To use this tool, select the desired options from each of the following menus in this order: 1. Choose Data. 2. Choose Map. 3 Choose Date Range. 4. Choose Graph Type.
Your selected data will be displayed on the map as well as in a graph on the righthand side of the screen.
This tool is sourced from data obtained from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and public schools around Texas. It is updated periodically as new data becomes available. Data for a given school year usually becomes available between 12-18 months after the end of that school year.
Data from the TEA is subject to state law that prevents the disclosure of student information that could be used to identify a particular student. For this reason, particularly small numbers are masked in reports provided by the TEA (such as a small number of students in a certain grade from a certain year who withdrew to homeschool from a particular school). For the purposes of this tool, these small masked numbers were estimated based on known averages.
The TEA only tracks data for homeschool withdrawals in grades 7-12. Grades PK-6 are not included in TEA data. To estimate PK-6 withdrawal numbers, THSC collected PK-6 withdrawal data individually from the largest public schools in the following regions: DFW, Houston, San Antonio, Panhandle, Central Texas, Gulf Coast, and West Texas. Twenty-five districts were able to provide withdrawal data that met the required specifications, creating a total pool of 90,999 students who had withdrawn to homeschool in grades PK-12.
From this data, THSC calculated a statewide average for the ratio of PK-6 students who withdrew to homeschool vs grades 7-12 students who withdrew to homeschool during three different periods: Pre-Covid (1997-2020), Covid (2020-21), and Post-Covid. The accuracy of this estimate was corroborated by comparing it to similar statewide data collected from Georgia, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Washington, which revealed similar withdrawal patterns.
For data from the TEA showing homeschool withdrawals in grades 7-12, each grade is reported separately. Data estimates for grades PK-6 are displayed in the aggregate. This was done to minimize the possibility of error by trying to estimate each PK-6 grade individually. Data was also collected from the TEA (Grades 7-12) and from school districts (Grades PK-6) to estimate how many students who withdrew to homeschool later reenrolled in public school. This data indicates that between 20-30% of PK-12 students who withdraw to homeschool will later reenroll in public school.
Note that this tool does not track total homeschool enrollment in Texas. This tool tracks only the number of students who withdraw from public school each year to begin homeschooling, as well as how many of those students subsequently reenrolled in public school.
For information related to the overall growth of homeschooling in the US, please see the published research at this page. Based on averages from other states (available here), as well as Texas’ status as one of the most homeschool-friendly states in the country, the Texas Home School Coalition estimates that between 8-10% of students in Texas are currently homeschooled. This is approximately as many homeschool students as charter school and private school students combined. For questions about this data, please contact the Texas Home School Coalition at Policy@THSC.org.
