More parents consider homeschooling

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced thousands of New Mexico parents to consider homeschooling this fall. That’s according to numbers from the state’s Public Education Department and homeschool organizations.

“Our membership has definitely increased dramatically,” said Cathy Heckendorn, a board member for Christian Association of Parent Educators, a state-wide homeschool support organization.

Though the public school system is providing fully online learning options, CAPE-NM has seen an increase in parents contacting them with the intent to switch to homeschooling.

“We are not a school or organization that does any kind of curriculum,” Heckendorn said.

“We’ve had a large number of parents reaching out to us, trying to get information and trying to understand how to go about homeschooling.”

She said CAPE offers a YouTube channel with informational videos about the process but a lot of information is given out by members.

“A lot of what we do is answering phone calls, answering emails, and sitting and talking with parents over the phone answering their questions because homeschooling is such an individualized concept,” Heckendorn said. “It’s hard to give a blanket ‘Pick this curriculum’ and that’s it. We really do a lot of one on one.”

New Mexico’s Public Education Department, meanwhile, advises parents to consider online options at their current schools.

“We have had a lot of parents contacting us about their options for keeping their children at home due to the pandemic this year,” said Karen Woerner, NMPED’s deputy director of Options for Parents and Families Division. “Our guidance is to work with their currently enrolled school.”

Woerner said the governor’s office has directed schools that even after Labor Day — the earliest in-school instruction is scheduled to begin in the state — they are to provide a 100 percent virtual or remote option for students.

That way those concerned with having their children in school during the pandemic “can continue to have access to materials, curriculum, and support from teachers.”

Of the 8,433 students in grades 1-12 registered for homeschooling, about 47% are new to homeschooling, PED records show.

Elementary grades show the highest increase in new homeschool students. There are 2,706 new homeschooling students registered for grades 1-5 for the 20-21 school year compared to 2,146 returning students.

Middle school and high school show an increase of 1,166 new registrations of homeschooling students for 2020-21, compared to the 2,255 students returning to homeschooling.

Records show 160 students were registered under “no response” for grade level.

Woerner said the PED discourages families from transitioning to homeschooling solely because of the pandemic. Establishing a curriculum can be challenging, as can be the loss of special services for students with needs.

“It is a good option for some families who do homeschooling, but not because of the pandemic. I’m a little concerned about parents choosing it just because they’re wanting to keep their children at home, because there are other ways to do that and still have resources available to them (through online learning in schools),” Woerner said.

Local public schools have hybrid plans in place and officials confirmed their online options will be fully available throughout the upcoming semester.

Clovis school officials said 20% of their students have requested to attend school through the fully online option, “Cohort C.”

“Once we get to the point of where they let us do the actual re-entry, then those who want to be in school we’ll allow them to come back into school and have their regular lessons ... Those who want to remain online can remain online,” said Portales Superintendent Johnnie Cain.

Cain said teachers will be better equipped to teach online than last semester when schools suddenly had to switch to the new format.

“We’re training them more than we were able to last year. So (this) week when we have teachers back we’re going to be giving them a lot of Google Classroom training, and training so that they can really prepare and be prepared for this,” Cain said.