Homeschool Help!!

Question:
I'm wondering if someone has seen any statistics about how many kids in the U.S. are homeschooled, or knows where I can find some information. I've searched the WWW and can't seem to find this. Thanks in advance. Direct e-mail to me is fine. help me??

Answer:
Best current "guesstimate" is between 900,000 and 1.2 million. National Department of Ed. says half a million, but that's the same number they had in 1990, and the growth rate (averaged by states which track numbers of home schoolers) has been 20-25% per year, so the number must be over a million now....maybe more!

For a research packet on home education, call the National Center for Home Education at 540-338-7600. Free! 25% of Texas students are homeschooled? That's pretty hard to believe! I'll grant you there are lots of us here, and the movement grows daily, but one out every four children? I think if that were really the case, the T.E.A. would be in a full-scale panic . . . which would be a shame, since Texas is one of the best states in which to homeschool. (No testing, no registration, no supervision whatsoever.) Of course, we Texans are mavericks by nature -- I guess it wouldn't surprise me to learn we led the nation in sheer percentage points. (Just kidding, guys...) Perhaps you would like to read about how many are educated by their own parents. Here is an URL to check out: http://pages.prodigy.com/School_is_dead/homeschool_hotlist.html I have to agree with this, I have 2 friends who homeschool their kids and as far as the "authorities" know, these kids don't exist. Therefore out of 3 families, I am the only one who is "legal" in terms of state requirements. If this is average then only 1/3 of the homeschool population would be registered. In the state of Arizona you have 30 days to notify the school superintedant of your county of your intent to homeschool, therefore even if the "authorities" come knocking at your door, you legally have 30 days to become legal before they can arrest you for truancy.

I think the state is too busy taking care of their own problems to start picking on homeschoolers, simply because they aren't registered. The problems occur when the teenagers who skip school and become gang members or cause other problems, then the law comes in to play. If these unregistered homeschoolers are not causing problems, then what does the schools or government care. That is the philosophy of my friends. If someone on the street makes a comment as to why they aren't in school, they tell them they are homeschoolers, how does this average Joe Q Public know whether or not they have all the proper forms filled out? The one friend even had her daughter enrolled in a public school and just never sent her back, no one ever bothered to check if she had moved, died, or was registered as a homeschooler. Schools have enough problems to try to keep tabs on everyone and probably feel the money spent on tracking down unregistered homeschoolers could be better spent on educating the ones they do have registered in their schools. This is just my feelings on this.

Also someone mentioned the enrollees with HSLDA, we are not registered with them, or any other organization that keeps records of this sort, so yes, the numbers of homeschoolers that are reported must be considerably less than the actual number of participants.