While Maryland public school buildings were shuttered by the pandemic in fall 2020, thousands of parents yanked their kids out entirely to homeschool them.

They may have thought it was a temporary solution during unprecedented times. But many kids never went back.

As Maryland public school enrollment took an unexpected dive this year, homeschooling is holding strong. More than 42,000 children are learning at home, up from around 28,000 five years ago. Researchers and parents say better online and in-person resources, children’s special needs and concerns about safety in public schools are driving more families to choose a different path.

Here’s how homeschooling is stepping up its numbers game.

42,632

The number of kids reported as homeschooled in the 2020-2021 school year, a nearly 54% increase from the prior year.

Since the 2010-2011 school year, homeschoolers have usually added between a few hundred and a couple thousand kids to their ranks each year. But the post-COVID surge is by far the largest uptick recorded in data provided by the Maryland State Department of Education.

“I think it’s not interesting or surprising: It is what is happening across the country,” said Angela Watson, director and creator of the Homeschool Research Lab at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. Increased access to technology and remote work may have removed barriers for parents who wanted to try homeschooling.

Homeschoolers can learn with mom, dad or a tutor at home, even virtually. Students can also attend micro schools and co-ops, part- or full-time alongside other kids whose parents think those are better options than traditional schools.

There’s not a clear-cut reason why homeschool growth has been sustained, said Watson, who’s been studying homeschooling for the past decade. The top reason parents say they homeschool is safety, Watson said, which could be related to things like school shootings or bullying. She added that 30-40% of homeschooled students have special needs, which parents may feel more equipped to handle at home.

3.9%

The percentage of Maryland’s 1.1 million school-aged kids that were homeschooled in the 2024-25 school year, up from 2.6% pre-pandemic.

Nationally, Watson said, homeschoolers represent about 6% of the K-12 student population. While that may seem small, about 7% of kids attend charter schools, and 9-10% attend private schools, putting homeschoolers on roughly equal footing with other alternatives to traditional public education, Watson said.

Homeschooling rules are controlled at the state level. In Maryland, homeschooling families “really have to want to do it” Watson said, because parents don’t get the financial assistance available in other states and must meet strict requirements to prove their kids are learning. Maryland is one of the few states where homeschooled students can’t access any courses, sports, extracurriculars or special education services offered at public schools.

11,322

The number of kids Maryland public schools have lost since last school year, a much steeper decline than predicted.

School leaders pointed to the rise in homeschooling as one potential reason for the drop, along with declining birth rates, ramped up immigration enforcement, job losses and affordable housing scarcity.

Megan Dombi-Leis, 42, started homeschooling her oldest daughter in kindergarten because she felt traditional schools focused too much on testing.

“I wanted her to be more curious about the world around her and really get to love learning,” said Dombi-Leis, a former public and private school teacher.

The mom of three runs what’s known as a homeschool tutorial and extracurricular center in Edgewater, where about 40 kids gather up to three times a week for classes tailored to their learning speeds and interests.

2,028

The number of additional kids reported as homeschoolers between the school years that ended in 2024 and 2025.

That’s about a 5% increase, a trend Watson said is reflected nationally. Statewide, homeschooling has lost fewer than 3,000 kids since numbers peaked in the 2021-22 school year at nearly 45,000 students.

Debbie Schwartz, 55, left her career in marketing to homeschool her children, who have autism and ADHD. She said they have pathological demand avoidance, a trait most commonly seen in autistic individuals who resist anything perceived as a demand, which was a challenge in traditional school and burnt them out.

But Schwartz’s kids thrive with flexibility and autonomy in their Northwest Baltimore home, she said.

“Teaching wasn’t a calling of mine, but it’s the right thing to do,” Schwartz said.

65%

The increase Anne Arundel County has seen in its homeschooling population between the pre-pandemic school year and now. That’s the fastest rise in any school district in the Baltimore region.

All Baltimore-area school districts have sustained homeschooling increases since the pandemic, but some have fallen significantly from their peaks. Montgomery County, for example, saw homeschooling spike 55% in the wake of Covid-19, but by last school year had just 13% more homeschoolers today than it did before the pandemic.

Some children may return to traditional school even if their younger siblings remain homeschooled. Dombi-Leis’s oldest daughter is in ninth grade at a private high school, her first time outside of homeschooling, and enjoying the challenging curriculum and making new friends. But her two younger sisters are still learning with mom.

“I feel like a lot more parents are realizing it’s not a one-size-fits-all policy,” Dombi-Leis said.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.