“That Percentage of Safer”: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Homeschool Parents’ Perspectives of School Safety

• In Event: Homeschooling in America: The Changing Regulation, Motivation, and Population

Abstract

Objective and Theoretical Frame
School safety is a critical concern for parents, educators, and policymakers alike, as evidenced by the establishment of the Federal Commission on School Safety in 2018 and then the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse in 2020 (OPA, 2020). In addition, parents who consider a school other than their assigned public school, 71% say that safety is very important, second only to quality of school personnel, and above curriculum, academic track record, and class size (Mulvaney-Panjwani et al., 2024). Homeschool parents indicate that concerns about safety in other school environments ranks in the top three motivations for choosing to homeschool (DiPerna et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2019). Furthermore, sustained growth in homeschool enrollment is estimated to be contributing to 26% of public-school enrollment decline (Dee, 2023). It is essential for the entire K-12 education landscape to consider why parents are choosing to homeschool.
This study seeks answers to how homeschool parents conceptualize school safety and what concerns homeschool parents have regarding school safety. Because the concept of school safety is multifaceted and subjective, we rely on the perspective that most aspects within this subject can be categorized into two domains: physical safety and psychological safety. Physical safety in a school environment refers to harms to the physical self, such as fighting, bullying, sexual harassment, and the policies concerning incidents with guns or intruders (Astor et al., 2010). Psychological safety takes into account school climate and considers aspects that can harm social and emotional well-being like bullying, harassment, cruelty, and discrimination (Thapa et al., 2013).
Methods and Data
Our study relies on two years of national survey data from BLIND General Population Questionnaire and in-depth interview data from four focus groups of active homeschool parents in an urban region of the southeast. Using a sequential mixed-methods approach to analysis, cross tabulations of the survey data informed focus group questions, which were then deductively then inductively coded for thematic findings.
Results
Our survey analysis finds that 40% of homeschool parents have enrolled a child in a public-school environment (Table 1a) and focus group responses indicate that when answering questions about school safety, it is experiences in these school settings that are recalled rather than the homeschool environment. Furthermore, when considering school safety, respondents are mostly occupied with protecting their children from academic
and psychological threats. These threats and others are acknowledged to occur in all educational settings but are perceived to be much less prevalent in a homeschool environment because parents are present and exert agency over place, people, pedagogy, and plan of study.
Implications for special needs homeschool students are discussed as both our quantitative and qualitative samples find an overrepresentation of special needs students among participating parents (Table 1b).
Significance
This study contributes to the school safety and climate literature by considering an environment not previously analyzed. This study includes participants who self-identify as racial or ethnic minorities or secular homeschoolers, identities relatively unexplored in homeschooling literature (Table 2). Study limitations are acknowledged.

Authors

• Christy Batts, North Carolina State University

• John Kristoff, EdChoice

• Kelsie Taylor Yohe, North Carolina State University