With 2+ years of on-campus schooling uncertainty to its credit, the coronavirus pandemic has created an unwanted, lasting impact on students and parents. So much so that even as many schools have kept their doors open for the longest consistent stretch since the great lockdown began in March of 2020, parents now, more than ever, are choosing to homeschool their children.

Despite this year’s figures falling short of last year’s record numbers to date, homeschooling is still way above pre-pandemic numbers compiled by The Associated Press.

Homeschooling’s Perfect Storm

Both parents and students alike have chosen to stick to their at-home learning regimens for several reasons, including poorly organized remote schooling programs assembled by their public school districts, disagreement with school policies regarding the pandemic, and of course, health concerns and overall uncertainty surrounding COVID variant outbreaks.

Unimpressed with the lessons offered remotely when schools abruptly closed their doors in spring 2020, Linda McCarthy, a mother of two from Buffalo, NY, began homeschooling her then fifth and seventh-grade children when classes resumed - remotely - that fall. Working as a teacher’s aide, she knew she could offer a better learning experience for her kids. Since then, McCarthy says her children have excelled through specifically tailored lessons she has put together, that align well with their interests, learning styles and schedules.

“There’s no more homework ’til the wee hours of the morning, no more tears because we couldn’t get things done,” McCarthy said

COVID’s Lasting Effect On Education

In the current school year to date, the number of students homeschooling surged by 46%, according to 18 states that have shared data. Even with such figures coming in below the 2020-2021 school year’s all-time high of 63%, it’s a huge shift in how families have turned to homeschooling as the preferred choice to any other learning alternative.

Andrew Bacher-Hicks, a Boston University researcher said that while last year’s homeschool rates were up across the board, the increase was significantly greater in school districts that reverted to in-person learning, a clear indication that many parents were not ready to send their children back to school. Their reasoning was not due to COVID alone, but to a lack of confidence towards how schools were teaching their curriculums, especially during remote schooling.

“It’s really hard to disentangle these things because all of this is kind of happening at the same time,” he said. “But my guess would be that a large part of the decisions to exit from the system do have to do with COVID-related issues as opposed to dilemmas that come up more frequently. We’ve never seen an increase in homeschooling rates like this before.”