{"id":4393,"date":"2026-07-11T16:07:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T16:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=4393"},"modified":"2026-07-11T16:07:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T16:07:44","slug":"enrollment-is-up-in-nc-private-schools-but-down-in-homeschooling-what-it-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=4393","title":{"rendered":"Enrollment is up in NC private schools but down in homeschooling. What it means"},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.<\/p>\n

Read our AI Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

North Carolina\u2019s private schools saw one of their biggest enrollment gains in recent years at the same time homeschool enrollment dropped sharply.<\/p>\n

Read more Ex-NC public housing boss, husband sentenced for stealing taxpayer money<\/a><\/p>\n

New figures released this month by the state Division of Non-Public Education show 143,998 students were enrolled in private schools<\/a> during the 2025-26 school year \u2014 a 6.1% increase from the prior year.<\/p>\n

But DNPE also estimated that homeschool enrollment had dropped 7.5% in the 2025-27 school year to 152,897 students statewide<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both figures occurred at the same time that the state\u2019s private school voucher program continued to see big increases.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s uncertain how much the expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship program \u2014 which provides money to help families cover private school costs \u2014 may have impacted homeschooling totals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people who were homeschooling because they couldn\u2019t afford private school, and therefore when the Opportunity Scholarship became available, they went into private school,\u201d Matthew McDill, executive director of North Carolinians for Home Education, said in an interview Wednesday. \u201cSo that\u2019s definitely a factor. I just don\u2019t know how much.\u201d<\/p>\n

But McDill attributed more of the enrollment drop to DNPE removing inactive homeschools from its records.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of families will open their homeschool, and then they will fail to close it,\u201d McDill said. \u201cWe all realize that the numbers were inflated because people weren\u2019t closing their homeschool. So over the last year or so, they\u2019ve been trying to contact everybody who was listed, and they\u2019ve been kind of deactivating a lot of schools because people have not been responding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Private school enrollment had been on the decline in North Carolina until<\/a> the 2014-15 school year. That was also the first year of the Opportunity Scholarship program.<\/p>\n

In 2024, state lawmakers opened the Opportunity Scholarship program to all families.<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, private school enrollment has increased 9.7% while voucher enrollment has tripled in size.<\/p>\n

Read more Luke Wilson Breaks Silence After Welcoming 1st Baby With GF Kendall Yates<\/a><\/p>\n

Most of the voucher expansion has come from existing private school families becoming eligible. But the state Department of Public Instruction says 12,252 students have left public schools in the past two years<\/a> using Opportunity Scholarships.<\/p>\n

Nearly three-quarters of the state\u2019s private school students are getting a voucher.<\/p>\n

Overall, the state saw an increase in private school enrollment of 8,260 students during the 2025-26 school year. That\u2019s the highest increase since the 2022-23 school year.<\/p>\n

In contrast, enrollment in traditional public schools dropped<\/a> during the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n

The expansion of the voucher school program has coincided with a jump in the number of private schools. DNPE reported there are now 997 private schools statewide \u2014 a 13.2% increase over the past two years. More than 70% of private schools accept Opportunity Scholarships.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are taking advantage of this money from the state to open schools,\u201d said Heather Koons, director of research and communications for Public Schools First NC, a group opposed to the expansion of the voucher program.<\/p>\n

Some private schools have announced expansion plans<\/a> over the past two years. Bob Luebke, director of the John Locke Foundation\u2019s Center for Effective Education, said a survey done by the group found that the average private school was at 79% capacity, so there\u2019s room for more growth.<\/p>\n

But, citing factors such as declining birth rates, Luebke said he expects growth in private schools to slow down over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s pent-up demand here now, and the numbers will not be the same five, six years from now,\u201d Luebke said in an interview. \u201cI think there\u2019ll be a kind of a moderating tendency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Amy Adams and Javier Bardem Terrify in New \u2018Cape Fear’ Reboot: Review<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Carolina private school enrollment jumped 6.1% while homeschool numbers fell 7.5% amid Opportunity Scholarship expansion and DNPE record cleanups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nEnrollment is up in NC private schools but down in homeschooling. 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