥鈥 鈥 in which children follow their own interests at their own pace, without explicit direction from adults.
Andrea Cubelo-McKay also champions that philosophy. Besides heading, she founded the, which provides mentoring, tutoring and work space for home-schoolers and holds on subjects from creative writing and guitar to cooking and skateboarding. The center, established in 2017, is in Leesburg in Loudoun County.
Society often tells young people they are. But the Embark Center to play Minecraft, Fortnite or Roblox 鈥 on grounds that such games can teach academic skills such as math and engineering as well as personal and social skills.
Cubelo-McKay, a former therapist and Montessori teacher, said the center serves students who felt bored and unchallenged, confined and frustrated, or perhaps bullied in traditional schools. Whatever the reason, she said, a regular school setting wasn鈥檛 working for them.
One such student was Becca Berglie, 18, who said she stopped attending Fairfax County Public Schools when she was a high school junior in 2019.
鈥淚鈥檝e always struggled with my mental health. I鈥檝e had extreme anxiety and depression throughout my life, and school just made those issues bigger for me,鈥 Berglie said. 鈥淚鈥檝e always been an outside-the-box thinker and always very independent 鈥 not wanting to do something that somebody told me to do when I didn鈥檛 see value in it.鈥
Online, she discovered the Embark Center and the affiliated network. With support from her parents, Berglie said, she left the public school system, registered as a home-schooler and became a self-directed learner.
She participated in activities at the Embark Center and even helped lead a class in American sign language, which she had studied in high school. More importantly, Berglie said, the center mentored her on how to pursue her career goals involving agricultural education and youth development.
As a home-schooler, Berglie said she had more time to work with, a leadership and service program for young people, and at, a Fairfax County park that has horses, cows and other animals and reflects what rural life was like a century ago.
鈥淓mbark overall gave me a place of belonging, support and a place that I could learn about myself and heal,鈥 Berglie said. She said the center also helped her navigate the college application process.
鈥淚t鈥檚 confusing for anyone but especially for a non-traditional student,鈥 Berglie said. 鈥淓verything is made for that in-the-box traditional student. It can be scary and confusing because they鈥檙e not making it for you. They鈥檙e making it for the people that stayed on the conveyor belt.鈥
Berglie graduated 鈥 or 鈥渕oved on鈥 in Embark Center parlance 鈥 last June. She now attends , where she said she feels better prepared than other students because of her self-directed education.
After community college, Berglie has her eyes set on Virginia Tech, where she hopes to study agricultural sciences, .
鈥淚鈥檓 extremely passionate about being able to provide opportunities for other youth to get to know themselves and learn and grow,鈥 she said.
Resources for home-schooling families
The Home Educators Association of Virginia, established in 1983, operates 鈥渨ithin the context of a,鈥 with a goal to 鈥渉elp and encourage parents to fulfill their God-given rights and responsibilities to educate their own children.鈥 The group, which serves families 鈥渞egardless of religious or philosophical beliefs,鈥 provides support for home schooling through a help line (804-278-9200), and Facebook and. HEAV also has a room with home-schooling resources at its offices at 2100 W. Laburnum Ave. in Richmond. The association plans to hold its annual convention June 9-11 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.
The Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers was formed in 1993 by home schooling advocates who were 鈥渨ere within the ranks of the Christian conservative home-school organizations.鈥欌 The group, which goes by VaHomeschoolers, 鈥渋s an inclusive organization and is neutral in matters of politics and religion.鈥 The organization has a help line (866-513-6173), a, an and a with such resources as an online. VaHomeschoolers plans to hold its annual virtually on April 15-18, with the theme 鈥淩estoration and Resiliency: Finding Balance in Homeschooling.鈥
The Virginia Department of Education has a webpage detailing the. It includes a and a that parents must file with their local school division before the family starts home schooling.
There are more than 120 home-schooling support groups in cities and counties across Virginia. and each maintain directories of these groups. Most are co-ops that provide classes, field trips and other activities for home schooling children. Many co-ops have a religious orientation (usually but also). Other co-ops are secular but may appeal especially to,, or families that follow a specific. In addition, there are support groups for and groups that focus on,,, or. Many groups, such as, operate online.
At the national level, several organizations provide advocacy and support for home schooling. They include the, and the, which has posted explanations of the and. Facebook has numerous groups with resources and advice about home schooling. They include:
Home-schooling organizations, support groups and online forums can point interested parents to curriculum programs for home-schoolers. Popular packages include, and . of the programs have a Christian focus. Curriculum programs generally cost per child per year, but there are free alternatives, such as the nonprofit .
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