Homeschooling growing faster than participation in Wisconsin’s public or private schools
Homeschooling is the fastest growing education option in Wisconsin.
Recently released numbers from the Department of Public Instruction show the number of students being homeschooled in the state grew by nearly 6 percent since 2025 to 32,891 children.
Meanwhile, the number of private school students is up 0.1 percent and the number of students in Wisconsin’s public schools is down 1.7 percent, or 14,087 kids.
Homeschooling has steadily gained in popularity since the mid-1980s.
In 1985, there were 966 children in the state being homeschooled, according to DPI data.
Every year another approximately 1,000 kids left traditional schools and were taught at home, that is until the 20-year period between 2000 and 2020 when the number of homeschooled students fluctuated between about 18,000 and 21,600.
Then the pandemic hit and the number of students homeschooled jumped by more than 10,000 students.
“I think it is surprising that we’re just not talking more about it,” Shaw said. “There’s a sense of being post pandemic, but the results that we see in terms of how our kids are doing is we are not back and that comes out in the the levels at which students are reading, the levels at which students are able to do math and the relationship between families and students and school, which is ultimately what chronic absenteeism is.”
Shaw says the trends are happening across the nation, so Wisconsin is not an outlier when compared to student achievement in other states since the pandemic.
Where Wisconsin does stand out is the Black-white achievement gap, which is the largest in the country after Washington D.C., Shaw said.
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