“Let’s do this!” Michelle Carter, a stay-at-home mother in Midlothian, Virginia, told her son Toby at Target.
Pushing a big, red plastic cart, the duo on Wednesday made their way to the back of the store where the school supplies were displayed.
On the list for the rising third grader: yellow Ticonderoga No. 2 pencils, file folders, one-subject notebooks, and more.
This would be Toby’s second year as a home-schooled student, and he couldn’t wait. Neither could his mother.
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What started out as a pandemic-driven education experiment has turned into a permanent solution for the Carter family.
“This gives us the opportunity to tailor what we teach our son,” Carter told the Washington Examiner. “We’ve been able to work with him and go at his pace, which is something none of our other kids had at public school.”
Carter is not alone.
Across the country, the number of home-schoolers has risen dramatically. The reasons parents give for opting in vary. Some students, like Toby, learn at a different pace. Others seek a faith-based curriculum or say they’re fed up with the one-size-fits-all public school approach. A few parents told the Washington Examiner they pulled their children out because of bullying.
The pandemic pushed the Carters and thousands of other families into home schooling. Many thought it would be on a temporary basis but have preferred it to traditional schooling.
For Carter, the recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention flip-flop on mask guidelines was the nail in the coffin.
“I know that I can keep my kid safe, and he doesn’t need to wear a mask all day,” she said.
Earlier this week, the CDC revised its guidance on wearing masks. In a reversal of its earlier position, the CDC is now recommending that some fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors if they live in areas with a high spread count. Much of the country falls into the category, except the Northeast and parts of the Upper Midwest. The Atlanta-based agency also recommended that all teachers, staff, and students of K-12 schools wear masks, even if they are vaccinated.
The American Academy of Pediatrics also released updated guidance, recommending that all students over 2 years old, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks.
The COVID-19 vaccines have not been authorized for children under 12, and national data shows that millions of teenagers who are eligible have not yet been vaccinated.
The uncertainty over health risks is keeping a growing number of children out of traditional public schools, Yvonne Bunn, director of home-school support at the Home Educators Association of Virginia, told the Washington Examiner.
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Typically, a little more than 3% of the nation’s school-age children are home-schooled in a given year, according to federal data. However, a significant surge has been confirmed by the U.S. Census Bureau, which reported that in March, the rate of home-schooling rose to 11% by September 2020.
In Virginia, the numbers are even higher. Bunn said there has been a 48% increase in the last year, which comes out to an additional 21,000 new students.
“It’s unreal,” she said. “We are continuing to see a tremendous increase in the number of calls we are receiving in our office. We have had to engage a number of additional counselors to make sure the parents know what the laws are and how to comply.”
Bunn also said the number of black families who want to transition to home schooling has been enormous. It’s a trend that’s also being charted across the country.
The home-schooling rate for black households rose to 16.1% in the fall from 3.3% in the spring of 2020, according to federal data.
Parents Arlena and Robert Brown of Austin, Texas, had three children in elementary school when the pandemic hit. After trying out virtual learning, the couple decided to give home schooling a shot with a Catholic-oriented curriculum provided by Seton Home Study School.
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“I didn’t want my kids to become a statistic and not meet their full potential,” Robert Brown, a former teacher-turned-consultant, told the Associated Press.
His wife said the biggest challenge to their family was to “un-school ourselves and understand that home schooling has so much freedom.”
The Browns plan to continue home-schooling their children so they, like the Carters, can meet their children’s diverse needs.
Jacoby, 11, has been diagnosed with narcolepsy and sometimes needs to sleep during the day; Riley, 10, has tested as academically gifted; while younger sister Felicity, 9, has a learning disability.
