After years of steady growth, the number of Florida home schoolers appears to be leveling off.
According to the latest annual report, released this month by the Florida Department of Education, the number of students taught at home in the state actually inched downward by several hundred students during the 2015-16 school year, to a total of 83,359.
A year earlier, the number of home schoolers saw one of its largest leaps ever. But it’s possible this year’s downturn is just a statistical blip and not a major shift in the trend lines.
While the number of students declined, number of families choosing home education held almost exactly constant, inching up a fraction of a percentage point.
As always, the rates of home education participation vary significantly by school district. Among Florida’s large, urban districts, participation is highest in Palm Beach and Duval Counties, where more than seven percent of students enroll in home education programs.
In Miami-Dade and Pinellas Counties, by contrast, the rates are 4.2 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.
The number of home education students fell sharply in Miami-Dade during the just-completed school year, declining by more than 18.4 percent. The South Florida district had 779 fewer home education students in 2015-16 school year than it did a year earlier.
If Miami-Dade’s numbers had held constant, the statewide total would actually have increased slightly.
