S.F. follows national trend of homeschooling
Parents unhappy with public school seek alternatives
By Bonnie Eslinger
Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, June 16, 2005 10:56 PM PDT
A small but growing national movement of homeschools has taken root in San Francisco.

Dissatisfaction with public education, concern about standardized teaching and hope to maintain religious values or family unity are some of the main reasons parents are choosing to educate their children at home.

Although the percentage of homeschooled students is just over 2 percent of students K-12 nationwide, according to federal data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of homeschooled children rose from 850,000 in 1999 to 1.1 million in 2003 — an increase of 29 percent.

It is not known how many San Francisco families homeschool, since neither the state nor the school district keep such statistics. A city homeschool organization counts 100 families on its roster, but those who study the homeschooling trend have said such figures are underrepresentative, since homeschoolers by nature are independent and not always likely to join groups.

Homeschooling also seems to be growing in visibility and acceptance. A 2001 Gallup poll found that 41 percent of families thought homeschooling was acceptable, up from 16 percent in 1985.

"We used to get the socialization question a lot, or ‘I could never do it' response," said Nob Hill parent Lynn Lampky, who has a teaching credential and has homeschooled her two children since they were toddlers. Her oldest daughter is now attending Mills College in Oakland. "Now what I get is, ‘that's really great, I wish I could do that.'"

Keeping track of homeschooling families is not an easy task, since the rules that govern them vary from state to state. California's Department of Education doesn't keep statistics on the numbers of homeschoolers, according to spokeswoman Tina Jung, because there are so many different ways parents can take their kids out of the traditional "brick and mortar" classroom, including independent study programs available through the public school system but also by declaring their home a private school. "The CDE has no oversight over private schools," said Jung.

Like private school students, the homeschooled kids not connected to a public school system are not required to take standardized tests or adhere to the requirements under the No Child Left Behind federal education law.