New York parents are increasingly taking education into their own hands.
The number of homeschooled children statewide has more than tripled over the past 15 years, climbing to 53,905 students in the 2025–26 school year, according to state Education Department data analyzed by the New York Post. More than 14,000 of those students are in New York City.
That represents growth of more than 200% since the 2009–10 school year — making homeschooling one of the fastest-growing parts of New York’s education landscape.
Don’t miss the stories that matter.
Get Sean’s breaking news alerts — free, direct to your inbox.
And the trend has continued even after the pandemic-era homeschooling spike.
Since 2023, New York homeschool enrollment has risen nearly 8%, compared with roughly 3.1% growth in charter-school enrollment, according to the Post’s analysis.
For many parents, the attraction is simple: smaller classes, more control and instruction tailored to the child.
“For the past few decades, New York’s schools have been in a death spiral of worsening performance and exploding costs,” Zilvinas Silenas, president of the Empire Center for Public Policy, told the Post.
The spending numbers are certainly large.
New York school districts outside the state’s five largest city systems are budgeting an average of $37,033 per student for 2026–27, according to state data analyzed by the Empire Center. That is more than double the latest national average cited by the organization.
Academic results are far less exceptional.
The Empire Center notes that New York fourth- and eighth-graders perform below the national average in math and around the national average in reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Mississippi, despite spending far less per pupil, has outperformed New York in fourth-grade reading and math in recent comparisons.
In New York City, parents are also looking at troubling school-by-school performance.
A July analysis by Success Academy Charter Schools identified 906 city public schools where fewer than half of students passed state math exams, English exams or both. More than half of students failed both subjects at 503 of those schools, according to the report.
The city and state education departments have disputed Success Academy’s broader characterization of those schools as “failing,” pointing to other measures of school quality and recent proficiency gains.
But the raw test results remain part of what some parents say is driving them away.
“So many students are in large classes where they feel intimidated to raise their hands,” longtime homeschooling advocate Laurie Block Spigel told the Post.
“Every teacher and every parent knows that no two kids are the same, yet you have 30 or 35 kids in a classroom, all at different levels,” she said.
Spigel, who homeschooled her own sons in the Bronx and now advises other families, also criticized standardized-test-driven instruction, arguing that schools increasingly teach excerpts and test-taking strategies rather than building deep reading habits.
Other parents told the Post they initially resisted homeschooling before deciding they trusted themselves more than the system available to them.
That doesn’t mean homeschooling is easy.
New York requires homeschooling families to submit instructional plans, maintain records and meet annual assessment requirements. Unlike families using public schools, homeschoolers generally receive no direct state funding for the education they provide at home.
Yet tens of thousands are choosing it anyway.
New York continues to spend more per pupil than virtually anywhere in the country.
A growing number of parents are deciding the better classroom is the one in their own house.
Full report over at The New York Post:
Homeschooling explodes 200% in NYC as frustrated families reject Big Apple’s failing public school system https://t.co/kMUGcqqZZI pic.twitter.com/eK4ph3AOT2
— New York Post (@nypost) September 9, 2026
