Homeschooling on the rise as families seek alternatives
Australia’s homeschooling population has surged in recent years, with Queensland recording one of the country’s steepest increases as families seek alternatives to traditional schooling.
CQUniversity Head of Educational Neuroscience Professor Ken Purnell said the growth in homeschooling was being driven by both families seeking greater flexibility and parents looking for alternatives when traditional school environments were not working for their child.
“Most of the reasons families choose homeschooling are what I would call repellent factors rather than attractant factors,” Professor Purnell said.
“Bullying, school refusal and a poor fit between the child and the school environment can push families to look for another option, particularly when they feel their child’s needs, including neurodivergent needs, are not being adequately met.
“There are also families attracted by the flexibility – they may want to travel, accommodate a particular family lifestyle or simply give their child the opportunity to learn at a different pace.”
Recent national figures indicate the number of children being homeschooled has roughly doubled since around 2018–20, reaching about 45,000 students.
Queensland has experienced particularly strong growth, with homeschooling numbers increasing by more than 160 per cent since 2020. There are now around 12,000 homeschooled students in Queensland, a similar number to Victoria and New South Wales.
“School is the main social hub for most children, but for a real minority it can be the opposite – it can be a place of exclusion rather than connection,” Professor Purnell said.
“There is a perception that children who are homeschooled are less socialised, but the evidence does not support such a simple conclusion.
“Some studies suggest homeschooled children can be quite confident socially because their social world may extend beyond a single classroom of same-age peers.
“For some children, particularly those who have struggled in mainstream education, homeschooling can provide an opportunity to get away from a bad-fit environment, tailor learning to the child and maintain strong family connections,” he said.
“It can work particularly well for some neurodivergent children when mainstream schools have not been able to provide the flexibility or support they need.”
However, Professor Purnell cautioned that homeschooling also places considerable responsibility on parents.
“The flip side is that homeschooling can be a very heavy load for parents,” he said.
“It requires considerable time, money and expertise, and families can experience very different levels of support and oversight depending on where they live.
“We also need to recognise that the research base around homeschooling is still relatively thin. Much of the evidence is correlational, so we need to be careful about claiming that homeschooling itself causes particular educational or social outcomes.”
The homeschooling boom is also occurring alongside growth in distance education, providing another pathway for families seeking alternatives to daily school attendance.
“Rather than asking whether homeschooling is good or bad, we should be asking what children need to learn, develop and thrive, and whether the educational environment they are in is providing those things,” Professor Purnell said.
“For some children, that will absolutely be a conventional school. For others, it may be homeschooling, distance education or another model.
“The challenge for education systems is to make sure that children are not falling through the cracks simply because the standard model does not work for them.”
