The number of homeschools in North Carolina grew by 6.4% in 2007-08, reaching some 71,000 students, according to data released by the N.C. Division of Nonpublic Education on Friday. DNPE publishes the statistics on homeschooling each August 1, after they are analyzed by the state demographer.
Since homeschooling was officially recognized by the 1985 N.C. Supreme Court decision Delconte v. North Carolina, the number of children taught at home has grown from 809 in 1985-86, the first year data was collected, to an estimated 71,566 in the school year just completed. The estimated enrollment in N.C. homeschooling year to year has never declined.
Wake and Mecklenburg counties have the highest number of homeschooled students with 7059 and 5595 respectively, while Chatham and Camden counties grew by the greatest percentage this past year (40.5% and 33.3%)
The announcement in the Associated Press has made national news, as seen on websites for Fox News in Atlanta, Orlando, and New York; local TV stations in Virginia and South Carolina, and wire reports in the Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Sun News.
Homeschoolers represented just under 4.5% of all school aged children in the state last year. According to data from DNPE and the Department of Public Instruction, there were 1,423,727 students in N.C. public and charter schools and 97,656 students in conventional nonpublic schools last year, meaning one of every twenty-two was being taught at home.
Friday's announcement means that 169,222 N.C. students, or 10.6%, were educated outside the public school system last year, saving taxpayers over $1 billion in avoided school costs.
(NCHSN Exclusive)
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1 comment:
thanks for posting all of this great info. i am starting my first year of homeschooling in chatham county, and need all the resources i can get.
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