When public schools opened with remote classes and uncertain schedules last August, it quickly became clear that a lot of North Carolina families were choosing other options for their kids.
New state tallies of home schooling and private-school enrollment put numbers to where they went.
Almost 180,000 North Carolina students were home-schooled last year, an increase of more than 20% over the previous year. Mecklenburg County alone saw about 2,100 more children join the ranks of home-schoolers.
The number of families licensed to home-school their kids rose from about 95,000 in 2019-20 to almost 113,000 last year.
In the last five years, the state's estimated home-school enrollment has gone from roughly 118,000 to almost 180,000, increasing by 52%.
Private Schools Grew More Slowly
Private-school enrollment also grew, but on a smaller scale. Statewide enrollment topped 107,000, up about 3%.
Mecklenburg's private school total rose 2.4%, to about 18,800. Lincoln, Union and Cabarrus counties saw larger-than-average percentage increases, but have fewer students in private schools.
Over the past five years, enrollment in North Carolina's private schools has risen almost 10%.
In counties like Mecklenburg and Wake, where private schools are plentiful, private enrollment tops home-schooling, but that's not the case in many smaller counties.
'Market Share' Shifts
Even with the significant drop in traditional public schools that was reported last fall — school districts were down an average of 5% statewide — they served about 76% of North Carolina's school-age children last year.
State and local education officials say some of the home-schooled students will likely return to public schools, with in-person classes a near certainty for the coming year. Large numbers of families kept their kids home from kindergarten last year, with total enrollment down 15%. Those children may show up as first-graders or kindergarteners in August.
Charter schools, where enrollment has been growing steadily for years, accounted for about 7% of school-age kids statewide. The new reports indicate that about 10% of all North Carolina students were home-schooled last year and 6% attended private schools.
In Mecklenburg County, about 72% of students were enrolled in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, 12% in charter schools, 10% in private schools and 7% in home schools. (Rounding accounts for the fact that state percentages come to 99% and Mecklenburg's come to 101%.)