Homeschooling reaches record high in Virginia 

Homeschooling is on the rise in Virginia, with the number of homeschooling students reaching a record high of nearly 63,000 students in the 2024–2025 school year.

According to WTVR, an affiliate of CBS 6, homeschooling has been legal in Virginia since 1976, when the state passed a law allowing parents to educate their children at home with a religious exemption. Mary Childress, a Virginia resident, explained that her relatives were convicted for homeschooling in the 1940s by a local judge and by the Virginia Supreme Court.

“I think they were fined $5 in 1948,” Childress said. She added that her father attended the school house that is located on her family farm.

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The Childress family paved the way for the eventual legalization of homeschooling in the state. Virginia resident and homeschooling mother Shannon Lewis told the outlet that she began homeschooling her firstborn child 22 years ago for religious reasons, before homeschooling was common in the area. Since it worked well for her oldest son, she continued homeschooling the rest of her children.

“What works for one does not always work for the other, which is part of the beauty of homeschooling,” Lewis said.

According to WTVR, the rise of homeschooling in Virginia reflects a nationwide trend. The U.S. Census Bureau found that the number grew from 3.7 million students in 2023 to 4.3 million in 2024.

The National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) reports that homeschooling has been rising between 2%-8% every year since 2019, but grew most drastically from 2020 to 2021, after the COVID-19 lockdown.

The institute reports that reasons for homeschooling vary widely, including religious beliefs, increasing academic progress, customizing the child’s education, providing a safer learning environment, and protecting minority students from discrimination.

The institute also reports that homeschooled students tend to perform better academically, scoring on average 15 to 25 percentile points ahead of public school students on standardized tests.

Meaghan Montana told WTVR how homeschooling her second-grade son has given him the opportunity to excel.

“He did very well this year, perfect attendance, very good with math,” she explained. “His reading scores came up. He basically caught up with the other kids, where he was lacking when he was in the school environment.”

Montana’s son had been held back at the local school and diagnosed with disabilities, which led her to explore different schooling options before she decided on homeschooling. 

“It really works for him, and I think a lot of kids that have hyperactivity and disabilities and stuff they should be able to try to do homeschool,” she said. “It’s really important to accommodate for your children.”

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