State lacks hard figures on homeschooled children

By ANNA ROSSOW, Capital News Service

LANSING—Under Michigan law, knowing how many children are homeschooled in the state is almost impossible.

After the COVID-19 pandemic and with school safety a constant concern, homeschooling remains an option for families.

Yet, Michigan’s homeschooling reporting policy may mean some children are not accounted for educationally.

Michigan has voluntary reporting regulations, meaning parents and legal guardians aren’t required to tell the state if they are homeschooling their children.

It’s one of 11 states with little to no regulation of homeschooling, according to the U.S. Career Institute based in Colorado.

Don Wotruba, the executive director of the Michigan Association of School Boards, said the estimated number of students in a given grade is based on birth records.

“Generally, we know the private school (enrollment) number, we know the traditional public school number, we know the charter school number – and then there are still kids that are unaccounted for,” he said.

Wotruba said there’s an assumption that homeschooling makes up a large portion of the unaccounted-for children since the “alternative is that the kids aren’t in any school at all.”

However, other variables also contribute to the number of unaccounted-for children, such as families moving to other states. Other factors include students switching out of public or private schools or parents deciding not to report their homeschooling.

The state keeps information on families that do report they are homeschooling in a centralized database that is not available to the public.

Kevin Walters, the supervisor of grants, contracts and school support at the Michigan Department of Education, said a public database could potentially endanger homeschooled students because they are identified by their addresses, which would expose a child’s private information to the public.

He said the private database is accessible only to the department and intermediate and public schools that provide homeschool services, such as special education services.

What numbers are known by the state vary greatly from year to year.

According to the department, in the 2023-24 school year there were 732 registered homeschooled students from preschool to 12th grade. The year previously it was 1,678, and the year before that it dropped back to 700.

In 2019-20, before the pandemic, it was 581. In 2020-21, that number jumped to 1,494.

Walters said, “No one is going to be able, in the current system, be able to determine whether the increase or decrease was contributed to by the pandemic or not.”

The voluntary reporting law has stayed in place throughout the years, despite suggestions to change it.

Wotruba said that “anytime historically” in Michigan there has been discussion of mandatory homeschooling reporting, those parents have opposed the idea.

“Anytime that conversation has happened, homeschool parents in Michigan and outside of Michigan have come into the Legislature and lit up their phones and their emails and everything else,” Wotruba said.

Samuel Johnson, an associate attorney for the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, said Michigan law puts the priority on what “actually matters,” which is the education of children.

The Virginia-based association is a multi-state advocacy group for “protecting and expanding” homeschooling freedoms, according to Johnson.

“There have been some suggestions of greater regulation, including making homeschool reporting to the state mandatory for all homeschooled students in Michigan,” Johnson said.

He said Michigan has kept its voluntary system because the state has a “healthy respect for the rights of parents to direct their children’s education” and believes generally that parents can look after their children.

Johnson was homeschooled from kindergarten through 12th grade on an Upper Peninsula dairy farm and now homeschools his own children. He said he intends to homeschool them through high school.

Wotruba said he thinks the biggest reason parents opt for homeschooling is to have the freedom to educate their children how they want.

Similarly, Johnson said he knows best what his kids need in their education.

“I know my child better than anyone else. I am in the best position to know what my child’s unique needs are,” Johnson said. “I can therefore craft a curriculum to my child’s unique needs, educational learning style, and make sure that they receive an education that’s tailor-made to them.”