Are Public Education Resources Available to Homeschoolers?

• In Event: Factors That Influence Today's Homeschool Participation

Abstract

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the practice of homeschooling has served a broader and larger population. At the same time, several states have moved toward deregulation of the homeschool policy space while also providing homeschoolers with increased access to public education resources. Even still, many states defer to district discretion, which means that differentiation in homeschoolers’ experience with resource policy can differ from one locality to another. Public education resources and services are provided by state or local education agencies and can be core academic courses, sports, special education services, driver’s education, or educational savings accounts to name a few. This study asks what public education resources and services are available to homeschooled students by examining the policy landscape of one state.

This study collects public policies concerning homeschooled students from seven state educational agencies and 115 local education agencies in North Carolina. Documents are sourced from state legislation, Department of Public Instruction and Division of Non-Public Education, local school boards and school district websites. Policies regarding homeschool student access and use of resources and services are read for inclusive, exclusive, or ambiguous language using a content analysis method (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005; Schreier, 2012). Using qualitative data analysis software, policies are categorized as inclusive, exclusive, or absent. Descriptive codes are applied for policies pertaining to homeschool student access to, participation in, or provisioning of resources or service. Data is analyzed for connections between the policy descriptors and resource access by type and locality. Correlations between policy inclusivity and student enrollment across homeschool, public, and private school sectors are also examined. Heat maps show the landscape of resource availability across North Carolina by public school district.

This paper provides the first state-wide systematic review of public education resources availability to homeschool students. and reveals differentiating policies at a local level. Preliminary findings reveal differentiating policies at a local level. Additional findings will explore associations between school enrollment across modalities and resource access language. This research examines policies affecting a student population often forgotten, though they make up approximately 6% of all K-12 students in the United States. In particular, this paper contributes to a growing field of research considering special needs learners not enrolled in public school. Implications for public school policymakers, special needs students, and homeschool practitioners are discussed.

Author

• Christy Batts, North Carolina State University
  Presenting Author