North Dakota homeschool enrollment climbs to new peak
Homeschool enrollment in North Dakota has reached its highest level on record, reflecting a continued shift in how families approach education across the state. State data show that North Dakota parents are continuing to choose home education for their children — exceeding even the peaks reached during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the 2025-26 school year, just under 6,000 students (5,953) were enrolled in home education. This is a 19 percent increase from the year before and a 73 percent increase since the 2019-20 school year. North Dakota is among the few states to maintain continuous growth since COVID.
The growth builds on an evolving educational landscape in the state and nation, suggesting that homeschooling is becoming a lasting option for families rather than a temporary alternative.
Homeschooling in the Peace Garden State
North Dakota didn’t legalize home education until 1989, when the state legislature passed the state’s first formal homeschool law. Its homeschool requirements are generally considered more regulated than in many other states and include relatively detailed oversight. For example, while many states require testing, few require reporting the test results and/or link test scores to continued monitoring or remediation, as North Dakota does when students fall below specified percentile benchmarks. North Dakota also requires mandatory monitoring by a licensed teacher if a parent does not meet certain educational qualifications, and that monitoring can be extended based on student performance.
Exemptions to the standardized testing requirement do exist, as the law allows families to opt out based on philosophical, moral, or religious objections, or by meeting defined educational qualifications such as teacher licensure, a bachelor’s degree, or passing a national teacher exam.
Because the law closely tracks public-school norms — hours, subjects, testing — critics of the regulations argue the state is overly prescriptive and may discourage alternative approaches such as project-based learning, experiential education, or competency-based progression, all of which are common motivations for homeschooling. Supporters respond that the regulations prevent arbitrary enforcement and offer oversight and guardrails without giving districts control over day-to-day instruction such as curriculum decisions.
Regardless of where one falls on the debate, the state’s regulatory framework does not appear to be deterring families. And while homeschooled students still make up a relatively small share of North Dakota’s overall K-12 student body, the continued growth is significant enough to prompt state leaders to examine why more families are choosing home education.
North Dakota Homeschool Education Enrollment
