Uptick in public school withdrawals as homeschool increases 15 times more than 2019

Texas Home School Coalition (THSC) witnessed families withdraw from online public school to shift to home school in July of this year 15 times more often than the number of families who did so in July 2019, according to a press release from the Texas Home School Coalition. 

THSC's online withdrawing system generates a withdrawal letter automatically that families can send via email to their prospective schools to finish the withdrawal process and start the home schooling process.

THSC saw 201 withdrawals processed in July 2019 in comparison to 3,114 withdrawals in 2020, marking it a 15-fold increase.

From a historical perspective, August is the largest number of withdrawals to home school and often three to five times more than July numbers. This means that August could break July's historic numbers with even more withdrawals.

According to statistics from the Texas Education Agency (TEA), in 2018 and 2019, there were 23,000-25,000 students that made the transition from public school to home school each year. Withdrawals from home school have an average increase rate of seven percent on an annual basis over the last 20 years.

Numbers for official TEA withdrawals aren't readily available and early numbers from the THSC's online tool indicate a huge increase in the number of families that are transitioning to the home school process.

When the new back-to-school guidelines were announced on July 7, withdrawals through the THSC's online tool and call and email volume spiked dramatically within the first 24 hours.

THSC President Tim Lambert made a statement regarding the increase in homeschooling:

"With the landslide of families moving to homeschooling, it is clear that many families don’t feel comfortable sending their children back to public school in the current environment. The health concerns raised by the global pandemic and the substantial uncertainty and inconvenience involved with new back-to-school requirements is simply more than many families feel comfortable accepting. Homeschooling has become an increasingly popular option for families looking for a safe, flexible, and well-established form of education for their children. We will be here to support the tens of thousands of new families who are beginning homeschooling this year,"  Lambert said in the press release.