State summary : Arkansas

The number of homeschooled students has steadily increased over the past 20 years, with homeschool participation doubling during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Regulatory Context

Families choosing to homeschool their children are required to annually report their homeschooling by submitting an Intent to Homeschool form to the Arkansas Department of Education. Homeschooling parents do not need to be certified or hold a high school diploma, however, the law does not allow for non-custodial adults to homeschool other people’s children.

Participation

In 2001, there were nearly 12,000 homeschooled students reported to Arkansas’ DOE. By 2010 homeschool enrollment increased to almost 16,000 students. Increasing steadily, by 2019 Arkansas had 22,000 reported homeschooled students. From 2020-21 the reported number continued to grow to over 30,000 homeschooled students, accounting for approximately 6% of Arkansas’ K-12 students, up from 3%. Some districts, such as Eureka Springs and Searcy, have homeschool participation rates as high as 20%. During the 2020-21 academic year, driven in part by the pandemic, the number of homeschooled students in Arkansas exceeded the number of students attending private schools by roughly 3,000 students. According to the Arkansas Department of Education, there were 473,000 students enrolled in Arkansas public schools and approximately 27,000 students enrolled in private schools.

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School Choice Context

In addition to homeschooling, parents in Arkansas have various educational choices available through open enrollment. These options include traditional public schools, vouchers and tax credit scholarships for private schools under the Succeeds Scholarship Program, charter schools, magnet schools, and virtual learning programs. On March 8, 2023, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the Arkansas LEARNS legislation into law, creating the Children’s Educational Freedom Account Program, an Educational Savings Account (ESA). Families choosing to participate in the program are able to use public funding to pay for private tuition or approved educational expenses. The Educational Freedom Account Program is expected to be expanded in 2025 to include homeschool ESAs.

Arkansas Disaggregated Data

The Arkansas Department of Education has been compiling disaggregated homeschool data since 2017. As of 2023, it tracks participation by school district, county, grade, race and ethnicity, and gender.

Observations

• Participation in rural districts largely stayed constant since the pandemic, while participation declined in urban districts.
• The counties with the largest percentage of homeschoolers are Bradford, Brookland, and Gosnell.
• Throughout Arkansas, the participation rate is the highest in grades  K-3.

Download Arkansas Disaggregated Data