By the numbers
Even as the total number of school-age children continues to fall, the number of homeschooled kids in Wisconsin jumped by nearly 1,800, or 5.8 percent over the prior school year, as of September 2025.
The figures, the latest available from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, show continuing growth from a new higher post-pandemic baseline. As of the third Friday in 2025, parents reported 32,891 children being homeschooled, making up a record-high 3.46 percent of all Wisconsin school-age children.
The 2025 figure exceeds what had been the previous high, in 2020, when amid a patchwork of reopening plans following the pandemic, homeschool enrollment hit 31,878, a 47 percent leap from the 2019 figure. Parents reported less homeschooling the following two years, but the total never returned to pre-pandemic levels and now has been growing strongly.
While homeschooling grew, the DPI reported that the overall number of school-age children in September 2025 fell 1.26 percent from the previous year. Enrollment in private schools, whether through parental choice programs or by paying tuition, rose by a tenth of a percent, while enrollment in all public schools fell 1.75 percent. In separate figures, the DPI reported that the number of children enrolled in a private school using a parental choice “voucher” rose 4 percent from 2024, and the number enrolled in independent charter schools rose 4.3 percent.
The DPI’s reporting of enrollment for homeschooling is one year behind the just-released figures on enrollment in public schools and parental choice programs.
Homeschooling gained a secure legal status in Wisconsin in 1984 and grew rapidly. Parents who homeschool must report to the DPI annually and are required to teach a list of subjects, but Wisconsin’s is a comparatively benign regulatory environment among states when it comes to homeschooling.
Patrick McIlheran is executive editor at the Badger Institute.
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